I ended up accomplishing almost none of yesterday’s to do list, mostly because I napped for ~2.5 hours accidentally.
Oops.
Sometimes Sunday just needs to be lazy . . .
We did get the kids outside twice – once for this walk (look how pretty the colors are! No filter!) and then Josh swam with them while I prepared this dinner masterpiece:
Summery corn soup (used this recipe though I was lazy and just stuck an immersion blender in at the end) + Dungeness crab because Annabel had been asking for snow crab and this was the closest thing Publix had this week!
Interesting podcast listen: Freakonomics- the Pros and Cons of Reparations. Though I have to note that Glenn Loury (Black economics professor at Harvard) seemed to be saying things that were in opposition to what I am currently reading in Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist.
A teacher’s take on the current situation: As I’ve written about, we plan on sending C & G to an in-person school in the fall. This post did not change my current plans, but it is definitely valuable reading.
Another school option: Interestingly, our local JCC is basically doing pod learning in a program called JSchooled. Essentially, they will have counselors supervising kids with their computers as they participate in distance learning, with full days of care available. Definitely not affordable for every working parent that needs the coverage, but a good in-between option for some. Wonder if programs like this are popping up elsewhere.
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I’m so intrigued by the JSchooled program. (Fun fact -I grew up in Broward County). In my area – Northern VA, I’ve seen families attempting to create these pods and hosting them in one home (combining resources among 3-4 families with the same school aged children and a tutor/former teacher). I’ve also seen private daycare centers creating a K program (maybe similar to what G’s school did for C?) Thanks so much for your series – I’ve loved following along.
Our jcc will do something like this. I am helping organize it. Thank you for posting the link! It is a great idea.
Where are you located? Ours is too but we haven’t gotten details and I am hoping it works well for us!
I’m in Houston, you?
The daycare/preschool around the corner from our house just opened a new all day virtual-learning support classroom for school aged kiddos. Not cheap, but that’s our plan for now! My husband is a teacher in a district going back full time (basically no social distancing) and he coaches and, as of now, they are saying they are having Fall Sports…My job consists of a million conference calls and diligently cramming focused work in between, so not conducive to facilitating school for a Kindergartener and 2nd grader. The school age room will have 10 kids with masks in a classroom with capacity for 32 and they hired a certified elementary ed teacher, so it feels okay…Not ideal, but I think I’m at peace with the decision.
Oh that’s really interesting regarding the JCC, I just hope they reserve a few spaces for kids who wouldn’t be able to afford it. As of now, schools and early years facilities are supposed to open full-time on the 12th but we’ll receive final confirmation on Thursday. Honestly, I’m not sure how this is going to work, especially at the older level, but hopefully it will have class/school closures as needed, rather than the whole system shutting down. We’re averaging 20 cases a day, with a population of 5 million (and no deaths in 10 days) but I expect this will change, especially as people have decided to sneak in a last minute summer holiday. They’ve introduced a 14 quarantine if you’re returning from Spain but I feel like the people who got on a plane for some sun and cheap booze are unlikely to respect it.
Our daycare is also offering a K-6 program if Minnesota goes virtual. It will be in-person so kids will still be at risk for infecting each other/the teacher, but I am sure there will be a demand for this program if schools go virtual. My husband and I were talking about how the only families that are really set up to thrive/survive the virtual environment is sadly affluent families that can afford these alternatives and have access to high speed internet, computers, etc. It’s such a hard, sad situation and every day I am thankful that our son is only 2! Although yesterday my MIL was going on and on about how things won’t be normal when he goes to school in 2023. I wanted to say STFU! Yes, maybe life will never really go back to ‘normal’ but I feel pretty confident he won’t be doing virtual school in 2023. Everyone should be vaccinated by then or really by 2022 I would think? So I just nodded my head and tried to find a happier place. Ha.
while it certainly isn’t likely your son will be in virtual school in 2023, it is unrealistic to think everyone will be vaccinated by then…currently 20% of Americans have said they will not take a vaccine. what’s more, the covid vaccine is unlikely to be a “sterile” vaccine (that prevents disease altogether) and more likely to reduce symptoms….so herd immunity is going to be very difficult to achieve under these circumstances. maybe give your MIL a break — she seems to be a realist.
I see your point but I don’t think it’s a good use of mental energy to catastrophize about what life will be like in 2023. It’s hard to predict what life will be like in 3 months let alone in 3 years. My frustration with my MIL stems from many years of frustrating conversations with her where she wants to jump to the absolutely worst case scenario. It gets old listening to those kind of conversations after awhile.
You make a good point about the high % of people who will refuse the vaccine, though.
Thanks for posting the link to the teacher blog. Have you and Laura thought about interviewing a teacher on your podcast? Both to talk through issues about returning to school and to give some tips on effective distance learning.
Sarah, I wish we had a safe (sounding?) option like you have for G&C. We have just sent our four year old back to daycare (8 kids, 2 staff, staff masked, distancing in the class) but we have no idea what the fall will look like. Desperate to get our 22 month old back to daycare as well. Our kids really miss in-person interactions and my career is suffering from months of lackluster work time. I have really appreciated your blog over the last few months! Hang in there.
Thanks for the link to the teachers view. Where is the research that kids over 10 spread the disease as well as adults? (Genuine question)
That’s how the NYTimes described a S Korea study, though many scientists I follow on Twitter suggest that’s not a correct interpretation of that study. This is a good summary of what we currently know about kids and schools and the spread of covid (which is not as much as we should!) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.19.20157362v1
Hey Sarah, curious if you follow the Integrated Schools podcast. Their email newsletter this week had an article about pod learning, private schools, and the hand to hand contact sport of getting what’s best for our kids. I am curious to hear your thoughts on it. I feel a bit guilty about keeping my 5 year old in Montessori another year rather than send him along to public kindergarten like we had planned. But online schooling is challenging for young kids, and his birthday is 2 weeks before the cutoff… so COVID or no COVID we would have considered waiting another year anyway. That is my rationalization, along with some sensory stuff that makes it extra tough for him to focus. Our school has been doing an academic summer camp and we have felt very comfortable, and they plan to be in person for the school year given the small class size.
With all that being said, many families can’t choose private schooling, or hire someone to supervise their kids while they work (online or outside the home) and rely on school as a form of childcare. It is very upsetting/concerning for me and I don’t know how we as a society will solve for it. Will some parents find themselves choosing to either stay home from work or leave their kids home alone to online school? I think that is a real possibility. Kids without meals or supervision… lack of access to technology… I could go on and on. By choosing to keep my oldest in Montessori I don’t want to forget about this very real issue although I have no idea how we as a society will solve it….
Here is the link to the article I mentioned from Integrated Schools: https://integratedschools.org/on-covid-19-and-micro-schooling-pods-and-more/
I’d also recommend this podcast. I’m not in the US but I’ve found it really helpful to think through decisions for my child’s education. We’ve always said we wanted to move before my son started school, as our neighbourhood school has a pretty bad reputation, but are rethinking that choice.
But also to say, we’re all in survival mode, and whatever choice you make for your family is the right one. It’s just a good thing to consider moving forward.
We moved my son from a religious private school that could not handle his neuro diversity to our neighborhood school that is extremely poorly rated. He is THRIVING there. Which is to say – don’t put too much stock into school ratings. I’m also incredibly grateful that as a student in a much more diverse school than I grew up in, he’s getting learnings, empathy, and awareness that I did not have at his age.