I feel your pain @msc3173 - we bought the graphing calculator $$ today and school supplies. We decided to hit Office Depot before the stores are shuttered this week.
DH and Kiddo did a bit of “math” over the weekend…figuring out how much this online learning for the rest of the year is costing us per day! After the math lesson, kiddo was stunned and seemed a bit more serious that this was no longer vacation.
Wake up and taste the Red Bull!
Kiddo only brought home a carry on suitcase of clothes and his laptop. That’s it. The second trimester ended at spring break on Feb 29 - who knew they weren’t coming back? Remember way back 3 weeks ago? Such simple times…
No kids brought school stuff home. That makes the online learning all the more challenging. He had to buy two novels. The school issues ipads for math, and no one brought home theirs home, and the teacher just figured that out. The school is scrambling to send those home. But otherwise the teachers are making do.
The teachers are starting easy, I think they are giving it two weeks to work out the kinks. Kiddo had only one class today and none tomorrow. But he has a little homework. I have no idea how chemistry will go. And how, exactly, do you teach ceramics on line?
I have been pretty happy with the communication from the school. My guess is they figured out the secret sauce to keeping families informed during a school closure the hard way, from their experience with the fire.
Eg. Kiddo has been in pretty regular communication with his advisor and teachers. And other students. They have had a couple of advisory group conference calls. He has been getting lots of emails, too, I think. He doesn’t share. In the past two weeks I feel like I have gotten an email or text almost every weekday. Today it was a video from the headmaster, marking the start of the online learning. There have been 8 Coronavirus-specific email updates (including some before break). They number them.
It is weird, in a sense, because they really don’t communicate much during the school year, imo. There is usually one weekly (?) email (”CommuniCATE”), and that’s it. Excluding communiques from the development office (lol). They do post weekly photos to the website and game recaps, too. Our LPS sends out daily emails! Way too much.
@CateCAParent our situation is pretty similar. Chemistry…again, I’m not sure how they do labs at home, I just foresee my kitchen as a sacrifice and a fire truck in my driveway.
DS brought a carryon and his laptop. 5 days worth of crew uni’s. We don’t have water within 3 hours of us. No school/classroom items. The school is collecting the things he needs for class and mailing them.
We have received a few emails, but I’m sure those will ramp up once Monday (class resumes) gets closer. DS probably has numerous emails in his inbox he doesn’t feel the need to share. I mean, he navigates school on a daily basis without us-why should this be any different?
DH asked him if he asked the school to send him a few more items of clothing, etc since he only brought a limited supply—it was met with an incredulous look and ‘I’m fine’. Thank goodness we are self-isolating. ?
DD figured out her first day of remote learning at the LDS. They are not doing real time classes, which is a bit concerning but also understandable. The day started in frustration and near-tears…we like our routine and structure, but finally settled in. She was done in about 2 hours. Then, she worked on side projects that are do several weeks down the road. I think by the day’s end, she felt good about how things would go and actually enjoyed the freedom of tackling classes in her preferred order.
My main concern in this is for both of my kids, this is a very important year for grades, performance, ECs and ultimately teacher recommendations. I know everyone who has a junior and/or 7th grader is in the same boat, but how are boarding schools/colleges going to view this situation? And if the schools decide to do pass/fail, how does this affect all of the hard work my kids put in to excel? (Don’t even get me started with the uncertainty of subject & AP tests).
I guess we will just have to weather this together and trust in the fact that everything happens for a reason and they’ll land where they are supposed to. (Goes completely against my Type A).
I consider myself fortunate that these are my current worries and the fact that my at risk kid is healthy, as are the rest of my family members and loved ones. Hope everyone else on this forum can say the same. Virtual hugs everyone (those are the only safe kind)
As DS said, this year will have a big asterisk next to it, for everything. I hear some colleges that were not previously test optional are going test optional, at least for this admissions cycle, due to disruption at a key time for juniors. DS is on trimesters, so at least he has 2 full sets of grades for this year, though on our weekly call with school on Sunday there was no indication of going P/F. (They don’t start for a week, so we don’t have much detail yet, but it sounds like they’re planning to make every class work. Rock ensemble — ??)
DS2 logs in to his first class in 15 minutes. He wants us totally out of his business, which is great. He has a block schedule and has 4 classes today, but I don’t know that they’ll use their full 80 minutes.
DS1 is climbing the walls — out of his routine, doing workouts at crazy hours, planning projects that are impossible to execute…challenging situation for this ADHD kid.
Has anyone’s school set up a protocol for dorm access yet for students to get their belongings?
@Sue22 I just found THREE graphing calculators as I was cleaning out drawers. Not even sure how that happened…
@417WHB DS’s school has allowed kids within distance to come pick up essentials for learning by time slots and they are shipping those items to those of us too far to drive.
His school is not throwing in the towel for the year, yet, so they said they will address final move out-should the need arise—at a later date.
Peddie is much the same as @buuzn03 described.
Salisbury too ^^, though for the time being the campus is closed (Other than for the few remaining students who haven’t gone to stay with families). We are expecting a status update in the next day or two.
Darrow just called it - on-line for the remainder of the school year. No kids allowed to return to campus without calling ahead for an appt.
Really? Never met her but I hear that she is so detached from the community that she doesn’t even know the students names! It’s a small small school not to mention…