My son was so blonde that tourists would ask to take photos with him when he was a baby and toddler!

What is interesting about the elimination strategy, is that we worked super hard to eliminate and then work super hard to keep it out. But our Chief Health Officer has always said that elimination is an ongoing effort. And that is exactly what has happened here. We got a new case, it spread to 50 others before we found it. We knocked it on its head and plan to be back at elimination status within 2 weeks. Basically, the government is saying that now that we are at elimination, we need to keep it even with an occasional short sharp local lockdown. That it is the best option for our economy.

We are up to 65,000 tests within 4 days of the first case testing positive, almost all done for Auckland residents. We had gotten down to only 1000 tests per day throughout the country. So this 4 day effort was heroic. Seriously heroic. The ramp up was amazing and swift. Clearly they had a plan and implemented it close to flawlessly. All 51 cases have a single genomic source - all linked back to Americold. It actually looks like the first person to test positive was the index case, which is both quite lucky and quite remarkable that it was caught. NZ has almost ruled out a quarantine breach, and is now working with Australia as 2 people in their Americold facility in Victoria have also tested positive. Australia is genome testing these 2 people to see if it is a link. If so, it will be the first proven evidence of cold surface transmission. If this comes to be the working theory, proven or no, it will take the government off the hook for a botch up, because there has been no believable evidence that cold surfaces are infectious after multiple days, so they could not have protected NZ against an unknown transmission method. The government seems to think that this cluster will be conquered in 2 weeks, as the cluster has been ring fenced by contract tracing 1000 people from the original family of 4, and an entire 2 week cycle of transmission will have passed with the entire city in lockdown (including closed schools). It looks like our elimination status may be renewed on 27 August. Crossing fingers

There is no wide community spread. 28,000 tests from the community in 48 hours returned 0 positive cases. The 38 positive cases are all close contacts of what appears to be the index case, the person who worked at the cold storage international shipping co. All 38 cases have a genome linked to a single source. They have not stated it is definitely surface transmission, but there is currently no other source that has been found. The index case genome does not link to any quarantine genomes. Auckland in 12 day additional lockdown. Rest of country in just a 'be careful' mode for those 12 days. There is no spread outside of Auckland.

4 workers at the cold transport company and 10 of their family members (including 3 kids at 3 different schools). 2 at a financial agency where one of the cold storage family members worked. 1 friend. = 17 people in the cluster. All will be moved into the quarantine facilities. No other cases in any other clusters have yet been found with 10K tests from yesterday. We will get more info from the next 10K tests this morning, and hopefully the genomic testing. One thing we get right is that we can turn on a dime. One day everything open including a 43,000 person rugby match, next day all schools and workplaces closed and roadblocks set up. The decision was made 6 hours after the positive test was found, and the lockdown was implemented overnight.

Beats me. I was really hoping it was the cold storage, because then the index case who worked there is actually the index case and did not get it from the community. But then my neighbor said that would be really bad for our international shipping and would grind that to a halt, which might be a worse situation. NZ really learned from Australia's delay. Within 6 hours of the positive test, they locked down the largest city in the country. Now we wait for 3 days while they investigate, but most people think the lockdown will be extended and likely go nation wide. Hard and fast. We can get this done in a month.

Cool storage facility tested in the hunt for the index case in NZ. They said in the article that there is no published research on Covid entering via freight. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122423538/coronavirus-auckland-cool-storage-facility-tested-over-concern-covid19-entered-nz-via-freight

Crossing fingers on the cold storage international shipping. That is quite an odd job to have and then be the one family who gets it.

Bit of a detective story happening over here. There is one family with it --4 of the 6 members have it. They know of no link to overseas travel. So the possibilities: 1) False positives have been ruled out 2) Quarantine/Air staff link: they are doing genomic sequencing to see if they can find a link between the family and someone in contact with the border. 3) International shipping: one of the members of the family apparently works in cold storage. So they are testing the environment/surfaces as the virus can survive longer on surfaces if cold/frozen. (this is the best option as it means that the link is direct to the family and not through intermediaries who have it that we don't know of) 4) Community spread: They are testing 1% of Auckland each day for 3 days to try to find any others who have it. While waiting for the outcome of the investigation: Roadblocks are in place to keep all Aucklanders in Auckland, stay at home orders are in place for 3 days (including schools) for Auckland, and ALL nursing homes/retirement villages throughout the entire country have been completely locked down - not by order of the government but by agreement between all these independent privately run facilities. The hope is to stamp it out fast.

Wow! They just texted every phone in the country with that funny sound and the rules!

Well, we have decisive leadership. 6 hours ago a case in the community was identified that had an unknown source. The government just announced in a live press conference at 9:30pm tonight that they are locking down all of Auckland. Schools and childcare centers are closed, public transport is closed, all people must work from home, all bars/restaurants/shops are closed (except grocery and drug stores), masks required in grocery stores, all movement in and out of Auckland is prohibited (with roadblocks), all gatherings including weddings and funerals over 10 people are prohibited. The rest of the country will go to level 2 lockdown - 2 meter distancing required, masks on public transport required, and gatherings above 50 prohibited. This will last for 3 days to give them time to figure out where this single family got it from, and how widespread the virus is. They are planning widespread mass testing. A further decision will be made on Friday depending on what they find. The decision was to go hard and go early, like we did last time.

I'm glad you appreciate hearing about a positive outcome. I feel so distant from the boardies in the past month because all the talk is about adapting to this new way of life and dealing with a ton of uncertainty. We have had 3 months of back to normal now. So I go to the farmers' market with no fear of being in an unmasked dense crowd, and then I come and read on the board and feel so sad and confused and really out of the loop. The big push now is to not be complacent. Last week they asked every household to get some masks, just so we would be ready if/when there was a break in quarantine. They are very aware of how Australia was so close to elimination status and then a quarantine breach caused the now huge numbers. When we did our super strict lockdown for 8 weeks, we did not use masks. So there is no culture here of wearing them even during lockdown. I was listening to the radio, and there was a suggestion that we do a nation wide drill - a day where we all wear masks just to get a sense of what would change and how we would handle it. I also think that were grumblings at first about how no other country ran as strict a lockdown as us (we are top of the stringency index), and why were we so stupid and had ruined our economy. But the some of the details of the decisions have come out recently, and one of them was that NZ has fewer ICU beds than most any other OECD country, so they were really concerned they could not care for the sick. The choice was made then to name the elimination strategy publicly and go for it with a single minded focus. And I will say that although there are still some descenters, most people are *very* glad we just went hard early so it didn't just drag on and on. There is also a fear that it will be every country for itself with the vaccine. So NZ is talking about rebuilding its infrastructure for vaccine production that was lost in the 1980s. We are also a part of some international research units, and NZ is one of the leading countries in *animal* vaccine research, so we do have some relevant expertise here. But purchasing power of a small country is obviously small so there is definitely a concern that we will be left behind at the back end of the earth. Another big issue that is being bandied about is the idea of privately-run quarantine. There are a lot of businesses who need international experts and skilled labor, and there is just not enough room in quarantine. They are starting to discuss the balance between space for returning kiwis vs space for experts/skilled labor who could help the economy -- actually diving up the space based on need. I think that there is definitely a split in the public over whether we can trust a private group to carefully manage quarantine. All we need is 1 person, and it will spread like wildfire in an unmasked, no-social distancing society. Although there has been a discussion of how all of us should be wearing masks just in case this happens, I think it would be a very hard sell daily masking to the public given that we don't have it and haven't for 100 days. The government would definitely use up its good will. I do think complacency has seeped in. Tests are way down from 7000/day to 1000/day, and 25% of people are refusing tests when the GP recommends them. The government is trying to encourage people to get tested to make sure our sentinel testing catches anything unexpected. It is not just quarantined individuals we need to worry about spreading it. It is the workers in quarantine (police, nurses, cooks, drivers, cleaners, etc), the airport workers, customs agents, flight attendants, ship yard workers, boaties, etc. We just have too much to lose. There is also some discussion about letting very wealthy people in and asking them to pay a ton to live here. Interesting idea to help fund the quarantine, which is a massive cost. Well, there is probably more than you asked for. But it was good to write it down instead of doing the hard work of homeschooling! Ruth in NZ

Oh, and since I'm just writing to myself here in NZ when it is the middle of the night for you guys... My biggest mistake for my older's reading was to give him Brave New World at age 13 on the suggestion of my dh. I hadn't previewed it because he recommended it. DH actually thought it would be a good launching off point to discuss sex. DS read it, but *definitely* did not want to discuss it. ooops. This is why *I* am the teacher, not my dh!

I read 1984 at 14 in 1984. I had nightmares about the rat in a cage around his head trying to eat his way out. Why oh why would you give that book to a 14 year old? I think it was because it was actually 1984, so that thought that would be cool or something.

I have a funny story about Heart of Darkness in 11th grade. Back then I could not read well (didn't read until I was 12). So I remember having this essay test, and one of the essay questions was to discuss the symbolism of the angles. Well, I wrote this beautiful essay about the contorted angles of the skeleton limbs and how they symbolized the contorted relationships between the colonial powers and the local inhabitants. I was super embarrassed when I got the test back, and the teacher circled the word angle, because it was angel. She even drew an angel, because I really didn't know that the word was angel. And to top it all off, I had spelled angle as angel the whole way through my essay. So the contorted angels of the skeleton limbs symbolized, etc.... She knew I could not spell or read, so she did give me a decent grade for being pretty creative with the symbolism of the angles. 🙂

My worst books was The Invisible Man by Ellison which I read at the age of 16. I was such a poor reader, and younger, and clueless. I kept expecting him to go invisible. Like literally. I completely missed the plot and themes. It was just way way over my head. I heard a podcast recently reviewing the book, and it sounds like it was a good thing that it went over my head. Pretty tough themes it deals with. But it was pretty forward thinking for a very white, upper middle class, southern state, public school to pick this book 30 years after it was published. Just should have been for a university course.

Courses have grades but will be ABC/No record. So no fails will be recorded. In addition, you are allowed 3 weeks before the end of classes to switch one class to P/F.

I feel funny posting in this thread now. Sort of out of the loop and in a different world. But today we reach 100 days of no Covid. Our government not only eliminated it, but actually has kept it out. Right now they are preparing for an accidental break in quarantine, so that we can respond faster and more effectively than Australia did. Apparently, they have bought enough masks to be able to distribute them to any localities with outbreaks, so people can mask ASAP and not wait even a few days to buy/make one.

Initially, NZ was not testing those in quarantine, so we had 23 days of 'no new cases.' But once we started testing and reporting the cases in quarantine, they changed the headline to '2 new cases in quarantine, and 96 days no community spread.' The cases in quarantine do get reported to WHO, so our numbers are going up even though we are 96 days without any cases.

I'm back from skiing! Let me start with this first half. From my perspective, there is no way that homeschooling has ever been anything but hard for me. By the end of the day I'm exhausted (and now I tutor on top of homeschooling). Every morning, I put my big girl panties on and get the job done. And, yes, there are times that I am not my best self, but I have come to believe that it is good for my kids to see the whole of human emotion and how I can come back from behind. There are also some days, when my younger boy will tell me that I have an attitude problem, and I better fix it. We are in this together, and both of us know we must come to the table willing and able to work AND with a good attitude. He models for me and I model for him. We keep each other honest. Good attitudes breed a beauty to the day. We work hard, but with good attitudes we can embrace the learning and the effort and feel like we have done a good job. So the nuts and bolts. 1) Taking care of myself: I go for an hour walk every lunch to get away from my 'job'. I listen to podcasts and don't think about school issues. I also eat well, sleep a lot (often 9 hours a night), and drink a glass of wine after a difficult day. I generally don't 'play' with my kids at night or on the weekends, and leave that to my dh. I spend time by myself to recharge. 2) Finding energy during the day: Splitting the day into two 3 hour chunks helps me, as does having clear cut goals to accomplish. When my older was home, I did exactly as you suggested 3 hours in the morning with one and 3 hours in the afternoon with the other. Then independent work for each while I was with the other. All I can say is that it is good that I did not have more kids! And I will say again, that sleep is key. I cannot do a full day if I am low on sleep. I also drink a LOT of hot tea as I find it is calming and helps me to relax! 3) Guilt. Ah, guilt. Yes, I used to have so much of it. But I have come to believe that there is definitely more than one good path. If I do less collaboration with math for example, my kid will learn less content, but will learn to be more independent. There are trade-offs and I have come to embrace both sides of the equation as a way of stopping the guilt. For years my standards have been too high, so I work to better align what I expect to people here on the board who I respect. Also, my younger has stated very strict rules for how many hours he is willing to work, so I have to make choices as to what we can accomplish in limited time. This also reduces guilt, because I know that I can't do everything, so I am *choosing* to leave behind some things. Well, off to start the day. I'll try to answer the other half of your question later today.

I would switch to a calculator. At 17, it is time to get functional, and success breeds success. If Algebra 2nd semester and geometry are NOT required for graduation, then get a consumer math text and use a calculator to answer the questions. If algebra 2nd semester and geometry are required for graduation, then I would work all summer to prep, and then work for a D. This means: find out what is the minimum required to pass the class, then only do those types of problems. Abandon all problems that are harder so that you have double the time to master the easiest work to just earn a D. I have done this with students so they can just pass.

I'm going to have to say No, or I would not send him. He is going from an elimination zone to a pandemic zone. Isn't that a crazy thing to have to say and think about?!?! These are just crazy times. My ds will be in an apartment with 4 other students who have agreed to limit interactions with others. They may form a bubble with one other flat of 2. Boston is strict on masks, and they have all online classes with NO access to campus. And if things go belly up, he can't even choose to return home as quarantine is full, and if he can get a spot, it will cost us $3,000 on top of the international flight. So when he leaves, he leaves for good. I believe the risk is low - the risk of getting it and the risk of it being a major illness. He needs to live his life, and his life is there not here.

Sorry to respond so late. My ds took the WOOT for 3 years from 15 to 17. He did it mostly for human interaction with his math. At 15 when he started it, he had taken all the other AoPS courses, but could not yet solve a single IMO problem. By the end of the first year, he could solve the first one on each day (problems 1 and 4 of the IMO). I have no idea about AIME as all NZ exams are proof based as we use the AMO, BMO, and APMO as our exams. My son found it to mostly give a range of problems he could work on, from easy to hard. I don't remember how easy was 'easy'. It was all self driven, there are not set problems to solve for a grade. He liked how all the work he needed to do was laid out so that he could self study.

I'm off to a ski trip, but I'll write some ideas down when we get back in a few days.

I'll see if I have some time today to write up some of my thoughts. Here is the post that I wrote in the other thread so others can see what JHLWTM was responding to. x-post My younger boy is quite bright but has struggled with dysgraphia for years, he was also not a lover of school work until just the past year (age 15 he woke up to how fun it could be). So I am very sensitive to your concern of wanting to help him reach his potential and give him a rigorous education which opens up options for him, but I don't want to burn him out or have him lose his own passions. Unfortunately for him, his passions don't align easily with high school course work or grades, but he has doggedly pursued them even before I realized what he was doing and started to support him. He is very interested in leadership and the study of human interaction, and is currently interested in being either a professional mediator or the mayor. He *needs* the time to be with people to figure out how they work. Just look at his siggy and you will see that he transports himself to tons of activities. In swimming and gymnastics, he coaches and plays with the younger crowd. At the gym, he works with adults. At drama, he learns how to put on personas and drop his fear of making public mistakes. In his D&D group he works to influence and collaborate with peers. He actually chose these activities for these purposes before I knew his purpose, and before he could articulate it. This is not just socializing, this is learning and is critical for what he wants to do in life. So then the question becomes, how do I create a rigorous education while still leaving time and energy for these endeavors that are critically important to him and to his future. Passions that I cannot easily make into acceptable, gradable classes (although I could if he wanted to go to college in the USA and needed me to make a transcript). First, I have reduced the number of courses that we do in depth - English/Geography, Chemistry, Math - only 3 subjects per year with English and Geography alternating. For English and Geography, we focus on nuance and insight. For Chem and Calc we focus on abstraction and generalization. The goal is to find what each subject considers *high* level thinking, because it varies by subject and by unit within a subject. We do a standard 1 year course load over 2 years so there is time to do it at the highest level possible. I find difficult, really difficult questions and we work collaboratively to solve them. We are unwilling to just do a good enough job, we go further in these subjects. Second, we have then figured out exactly what else he needs to have general knowledge of to do well in his chosen field in university - Geography. He needs a general understanding of the Maori language to work on difficult national problems here, and he needs general knowledge of Economics, Law, and Physics. These subjects we just dabble in. No tests, to real goals, just general knowledge and embracing the idea that filling holes in your knowledge base is fun! So getting to the quote from above: I think that the key for developing deep, insightful, nuanced thinking is to work collaboratively. We do a LOT together. We sit on the sofa side by side and figure stuff out. We also spend a LOT of time working through other people's works. We find examples of deep thinking, and study exactly what they say and do. We make explicit what deep thinking looks like. So for example in English just yesterday we realized that we needed to differentiate between the impact of Austen on contemporaneous readers vs modern readers. How does she speak to the two groups differently? what about our current society means that we read Austen differently than the women of the era? This is a new idea for us and can lead to very nuanced ideas and thinking. So we will be both trying to verbalize our ideas and studying other analytical works about Austen. We need to build on the backs of giants in the field. We need to see *how* others fight with difficult ideas before trying to do it on our own. We need to make insightful thinking explicit for each field. What makes you a deep thinker? What? Once we know what it is, we might be able to do some of it. And because we do it together, it is super fun, and we feel so proud when we figure it out. I don't *teacher* him these things, we learn together as a team. And it is the fight for this deep thinking that is critical. I do not believe it can be handed to you on a silver platter. So by not being a top down teacher, I think he learns less *content* but more depth of insight. So in general I would say our approach is definitely multum non multa. It is also all about collaboration to develop depth of thinking.