OT: parenting kids in these times

[Irishgirl]

Today’s thought for discussion is parenting kids during these times.

How are parents addressing social - (maybe we should call it physically distancing) distancing?


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[EDS]

This is a tough one. We have been doing some facetime with friends so my daughters (my daughters are young, ages 4 and 9) can maintain connections with friends. We also try and talk with them about their friends, school and activities they are not doing right now (or in the case of school, doing virtually rather than in person) so they can remain connections with those people/things in the hope transitioning back, whenever that may be, will be easier.

[peanutgallery]

Same as always...dog crate

[Irishgirl]

Originally Posted by peanutgallery

Same as always...dog crate

Funny just had this perspective that I’m living in a “much fancier” dog crate combined with the thought I’ve never crossed paths with an un happy dog...even ones that have chased me when I’m on the bike...those creatures wake up everyday tail wagging.


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[Bruce K]

My 6th graders started out treating this as vacation.

As things have gone along I see that pretty much all of them are staying home and interacting via technology.

Some families still going for walks where they can but with parks and beaches closed options are limited.

Some parents are working in essential jobs and so some kids (12 years old) are the primary caretaker of younger siblings during the day.

Fortunately, they all seem happy, healthy, and reasonably safe (I call them once each week if I don’t see them in my online classroom).

BK

[d_douglas]

My 8 and 10 yr olds are not sure what to make of it. The past two weeks were ‘spring vacation’ here and they started back to ‘school’ yesterday. There greatest interest is who gets to use the new iPad that we bought last week to facilitate learning, which is kinda sad. We give them plenty of outdoor time and they seem anxious to leave So they just bounce together on the trampoline rather than ride bikes around a few blocks or go for a walk. What can you do?!

With my wife and I at home these days, we are struggling to get work done, as the kids have an outlet any time they need us, so I think they’re deskilling they’re abilities to resolve conflict (which was in early developmental stages anyways!)

They won’t be back at school until Sept I am sure, so we need to better organize a way to cope. And for us to cope!

[Bruce K]

Boy I so hope we get to rejoin our kiddos in school before the end of the year.

Some of them really need that structure and guidance.

But I am also afraid this might be the way we teach until June. The problem with Distance learning is that there is much less/no support for Special Education students and English Language Learners. This creates issues for their success as well as legal requirements for school districts.

There is also no accountability. Plus we dan’t Hold them accountable as some families struggle with access to technology and quality Wi-Fi.

Challenging times as educators and families try to figure this process out.

BK

BK

[Jaybee]

My kids are whipping through their "remote learning" lessons in about 3 hours, that leaves a lot of time to fill up with other things. I've been trying to relax a little bit, not try to be a perfect parent, and remember that it's ok for them to be bored for a little bit. They will only sit there for a few minutes before they come up with some way to entertain themselves, and that's where creativity is born.

[benb]

My son is 7... we've been home 3 weeks now and the school is just starting to get organized. Supposedly lessons start Wednesday.

I will believe it when I see it, the school officials are clearly challenged when it comes to planning something out over the internet. We get a lot of huge long emails that contain very little useful information and move things forward very little. All their emails need a "Too long didn't read" summary, and it seems like they need to be doing a much better job peer reviewing their communication to the community before actually sending it out.

An example would be sending a giant email, deep within it is buried that you need to login to the school system's equivalent of a CRM system to find your childs default password. But you don't actually go figure out how to get into the CRM system because doing so has no purpose. Getting into the CRM system is not easy, it requires digging through the town hall website, because the school didn't bother to include the link.

Then another email says you should get logged into some learning platform, this is a week later. Mentions in passing that the new learning platform uses the password you should have gotten. But doesn't mention that it comes from the CRM system, so you need to dig through your email. And then the learning platform is not even ready.

They did a big thing where they offered Chromebooks to students in the community who don't have computers. But they got 500 Chromebooks, and had way more applications than 500. The reason they had more than 500 applications was because they had never explained that you didn't actually need a Chromebook, because the learning platforms actually support iPads, PC, Mac, Chromebook, Android, etc.. so you didn't need a Chromebook if you had *anything*. But they worked this all out in public emails instead of getting on a conference call among themselves and getting their story straight ahead of time.

So we've now had 3 weeks of us trying to structure stuff for our son, keep him busy & engaged, keep him from watching too much TV, playing too many video games, AND both of us are supposed to be finding a way to work full time at home.

My expectation (and the school is backing this up) is that he's going to get through the work in 2-3 hours a day anyway, so it's not going to actually keep him occupied & engaged that long.'

I actually think some of the difficulty is probably the teacher's Union fighting the school on how this stuff is setup. There's been some signs of that.

We have done some hands on home learning stuff that the school wouldn't be able to do as well, so it's not all bad. On the tech side I can do things that the school can't. And we can do "gym" & "music" fine. And our son has had a lot of 1:1 reading/writing time that he couldn't get at school.

[charliedid]

Not to flip the discussion as it's very valid. My sister and brother and I are having similar convo regarding our parents who are 81 and 82, especially my father who seems just a bit to cavalier regarding going out every day and shopping for coffee etc. and then coming back home to our mother.

They live in a 20 story building on the near north side of Chicago. Way too much interaction getting from the 20th floor to the corner to buy something he should simply have on hand. He's not grasping just how much unnecessary exposure that it right now.

The cycle of life often looks very similar in both the earlier and later periods of life.

My brother on the other hand has 4 boys who thankfully seem to fully grasp the nature of the situation.

I wish you all the best in dealing, I currently live alone and have no kids.

Peace

[Bruce K]

Ben

I am sorry to hear this but sadly, the response across the Commonwealth has varied widely.

In my district every child has a Chromebook. We had one round of retrieval (they left it at school) or replacement (it was in for repairs or lost). The district is working on a second date to make sure every kiddo has a Chromebook.

We (Middle School) are on week two of 3 lessons for Math and ELA plus 2 (I think) each for Science and Social Studies, and one from Specialists (Art, Music, PE, or World Language) each week. I am pretty sure the elementary kids is much less.

The district is also providing links to online resources and paper packet pickup where they are handing out meals (about 1000 per day).

I hope things improve for your kid.

BK

[benb]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

Ben
In my district every child has a Chromebook. We had one round of retrieval (they left it at school) or replacement (it was in for repairs or lost). The district is working on a second date to make sure every kiddo has a Chromebook.

I hope things improve for your kid.

Our kid is doing fine, this is not the end of the world, he's in 1st grade.

The bizarre/hilarious thing about the Chromebooks here is all the high school kids in town already have school issued iPads.

So it makes little sense for them to try and bring Chromebooks in now as well since they don't have pre-developed plan for Chromebooks.

There are huge significant issues about Chromebooks with kids too because they are being developed & subsidized by a giant advertising company that is trying it's damnedest to use the Chromebooks to data mine kids before they even get to the age of consent. All that data mining & such means more security risks as well.

Maybe they were just able to get cheap Chromebooks, maybe Google donated them to get a foot in the door. But they didn't even actually get enough to fill the needs of the lower income students in town anyway.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by benb

We get a lot of huge long emails that contain very little useful information and move things forward very little. All their emails need a "Too long didn't read" summary, and it seems like they need to be doing a much better job peer reviewing their communication to the community before actually sending it out.

So we've now had 3 weeks of us trying to structure stuff for our son, keep him busy & engaged, keep him from watching too much TV, playing too many video games, AND both of us are supposed to be finding a way to work full time at home.

My expectation (and the school is backing this up) is that he's going to get through the work in 2-3 hours a day anyway, so it's not going to actually keep him occupied & engaged that long.'

Our school is starting to figure this out by increasingly consolidating directions and lessons into a couple sources, including a morning message from the teacher, but there is still more organization needed. The school is getting there gradually. We are adapting and trying to be patient. Though it is frustrating at times as both my wife and I are also working while homeschooling, and this is with 2 kids who enjoy school and learning.
One thing that really helps us was to post a daily schedule on the fridge. There are 3 school blocks 60-90 minutes throughout the day, and my girls pick which subjects they want to do for each block as they go through the day; we check in periodically. The schedule also includes blocks for starting the day, meals, outdoor activities, chores, etc. Structure is important so long as it is a bit flexible.

Zoom meetings with their class and friend groups (and extended family too) have been good for maintaining social connections. It seems that all the kids in the neighborhood, with few exceptions, have learned that social distancing means stay in the yard or far apart when outside and no sharing toys with neighbors etc.

[Irishgirl]

Originally Posted by charliedid

Not to flip the discussion as it's very valid. My sister and brother and I are having similar convo regarding our parents who are 81 and 82, especially my father who seems just a bit to cavalier regarding going out every day and shopping for coffee etc. and then coming back home to our mother.

They live in a 20 story building on the near north side of Chicago. Way too much interaction getting from the 20th floor to the corner to buy something he should simply have on hand. He's not grasping just how much unnecessary exposure that it right now.

The cycle of life often looks very similar in both the earlier and later periods of life.

My brother on the other hand has 4 boys who thankfully seem to fully grasp the nature of the situation.

I wish you all the best in dealing, I currently live alone and have no kids.

Peace

Charliedid...you are jumping to tomorrow’s OT topic I had queued up mentally ...and it’s a doozy.


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[dbnm]

My kids are 8 and 11. Neither are really sure what is going on. Other than a walk or bike ride around the neighborhood, they have not left the house or been in a store/restaurant in 2 weeks.

My son who is 8, thinks this is terrific. He has read every Capt Underpants books and has mastered the iPad.

My daughter who is 11, is really missing her friends and might be picking up on things. She has learned how to make soap and hand sanitizer.

They were both in a Montessori school who did not teach computers so we are teaching the kids about them and how to use them and are now using the Kahn Academy for lessons. It's really very good.

My son keeps asking if this happened when I was a kid.

We are fortunate enough to have really great weather here in NM so we have the backdoors and windows open (until we can't )