Yeah, that sounded stressful. On the bright side, he didn't infect anyone and seems fine and now probably has extra immunity??

Right. That's exactly it. I'd rather teach regrouping right the first time as opposed to discovering in horror that a kid who's "supposed" to be learning long division or decimals can't regroup!

Same. And I thought we might get kid vaccines before then. The optimist in me was totally hoping that we could transition from "low cases" to "endemic but vaccinated" without more sacrifices.

Honestly, routine has always helped, and so have other tweaks, but we're definitely not in a stable state yet 😕 . I'm still trying to figure it out. There are days I think about just sending her back to school... but then I know that would not make her as happy.

Oh, I figured as much, to be honest. I figured we were in for 2 years. That's what it sounded like for the 1918 flu pandemic, for one thing. I just wanted a longer break, lol.

I am sorry, but since I'm worried about long COVID, hospitalizations and deaths aren't really the right metric for me. And <10% isn't grounds for celebration in a high test state and never was. Plus, I'm more worried about the trajectory -- 2% positivity is tolerable, but what's it going to be in a few weeks? If it stabilizes, I'll feel relieved.

Although, to be fair, with some kids it's REALLY hard to find a sweet spot. We've been trying and trying this year, and it's really hard. DD9 only wants to do what she wants to do, to an extent that makes homeschooling her really challenging. We also spend plenty of time trying to make things interesting, and discussing, and trying things. But sometimes, the missing ingredient is effort on the part of the kid even for the non-interesting parts, and you can't do anything about it... I don't know if that's what going on with the OP, though. Just my own personal experience this year.

You know what I’m bummed about?? I already did figure this was a reprieve. But I wanted it to last longer!

Honestly, once the kids are vaccinated, unless REALLY alarming stuff comes out about long COVID after vaccination, I'll probably go out and catch it for an extra boost of immunity 😉 .

Any idea where your friends picked it up?

I don’t think you’re wrong.

Also, I don’t know if people noticed, but we ARE going to playgrounds. And playgrounds can’t be essential to childhood development, lol — did they even exist until last century??

Actually, I had trouble finding the chance of a kid getting hospitalized for COVID. Any idea what it is, per case?

I did feel relaxed, lol. I felt totally lovely in June, when numbers were stable and we weren’t back on an exponential curve!!

Yes, I sympathize. I also prefer to teach it in the order you're describing, although that can be tricky: you don't want to give kids problems that are absolutely discouragingly overwhelming, either. But my curriculum is a stack of Clairefontaine notebooks and a pen, lol, which doesn't help you much. I might write one at some point, but I don't know when.