After what seems an eternity out of school in this so-called “lockdown”, we finally received information that today our kids are supposed to get iPads for distance learning. We did receive paper packages before, but they weren’t much, my daughter completed them quickly.
She does not miss school at all (1-st grade). What she misses has nothing to do with sitting in the classroom for 5 hours, doing almost exactly the same basic math and spelling papers day after day. She misses her friends, lunch break, and recess where they get to run around and play.
We are learning a lot at home despite the fact that it’s basically impossible to make her do any type of heavily structured work. She gets stressed and agitated when I try to make her sit and focus at times when she feels like doing something else. “So how do you manage sitting down at school?” I ask. She answers that she does it out of fear of her teachers and being sent to the principal or losing her recess time as a punishment... Thanks, public education system! Seems like my child manages to listen only out of fear while being bored and desperate to get out to the playground.
So I never make her sit and have an official “school time” at home, we don’t have a schedule. It looks more like freestyle fun and natural education where we do botany in the garden while planting seeds and flowers, a bit of geography here and there while learning where different languages, cultural activities, or animals come from, Russian language while watching Russian cartoons, etc., and even reading books in Russian (yes, she is willing to learn our crazy alphabet!) Sometimes she starts writing her own stories on her drawings, so she asks me how to spell different new words. Sometimes she grabs a random book and starts reading. There are always bits and pieces of new information here and there, and they are not forced into her by me telling her to study, study, study... It seems a natural process.
Then of course there is waaay too much iPad and TV time. iPad games are never-ending, changing, and mind-consuming. My open fight against it has turned into a covert operation where I try to find fun activities that would substitute it, but nothing seems to compare. So far, the only truly working method of distancing from this monstrous piece of tech is to go outside or, if inside, to put on a Harry Potter audio book, listening to which she does other worthy activities.
Well, we will see what this distance learning will do. As I’m getting ready for going to school, I’m wondering if our school was one of those where they quietly placed one of those 5G towers while no one was looking. I didn’t even realize that many U.S. schools were doing that during this quarantine thing!
There is a petition going on right now asking California government to stop implementing these things right by children’s classrooms... actually, I think there are several petitions, you can google them, but I’ve come across this one: http://chng.it/Yq7kL4ZN8w
So if you know about this and want more signatures, please pass it along.
I’m still researching stuff, but I know if I see one of those towers in proximity to my daughter’s building, we WILL leave and start homeschooling even if it means financial sacrifices. I will manage to find the way.
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UPD Three hours later
They gave us an iPad where we can message teachers and other kids, post photos, do drawings, and easily communicate. Daughter is happy with it - she was the first one to draw a picture and say hi to everyone in the chat.
I think it’s a cool way to connect and socialize, it’s definitely useful while also being safe (unlike different social networks out there in the big bad internet which my child isn’t supposed to use due to young age anyway)
We will see where it takes us, but so far I can see already that it’s an extra motivation for making crafts, learning things, and being more involved.
PS. And no, I haven’t seen any 5G towers on campus.
By the way, I think that amongst all this craziness our children and the psychological and behavioral impact all this has on them is overlooked and underestimated.
If you choose to continue after the lockdowns are lifted and they could go back to school you'll have even more fun when you can get out and do things, especially if you find a group and have friends to go do things with XD
Yes, for sure! ) When we are free to move around and do things in groups, she gets enough playtime and activities with other kids in the parks we go to, at her gymnastics class, etc. it’s just that right now is really lonely for kids who don’t have siblings but are quite outgoing and social by nature...
I understand, my daughter is my social butterfly and even though she has "two dumb brothers" as she calls the poor boys and they get on well most of the time (they will hang out and play together and whatnot), she still misses her friends. Video calls just aren't the same :)
I wonder how many families have enjoyed this taste of homeschooling due to the lockdown. I know it's not been suitable for everyone, but I think that quite a few families have discovered that their children learn better in a different environment to school.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I hope you find a way to manage the screen time. It's very easy even for us adults to get lost there.
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Looks like your daughter is very active and adapts to a new situation pretty fast. That's great! During this time, we need to find a way to keep doing things that we used to do before Convid-19.