I have no experience teaching. Yet, with the 12yr old on remote learning for the time being, I’ll have to help direct his days at barest minimum. He told us that the teachers are expecting them to put in about 4hrs of work a day. Seems a little lax, but we’ll see.
DH was saying 12yo can get up, eat bfast, get dressed, do homework for 2hrs. Then he can take an hour or so for lunch, then sit down and do another 2hrs.
I just don’t know. I mean, he’s 12… I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sit for two hours unless it’s in front of a screen (games or movie).
So those of you who are teachers or homeschoolers, could you give me some idea of what his schedule should look like?
He’s a very social kid, so I know this is going to be very hard on him. On the one hand I know he will need some sort of physical activity everyday (he still gets a recess as well as PE daily at his school), but he’ll also need to be mindful that both his dad and his college age brother will also be doing work.
I can’t be the only one doing this for the first time, so hopefully we can open up a nice dialogue about what’s working, and what’s not. Help each other out. Thanks 
What are working parents going to do? Ack.
I wouldn’t count hours. Focus on completeness and understanding. Keep it as relaxed as you can and let him be as self-directed as possible. What does he think a good schedule would look like? Does he prefer to start with his favorite subjects or would he rather get the challenging ones out of the way first?
I suspect the answer varies from child to child. My daughter started with an online school when she was 16 and it took us a while to figure out what works for her. I would suggest that you try to involve your son in the process. Maybe try what your DH is suggesting for a day or two and then see if your son can tell you what worked and what didn’t for his perspective on that schedule and then adjust. My daughter learned that she prefers to work in blocks, focusing on one subject for an extended period rather than changing focus every hour or so. It can be useful for a kid to think about these issues and learn how they can do their best work.
My son was an online Hs student. His school had a daily checklist online (but this could also be done on paper.) Breaking down expectations by day/week and getting things checked off was a nice system imo.There were also scheduled live lesson times that he logged in and a complete curriculum designed for different types of learning…videos/readings embedded in lessons. I’m wondering if local brick and mortar schools could purchase these plans from online schools.My son could get a lot of work done in a shorter time because there wasn’t the social time/changing classes that is important for student growth imo but he considered the social aspect a waste. The online school had a feature on lessons where students were able to type questions or add to conversation on a side screen while lesson was going on and the teacher was giving the lesson.Teacher could be heard, students comments seen and teacher could interact with students during the lesson. Clubs could be held this way too. With social media, text, phone,video chat people can still keep touch remotely. There area lot of YouTube videos for excercing, or walk/run in the neighborhood. Online Hs was not what I envisioned for my son but this program seemed to have their act together and we made it work 3 1/2 years. My son is on the autism spectrum-diagnosed as teen and has a chronic illness that started in HS. Online was trying for us at times but also a chAn e to bond during his Hs years. I was fortunate to be a stay at home mom. My D would have been fine at 12 as online student because she is a serious student. It was more difficult to keep s on track even with a great system from an online school. Let’s hope this distance learning will be short lived. He is back home now from first year of college with online learning until at least the end of March.
Best wishes to all the parents / teachers coordinating the online learning. Part of the challenge is probably the uncertainty on length of school closures.
@austinmshauri
Wow, I hadn’t even thought about that much. Those are quite helpful questions, so thank you! I think he’d like a break b/w each subject… which doesn’t seem unreasonable as long as he keeps it short. I just don’t want him to get one thing done then spend the next hour on his PS4!
We just moved his desk into his bedroom right in front of a nice big window. He has a lovely view of the tree tops that are beginning to leaf & he’ll get some nice natural light. He also said he’s allowed to FT w/ his friends so they can do the work together… the teachers actually encouraged it. I told him I thought that was fine as long as he isn’t being disruptive (to his dad and brother down the hall) and they’re actually getting work done.
He’s a bit flighty so I’m sure I’ll have to stay on top of his progress so he doesn’t miss anything.
I’d suggest breaking up the periods of concentration with something physical - running around for a bit, carrying laundry to the washer, etc.
@stradmom Good idea! He said he will have activity logs for his PE grade. We basketball hoop in the driveway and a small wooded area w/ a creek out back. Other than that, I’ll have to think of some things he can do.
As a HS graduate of a year of self directed learning at an alternative school back in the day, I would also emphasize that the freedom from some of the mechanics of the school day (transport, class change) give him some unexpected opportunity. What does he want to learn, for himself? New skills, new books read, new knowledge in some part of the school curriculum? There are a zillion things to learn from youtube videos alone, not to mention language apps, and others.
I’m a middle school teacher. We’re on regularly scheduled break right now, but are going to distance learning after break. Some of our students’ learning will be synchronous, which means students are expected to login at their normally scheduled class time to participate in a virtual classroom. I would double check whether or not your child has some of that for any of his classes.
I normally use some computer based learning in the classroom. The students are usually more engaged than if we use seatwork because the activities are more like video games.
As a mom, I wouldn’t use seat time as the determining factor of whether or not he’s accomplished enough for each day. 12 year olds are great at sitting but not getting anything done. If the teachers say it should take 4 hours, some students when they ARE working will take 1.5 hours and some will take 6 hours. Don’t let him use his video games until he’s shown that he’s finished one day’s (or more) of work. If he’s struggling, make sure he knows how to contact his teacher during the day to get real time help.
Today’s plan:
He’s technically on Spring Break, so doing minimal work.
I printed off a March calendar for him and tacked it to the wall next to his desk. Using color coding I put into each day just a few things I want him working on:
- Book report project. He has to make a throne out of tongue depressors and write up a report. That’s due on the 27th, so might as well work on it now.
- Read daily
- Violin daily
- Scholastic’s Learn From Home. Only about a week’s worth is on there now, but more should be added soon according to their Twitter.
I’m letting him play till noon, then lunch and get to work. While he’s eating, we’ll talk about another site I saw on facebook, called OutSchool. Lots of online classes for things like math, history, and languages that are a semester long. I doubt he’ll be interested in that. There are also one off or short term classes for things like game design, whodunit, Lego engineering, even beginner D&D. We’ll look through that to see if anything interests him.
If he is on spring break now, why can’t he just read books for fun or just maybe make the throne project.
Our schools are on e learning “until further notice” which is looking more and more like the end of the school year.
My two high schoolers say their work is pretty much the same as classwork - they are a paperless school anyway so everything is already set up on their iPads, the HS expectation is 5 hours a day of work, which seems reasonable to me.
My 4th grader - well, that’s another story. He was done in under two hours with his e-learning plan. I will go ahead and work with their parameters this week, but if next week’s looks the same (no new content), I will start teaching him, at least new Math, on our own. His textbook has lots of online videos and he has his workbook home with him so, even if we photocopy the pages and leave the book clean, we will start forging ahead.
I have two high schoolers at two different high schools; both started online schooling today.
One high school sent out a specific schedule for daily class between 10am-2pm whereby teachers can chose to use Zoom to conduct class during their scheduled time slot (four periods one day, the other four periods the next day). My son is currently in the basement being taught math via Zoom. Not all teachers will use Zoom to teach and will just give assignments with due dates but I was happy to learn my son’s math teacher has chosen to actively teach. We will see what his other teachers decide as time goes on.
My daughter’s school does not appear to be doing any live teaching, but instead is providing tutorials, recorded videos, discussion boards, etc. Fortunately she is pretty independent and studious so she is able to organize herself and I don’t have to really oversee her.
I also have two college students but one is on extended break currently and the other chose to stay at school in her off campus apartment.
My role will be making sure we have a quiet environment at times when it is necessary (I.e. live class, Dh on a conference call, etc). Will be fun with two dogs that bark every time a delivery truck goes by or someone walks their dog, etc. I imagine these will occur even more frequently with so many people home from school/work. I also already had to tell my daughter she couldn’t listen to music in the shower (we could hear it downstairs).
Even their day at school isn’t fully structured. Be careful about OVER structuring. Also be aware of days where their mental health may be more important than brain power. This situation is stressful for kids too as their routine has changed and they may have off days or moments.
I have seen so many posts with parents setting up learning spaces at home, desks, shiny new pencils, etc and even schedules hung on walls. Not a bad thing! But also I want to caution parents to expect a little kickback from kids - be sure to keep yourself as a parent too and not just a “teacher”!
I also predict that parents may have a LOT more respect for teachers who have rooms full of kids each and everyday!
I have such experience. In my childhood, I’ve spent several years on remote learning. I must say that it has not been so easy for the first time. I’ve always wanted to play, to do some other things not related to lessons, so, to be honest, my mom has had a lot of problems with me. But then she’s written a schedule for me such as two hours we’ve spent for the educational process then 1 hour for rest, and again 2 hours for studying and then 1 hour of free time. I can say it’s disciplined me. Now I can plan my day and do everything I need. I can combine my study at the University with my work at the Paperial, which gives me the possibility to live independently. And also, working for the college paper writing service I can help my parents. In know that the psychologists say that the child can concentrate on the one subject about 45 minutes, and then their attention swift over other things. I think it is true but depends on individuals. You can see after your child and check his max period of concentration. And on the base of it plan your schedule of study.
Parents might be on their own soon enough, IMO elementary schools won’t be able to do this online learning for long and web services are going to overwhelmed. Plan for self directed teaching at home, maybe get some printed homeschooling curricula ahead of this point. Hopefully the districts will focus on the highschoolers first and foremost, get some AP study books and such for when the online live teaching inevitably falls short.
I can’t imagine having an elementary school child or even early middle school for that matter and trying to do online learning. In many cases I think the parent will become the teacher.
I get it for high school kids, my son’s school sent out a schedule which is basically his same school hours. Gave him times to log in to google classroom or google meet for either a pre-recorded lecture or a live one. He has the same number of school hours per day and then an “office hours” time where he can contact his teacher if he has questions. This is pretty much how his school works now.
This will work for older kids, but younger ones, I imagine will be tough. What about working parents that can’t be the teacher during school hours?
I know schools are doing the best that they can under the circumstances, I just hope there is some leeway on grading.
But what about parents who aren’t at home during the day? Are they going to pay a child care person or babysitter to also teach their child during the day?
I feel like who cares about the grading! (sort of) It’s the learning. Or actually UNLEARNING.
S works for an urban district. They are making packets for families to pick up once a week at school. Many (majority) of his families are low income and don’t have computers at home (phones yes, computers no). Their district estimates that probably only 30% of families will actually pick those packets up. He hopes they are wrong but realistically it could be true.