Hellobee Boards

Our (private school) has announced they will either be A) Virtual for everyone or B) Physical full-time with a virtual option for those who want it. We very very much want physical school for my rising 2nd grader and rising Kinder.

Our school did full day zoom instruction this spring (6.5 hours a day for school, 5 hrs 10 minutes live instruction if you remove breaks.) It was an incredible effort on the part of the school and very well done but it was way.too.much. Kids that young just aren’t set up for that kind of learning over those hours.

We have told the school we will homeschool if the school starts full-virtual. However, if it starts physical and then goes virtual we will try to make the virtual program work with some edits. (We would already have paid tuition in that scenario and the kids would already have had a chance to bond with teachers and classmates.) If it does go virtual at some point we will almost certainly opt out of certain classes to decrease the time in front of zoom. (I’m thinking English and PE since I can easily support those at home.)

For me the advantages of homeschooling are that you only really need to spend a few hours a day during early elementary, you have tons of schedule and curriculum flexibility so you can pursue topics the kids are into, and for us it’s way cheaper then paying for private school but not receiving any element of childcare.

I would say, if you are considering it, start looking at curriculum now. There are so many options and I think I have my plan (still need an option for Kinder math) although I haven’t purchased everything yet. Expecting our school to make an announcement mid-July.

Our school is still considering a ton of options - full time in person, fully virtual, and a variety of hybrid options. They have no plans to announce a final plan until sometime in August, for a normal start date the first week of September. DD will be starting kindergarten. I never thought I would consider homeschooling but right now I am doing a ton of research to prepare for it as a possibility. I currently stay at home and it was always our plan for me to continue doing that for at least kindergarten and first grade - so I am home and available to do whatever we need to do/or think is best.

If school is fully virtual I think we will keep her enrolled but will be prepared to supplement on our own or adjust as necessary. Though DD is terrified of zoom or video calls with more than a few people, so not sure how we would deal with that. But I think it will be beneficial for her to interact with a teacher and have things introduced from someone other than me. They have said the younger kids will not be expected to be on a device or in live calls for the whole day, just a portion. I would not be happy if she had to sit at a device for 6 hours a day.

I’m more concerned with what the requirements will be if they go back in person. The rumors have them staying in their classroom 100% of the time - eating in classroom, no specials, no playground, and masks on at all times except when eating. I just don’t think that sounds like an atmosphere I want for my five year old. I think the social aspect of school is so important but I’m not sure they will be benefiting from it if those are the requirements. So we might consider homeschooling if we don’t feel comfortable with the in school requirements.

I’m really hoping for some sort of hybrid option. One where we feel comfortable with what is happening in the schools.

This decision keeps me up most nights because it feels like no choice is the right choice.

@Jess1483: this is honestly my main concern with homeschooling. I would not be a perfect teacher for my DD but I could make do, especially for kindergarten. But I don’t want to hurt our schools financially at a time they need it most. And I worry what would happen if a large group pull kids out.

@Jess1483: Oh thanks for pointing that out!

@Jess1483: I hear you on district financing and even though we attend a private school it was a big concern of mine. (Since it's a small private school, my 2 kid's tuition is a much larger percentage of the school's operating budget then if we attended our local public school). I've read some polls that some districts in California are expecting to see 30% decreases in enrollment next year.

@hellobeeboston: I've heard lots of families talking about doing a 2-3 kid pod and hiring a teacher. Especially if there are teachers leaving the profession because of health concerns this could be a good option!

@bhbee: I am leaning toward home school. Virtual school schedule will not allow me to remain employed. That's the reality of it, unless i can find a night job. Kids appear to have such a low rate of serious complication. I think this is probably an unpopular opinion on HB but I think this is doing more harm than good. There has to be a way to accommodate medically compromised teachers and students, who are in the minority, while letting the majority of kids have more normal lives.

@bhbee: Yeah I mean I’ve always thought people have sucked about spreading their sickness lol. But even if more people get it I still don’t know that it’s worth keeping the lowest risk group from school. I’ve been talking in person with other parents (from across the political spectrum, both working outside the home and not) and most people have agreed with me in person, but I recognize those who are more worried about it are probably not out to have these discussions. Our school district did surveys indicating the majority of parents (and I didn’t see the numbers for this one but the email implied also the teachers) want traditional school back, but the county won’t let us.

I’m a teacher, so if we went back full time I’d have to send my 1st grader, but I wouldn’t want to. With the limitations I imagine they’ll have (more sitting, etc) I think it would be difficult and developmentally inappropriate for her. If I stayed at home I think I would lean toward homeschooling. There are a lot of programs and resources out there, and I would prefer my kids have that experience than virtual school. Speaking as a teacher, if I have to teach in person AND virtually, I feel like my instruction just won’t be that great. Those are two full time jobs. So, I think the quality of instruction would be better with homeschooling.

I can't fathom homeschooling for many reasons. My kid was actually really excited about being online, and our school only did a half hour a day of synchronous learning so if the option was virtual and more online instruction, I wouldn't be awfully unhappy with it. And I'm lucky that I have a flexible work environment and my husband's is similar and most of DH's supervisors are going to be in the same boat as we are with whatever the school district decides (which will likely be part time attendance, part time virtual). Like @catgirl, my biggest concern is if the return to school is heavily regulated, with masks and kids not interacting. For my kid that's going to be really stressful and I just hate the idea of that. Right now they aren't talking about major distancing except spreading out desks and keeping lunch in the classroom, but if it was more intense than that, I might consider keeping her home instead. And @2littlepumpkins, I generally agree with you. As much as this thing scares me, I'm willing to take a chance on my kid going back to school full time given the incidence of risk for kids. But all the options feel crappy.

@Mrs. Carrot: @2littlepumpkins: @LemonJack: i do think teachers are in a really shitty position but i think so are a lot of us. Like I generally don’t feel safe at work and I think there are a million things they could be doing better but I need to work and this is my job. I think the rub for teachers is it affects so many other people and so maybe they’re getting a lot more pressure about it? But out of everyone I know who has remained working this whole time no one feels great about it it’s more a feeling of what can we do?

I don’t mean this to be snarky at all because our teacher had 5 kids at home and still had to do our virtual learning and I literally can’t fathom that I guess I’m just curious if people think this is worse/more problematic then other jobs returning

For me personally my oldest who’s entering 2nd grade will return to her private school in the fall because they’ve already given us their tentative plan and because they have a huge amount of space and teachers but low kid numbers they can return fully in person. My middle kid is supposed to start kindergarten and if it’s not mostly in person I’ll definitely choose to homeschool him and reassess mid year. My youngest is 2, and so far the daycare guidelines here are too strict for me to consider sending him back, so I’ll be hiring a babysitter/nanny to watch the younger 2 kids for 5 or 6 hours a day so I can work, and homeschooling the kindergartener in the morning before she comes. We’ve been trying out homeschooling with the curriculum I’d use in the fall and we can do reading and math in like 30-45 minutes a day, so it would definitely be manageable even with adding more subjects.

@bhbee: ah that does sound intense in terms of attendance and funding! I’m using Logic of English Foundations for learning letter sounds / to read and write, and Kindergarten Math With Confidence for math. The latter is super new but I’ve followed the author’s blog for a long time and she previously wrote reviews on like every homeschool math curriculum available so I figured it was worth a shot, and it was super inexpensive. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on stuff in case we don’t end up doing it in the fall, but so far so good. Kindergarten is “easier” to plan for since you just start at the beginning ha. I had also already done a lot of research into homeschooling in general because I had been considering pulling my oldest last year before we switched her school.

@gotkimchi: I have many thoughts on this, but don’t want to thread jack. I’m happy to continue the discussion elsewhere as I think it’s important to talk about.

We un-enrolled our son from preschool for the Fall yesterday. I was simultaneously worried about his safety (Asthma with 6pneumonias in 4yrs) and the measures needed to keep him safe (his montessori school will place the kids on their own rug, 6ft apart from others and give them a work to do there). I fully expect school to close this fall and since I’m on maternity leave , I’d rather he avoid the upheaval and we leave out spot (ratio is 1 teacher per 9 students and there are usually 20 students per class)

We started a homeschool Pre-K curriculum in June with home to do most of it before I go back to work in November. Just finished week 3 and I freaking love it! We’ve already read so many great books!(It’s a literature based program) We are doing Torchlight Pre-K but replacing Preschool math At home with Kindergarten Math with Confidence (both are by Kate Snow)

@gotkimchi: Totally fair question, and I'd love to talk about it if you go on a separate thread!

@2littlepumpkins: Here's a specific number:
3 million teachers in America, which is 1% of our population.
29% are age 50 and older.
(https://www.childtrends.org/nearly-one-third-of-u-s-teachers-are-at-higher-risk-of-severe-illness-from-covid-19-due-to-age)
30 teachers died in NYC
(https://abc7ny.com/teacher-deaths-doe-department-of-education-schools/6173896/)

The Santa Clara County Office of Education is already planning for our deaths:
https://tinyurl.com/SCCOEdeath