Friday, March 27, 2020

CoronaStayCation: Distance Learning In Action

We are VERY, VERY fortunate.  While many schools are scrambling to do anything, or have packets with workbook review pages to pick up, or are simply not doing anything at all, our school has done a phenomenal job setting up distance learning without skipping a beat.

Our school did have the benefit of our regular spring break falling exactly on our first week of "Shelter in Place" (SIP), but I am impressed that the teachers and administration were not taking a break, and were instead coming up with a plan for distance learning.  The school was deep cleaned, and many of the teachers came in, got their doc cams, laptops, and teaching materials from the school during break and set up home "classrooms".  Other teachers come into the (mostly empty) school and teach from their classrooms, maintaining social distancing, which is pretty easy if most teachers are home and the classroom is only used by that one teacher!

Without missing a single day of school, we had one day of independent work posted online before live, distance learning started.  On that day of independent work, the teachers attended training for distance learning.

Both of my children (4th grade and 7th grade) have teachers who teach from home and I'm super impressed with how smoothly its going.  There are only a few technical glitches (For example, on day 2, Gsuite was down, so no one could get on the Google Meet for the first 15 minutes), and the students are already getting new content and being graded on it, not just reviewing like a lot of schools are. 

Monday through Friday, students log on to Google Meet with their classes for two one-hour sessions, with a 30 minute break between.  This might not seem like a lot, but it has allowed them to stay on track for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math.  From what I can see, the pacing is on schedule.  I wish that they were still getting Social Studies and Science instruction, and would happily accept perhaps an additional 30 minutes each of Google Meet time to do so, but I understand that it's easier to catch up in those content areas in the fall with their teachers in the next grade. 

On FaceBook, I see that teachers have a lot of challenges, but the beautiful thing about all of this is that they are rising to the occasion and still giving our children a world class education despite having small children of their own in their laps or playing and getting into things nearby!  From what I can see, the students are also thriving in the online environment and it's a supportive and effective virtual space.  In some ways, I think my kids actually prefer this format and its efficiency. 

As schools roll out their plans for distance learning (especially as the dates for return continue to get pushed back), it is apparent that not all children are in as good of a situation as mine and there is  a lot of debate out there about how schools should handle this situation.  I will be addressing some of these topics in future blog posts as things develop.

Now that the children have school, we have a little less time on our hands, but we still try to have a bit of a structure for time outside of school and homework hours to keep us from having lots of screen time  or mindless time (it's good to have some, but not all day, every day!).

Here is what our first day of distance learning looked like:

7:00 

[All] Breakfast
Get Dressed/ Showered
Free Time

8:00

[Boys] Chore: Empty Dishwasher; 


[Mom] Fold Laundry

8:30

[All] 
Get ready for school and Get ready to log in

9:00 

[Boys] Log in to school  

[Mom] Start Picture Organization, Writing/Blogging

10:00

[Boys] Free Time

10:30

[Boys] Log in to school  

11:30

[All] Assess homework, make a plan to complete it

12:00

[All] Lunch

1:00 

[Boys] Active Time 

[Mom] Cleaning Chore of the Day: Clean out locker bins and junk bowl

1:30

[Boys] Homework Time 

2:00

[Boys]
Homework/ Productivity/ Creative Time
[Mom] Sewing/Laundry/Photo Organization-Backup

3:00 

[Mom and Logan Time] - Garden
[RJ] - Homework/Productivity/Creative Time

4:00

[Mom and RJ Time] - Rollerblading
[Logan] - Productivity/Creative Time

5:00


[Mom/RJ/Logan] Feed Sour dough starter, make observations

5:30

[Dad/RJ/Logan]  Exercise time
[Boys] Free Time

6:00

[Mom] Make Dinner (Taco Tuesday)

7:00

[All] Eat dinner



7:45

[Logan] 
Shower

8:00

[All]
Get ready for bed
Family Reading Time

9:00 

[Boys]
Bed time
[Parents]
Quiet time/Bedtime

Monday, March 23, 2020

CoronaStayCay, Spring Break Edition (March 16-20, 2020)

My goal for my kids' spring break, which was also our first week of everyone staying at home due to the Coronavirus (which I have now dubbed "CoronaStayCay") was to balance fun and freedom with a little structure.  I wrote a schedule over the weekend for Monday.  I didn't think it was overly ambitious and I tried to make sure that we had lots of time for each activity, whether it was an extended breakfast or more time to get ready.  I set times, but I wasn't holding the kids to them rigidly.  Having a schedule is also good for me, because I do much better having a plan, even if I end up changing it.  Without a plan, I end up spending a lot of time on my computer or phone, instead of doing the things that I actually want to do, and the kids will retreat to their corners and spend time on screens, waiting for something to happen.  When they were younger, they would spend hours playing, but now that they're older, they seem to have forgotten how to do that.  Eventually, I'd like to get them to a point where they choose to engage in more productive activities and plan their own days, but this is the first step.  

This was my first draft for Day 1:

6:30
Wake time
Eat Breakfast Get dressed
7:00
Mom - Online Barre Class, bike, yoga, or run after (weather)
Kids - Finish breakfast and dressing
Kids - Chore: Put clothes away and help sort laundry
8:00:
Mom - Shower & Finish sorting Laundry
Kids - Read and/or Creative Activity
9:00: Check in and Plan the day
9:30: 
Mom/Logan: One on one time
RJ: Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or video games)
10:30: 
Mom/RJ: 
One on one time
Logan: Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or Video Games)
11:30: Mom/Kids Fun Project/Play
12:30: Make and Eat Lunch/TV time
1:30: Productivity time
Mom - Sew
RJ -
Logan -
3:30: 
Free Time
5:30: 
Dad/RJ Exercise
6:00: 
Mom: Make Dinner
RJ/Logan: Empty Dishwasher
RJ/Logan: Help make dinner or do something creative - no screens
7:00: 
All: Dinner/TV
8:00:
All: Clean up from Dinner/Shower
8:30: 
Family Reading time
9:30:
Bedtime



In reality, the kids didn't wake up until I finally woke them up at 8:30, because I was busy doing my own stuff and it was nice to have quiet time!

Then, by 9:00, RJ was in the shower and Logan was getting dressed and putting his basket of clothes away. When that was finished Logan and I started the chore of sorting the dirty laundry. It wasn't until 9:30 that I realized that they didn't get breakfast like they were told.

So, I make sure they ate breakfast and had a brief morning meeting to plan what they were going to insert into their time blocks.


Our morning schedule was modified so that each kid had an hour of time with me and then we had lunch. We skipped the time with both of them so we could stick to the rest of the schedule.


For the rest of the week, we loosely followed the modified schedule below (which was adjusted based on Monday's reality, but the times got shifted around depending on when the kids actually woke up and what time I had vFit classes (which, by the way, if you are a busy parent, this is a phenomenal live but virtual fitness studio that has lots of different formats and times!)


5:45

Mom: 
Wake time
Eat Breakfast Get dressed

6:00

Mom - Online Exercise class [Do Not Disturb - this is a LIVE online class]

6:30

Kids - Eat breakfast and Get Dressed

7:00:

Mom - Shower

Kids - Read and/or Creative Activity (no screen time unless approved)

7:30:

Chore: Fold Laundry
Kids: Socks

8:00: 

All: Check in and Plan Free Times, etc.

8:30: 

Mom/Logan: 
One on one time: 
RJ:
 Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, sleeping, or video games): [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

9:30: 

Mom/RJ: 
One on one time: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]
Logan: 
Independent time (no YouTube, Shows, or Video Games: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

10:30: 

Mom/Kids Fun Project/Play: Science Kit - Globe, etc.

12:30: 

Make and Eat Lunch/TV time

1:30: 

Productivity time
Mom: Data Backup, Sewing
RJ: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]
Logan: [Insert what you want to do here.  See ideas below.]

3:30: 

All: Free Time

5:30: 

Dad/RJ Exercise

6:00: 

Mom: Make Dinner
RJ/Logan: Empty Dishwasher
RJ/Logan: Help make dinner or Creative Time

7:00: 

All: Dinner/TV

8:00:

All: Clean up from Dinner/Shower

8:30: 

Family Reading time

9:30:

Bedtime

Here are some of the things I did with the kids:

Mom and 10 year old:
1.) Built Legos
2.) Went through stuff in his room to organize it (over a few days)
3.) Started weeding the garden and planting seeds in the greenhouse (over a few days)
4.) Mask making with clay, alginate, and latex














Mom and 12 year old:
1.) He taught me how to use Adobe Premiere Pro
2.) We researched hockey roller blades
3.) Went rollerblading at the park, being careful to keep our distance from others. ( We did this a few times)
4.) Made slow-motion videos of his hockey shot.


Together, with both boys, we used some of the science kits we had laying around, but, unfortunately some of these were not as engaging as I had hoped.  For example one of the old kits had a plastic globe that they were supposed to paint, which is not their thing.  This is probably why it sat in our science area for years.  We also built the weather station, but don't have a good support in our back yard to nail it to.  What the boys did enjoy all together was making homemade protein balls.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

My my my my my Corona...Staycation (An Introduction)

I haven't used this blog since 2013, when my now 7th grader was going into first grade.   I think that's when I simply got busy with volunteering at the school, managing the kid's various activities, and then a few years later, working as a substitute teacher.  Now that we are in a state mandated "shelter-in-place" and preparing for distance/online learning for the kids (7th grade and 4th grade) for the foreseeable future, I thought that blogging the experience was a good idea. 

Prior to our mandated staycation, we were commuting to school and back (25 minutes, one way) hockey practice 3 times a week (25-35 minutes one way), had hockey games on the weekends (25 - 90 minutes away for regular games, plane rides away for tournaments), and were practicing for science olympiad several times a week.  The last two weeks contained daily practice after school for Science Olympiad.  To make a long story short, we started what I've dubbed "CoronaStaycay" pretty burnt out, so I have embraced the situation to give us a chance to relax, reset, and hopefully get some stuff done around the house!  I plan to write about the things we did and what worked and what didn't (and maybe why if I have time).  For this post, here is some background on our timeline. 


Monday March 9 - The husband had a work event that was poorly attended and he came home early and started his 100% work from home stint.

Thursday March 12 - We heard that L's Science Olympiad competition (schedule for Saturday March 14) was cancelled and would not be rescheduled.  After school that day, instead of the practice we were expecting to have, I picked up all of our science olympiad supplies that I was storing at school and my fellow mentor mom and I cleaned out our shelves. (I did this just to grab things before spring break, but it's a good thing I did, because my stuff would've been held hostage at school for who knows how long if I hadn't!)

Friday March 13 - Sent the kids to school, our house cleaners came and cleaned the house, the husband and I braved Costco because we were legitimately out of orange juice and low on yogurt.  We also got milk, eggs, cheese, and bread, among other things because we were there, so it made sense to stock up (nothing crazy though - we didn't over-stock our house!).  We tried to practice social distancing, but people were a little too close for our liking.  After school, we decided to let RJ go to the ice rink with a friend, because we received notice that schools (ours included) were closing until April 6, and that it might be awhile until he got to go again since we were staying home during the virus crisis. 

Saturday March 14 - Sunday March 15 - In our first official days of sheltering in place, we gathered ideas about what the kids wanted to do (in the house) over their Spring Break week and I tried to get a rough schedule so that it didn't turn into the YouTube and video game fest that our rare days off tend to devolve into.  I wanted them to have fun, but I also wanted to make sure that their fun was a little more structured because we'd be doing this staying at home thing for a while and I wanted them to take advantage of the extra time to actually do something productive rather than just filling time. 

Monday March 16 - Friday March 20 - School Spring Break (regularly scheduled) 

Thursday March 19 - We learned that the kids would be logging into live, online classes for two hours with a break between during their time away from school.  I wish we were given guidance on how much classwork/homework outside of those two hours would be, so that I could plan ahead, but I suppose we will find out soon enough.  My hope is that they don't have more than two hours of work outside of those live times, so that they have daily time for other pursuits that they normally don't get to, because of school.  In other words, I'm hoping that the official schoolwork will be minimal, so I can take a stab at a bit of homeschooling/experiential learning. 

Monday March 23 - Friday March 27 - Distance Learning Week 1

Monday March 30 - Friday April 3 - Distance Learning Week 2

Beyond April 3 - We don't know yet.  Officially, school is closed until April 6. However, due to the standing shelter-in-place order in the state of California that has no official end date as of yet, we really don't know anything beyond April 5.  Our governor, Gavin Newsom, has stated that we should be prepared for schools not re-opening until the fall due to the outbreak, so we will adjust as we need to. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Plan:

Outdoor: Bike to Park (Thoming)
Math: Number Duplos Game
Literacy/Science: RJ Blog about Caterpillars, Letter Duplos with L, Thank you letters
Art: Egg carton caterpillars
Math: Price comparison Spreadsheet

How it went:

Outdoors:  We did bike to the park with L in the trailer and RJ on his bike.  RJ's stamina is really improving. He goes full steam to the park and back and still has energy to spare now, not like a few weeks ago when he was running out of steam before we got back home!

The rest:  We spent more time at the park today, so it was after lunch before we actually got around to starting anything else, and even that was later because RJ and I played chess during/after lunch.  I'm not sure what it says about my chess abilities when I actually do have to try hard to play against him!  He is thinking at least one step in advance, sometimes two, and from multiple places on the board.  I think it's pretty impressive for a 6 year old.

We did spend some time looking at the caterpillars, especially since we have our first chrysalis, but we didn't get around to documenting them on his blog because I was busy cutting out and gluing the chores-for-hire that we came up with yesterday to craft sticks so we could start using them.  (I did take pictures though, and we will be doing more documenting tomorrow!  Predictably, earning money via chores was a major interest and I managed to get RJ to do a minimal-effort dusting of the living room (he only got 1/2 salary since I could still find dust in a lot of places, but we are going to work on quality of the job each time), feed the cats, and help snap beans for dinner.  L chose to wipe down the kitchen baseboards with a damp cloth.  So if we keep this up, it would be really nice!

After that, I started work on taping the sight words and letters to the duplos, but I only finished one sheet of words, and it took much longer than I had expected.  During that time the boys took it upon themselves to build with the duplos.  RJ did read a few of the words though.

Looks like we'll be moving some of these activities to another day!






Monday, July 29, 2013

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Plan:

Outdoor Activity: Playground, Soccer

Science/Literacy: Documenting Caterpillars, Write about them on blog

Math: Assigning Coins to Chores to make magnets 

Literacy: Designing Chore/Goal/To-Do Chart

Errand/Math: School Supply Pricing - Target - have RJ record prices for the items he needs.  We will later look at Amazon and Walmart and compare

How it went:
Outdoor Activity: We went to the park with their bikes, but forgot the soccer ball.  They still had fun though and we ran into one of L's friends from gymnastics there.

Science/Literacy:  We definitely spent a good deal of time throughout the day looking at the caterpillars.  All five are alive (we thought at least one, if not more, were dead), moving and growing.  RJ even called me over when he saw two of them "fighting".  I think they were just bumping into each other, but it was more activity than they've ever shown us.  We're hoping to see them molt soon, since they're getting big.

We didn't end up writing about the caterpillars on the blog, but RJ did blog about his crystal growing experience.  http://rjsmagic.blogspot.com/2013/07/crystal-growing.html

Math/Literacy: We did end up discussing chores, and RJ and L liked the idea of having some regular chores that they were expected to do as members of the household as well as having extra chores that they could do for money.  This wasn't much of a math activity yet though, since it's just a list and I assigned the payments for each chore.  I need to make these into magnets still.  We didn't get around to doing the chart yet, so we'll add this to tomorrow's tasks.

Errand/Math:  We did go to Target and recorded the prices for all of RJ's school supplies and we talked about how we were going to try and save money by shopping around and comparing prices.  Our goal is to save enough money for him to buy a small toy with the difference.  Tomorrow we will enter our data into a spread sheet and look up everything on Amazon.




Monday, July 22, 2013

Monday July 22, 2013

The Plan:

Outdoor Activity: Rollerblade to the park (bike for L)
Visit Preschool
Literacy: Harry Potter alphabetical order word sorting
Math: Create a graph of all the items on the floor, then pick them up
Science: Test tube crystal ball
Art: Draw Crystal, Document

How it went:

Outdoor Activity: Rollerblading is clearly something we need more practice with.  We never made it to the park, and the act of Rollerblading was frustrating for RJ.  L also was in a mood, since he didn't want to be outside for some reason (it wasn't hot yet,so it shouldn't have been temperature-related).

Visit Preschool: We are enrolling L in preschool when RJ starts 1st grade, so we wanted to visit RJ's old preschool and get paperwork to fill out and find out what their half-day program looked like now.  We visited and RJ got to see his old teachers, which was fun.


Math: I really wanted to clean up the first floor since it's been a while.  I've been more focused on doing things with the kids than keeping the house clean, but it was time.  I tried to make cleaning up a learning activity and perhaps a motivator.  I made a chart with different categories of things that we might find around the house to pick up.  I went over the chart with RJ and shared with L that we were going to be recording what we cleaned up.  Then as we went around picking things up, we placed a tally mark in the correct category.  In doing so, RJ and I discussed how each item is represented by a tally mark, and that every 5th tally mark is drawn across the previous 4, so that we could count by fives in the end when adding up the tallies.  At first this concept was difficult for him, as he was initially convinced that the cross line wasn't an actual count like the rest.  By the end he seemed to get it, though he was still asking me every time if he was marking his tallies correctly.    When we finished picking up everything that was on the floor (the idea was that I could sweep and steam the floors easier without all the toys and random things strewn about), we sat down to count up our tallies.  This was good practice counting by fives for him (especially since the numbers got embarrassingly high).  He also wrote some of the final numbers down.  We made the bar graph of the data after looking at a Harry Potter graphing worksheet.  RJ drew the bars for each category.

You might wonder what L was doing during all of this, and I have been struggling with getting him to participate in any of the activities, even those that are at his level (while he is capable of picking things up and was helping out, the tallying and counting by fives was beyond him).  Lately he has just wanted to play on his own when we do these, and I've taken advantage of that to do some activities with RJ in preparation for First Grade.  When RJ returns to school, there will be a lot more for just L.

Literacy and Science: The cleaning effort took away activity time, so we didn't get to these quite yet.

Art: RJ did document his crystal again today.  It's been a while unfortunately, but you can see the differences. We hope to write about the crystals on his blog when the water fully evaporates.