There are a host of reasons why my two children are not home schooled in normal circumstances. The trust and respect my husband and I have for their credentialed teachers, particularly after covering the 2018 teacher walk-out.
The desire for the children to have regular social interaction with non-relatives. The weird work hours and relatively short notice for assignments that come with being a journalist.
However, if we have learned anything in the last few weeks, it is that those “normal” moments will be few and far between for a while, including how educational opportunities are delivered to students across the country. After the state Board of Education voted on March 25 to
end in-person instruction for the rest of the school year, Associate Publisher JJ Francais asked if my family would be willing to share with readers how our efforts at distance learning go for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. My husband and I have a daughter in fourth grade and a 4-year-old son.
At my daughter’s request, she and her brother will be referred to in print by nicknames rather than their actual legal names. With that in mind, she is Godzilla and he is Mothra. Although our school district’s formal distance learning program doesn’t officially start until Monday, we started early in order to develop something resembling a routine and to minimize the chances of our house getting demolished by two stir-crazy children.
In all honesty, that routine has included some screen time. Godzilla’s teachers have been uploading assignments to Google Classroom, several of which require some rudimentary research on her part. The local library is closed and sadly, my childhood set of World Book encyclopedias are long gone, which means using online databases to look up information.
Between her formal assignments and her decision to learn a foreign language while home, we’ve had to carve out time for her to use the desktop, with extended stretches of screen-free time in between. After listening to her do the hunt and peck routine this week, I think we’re going to incorporate typing lessons at some point into our distance learning curriculum as well.
I appreciate the intent behind the partnership between OETA and the state Department of Education, but my family has not been able to incorporate it into our plans. For whatever reason, our digital antenna simply will not pick up the subchannel that is hosting the curriculum specific programming.
However, it has not been an issue for us so far. Mothra is tickled to get to watch Sesame Street in the mornings on the OETA station we are able to pick up. Other than his afternoon nap, the only hard and fast scheduled item for him is getting to hang out with Big Bird and Oscar for 30 minutes.
Godzilla honestly does not care. Given how much time she is already having to spend in front of a screen, she has made it clear that she prefers her science instruction to involve building things or getting her hands dirty in the backyard rather than watching an episode of Nova.
Thankfully, the weather has been mostly cooperative, so Godzilla has gotten her wish for outdoor science lessons. A big reason our house is still standing is because we have been able to send the children in the backyard for extended stretches to draw, read, roughhouse or just dig in the dirt.
The decent weather has also allowed us to have extra gym class this week in the form of riding our bicycles the hilly 1.3 miles each way to our school district’s nearest meal site to pick up breakfast and lunch. Although my kids usually brown bag it during the school year, the familiar milk cartons have been a comforting sight.
A rare normal moment.