The papers for our dog said she wasn't good with children but, turns out, she's great with *HER* children, just no one outside her family pack, lol. She intensely dislikes and yells at anyone who even walks down our block, lol. At the adoption event, she loved on our kids and didn't even attempt to bite. I think she was confused with a sibling from her litter that we met first. The sibling was AWFUL with kids.

Oh wow. We picked up our terrier mix in Hawaii six years ago from a local Humane Society adoption event and she was *****FREE****** with on-site registration available for <$12. We left the "Meet n' Greet" event and went straight to Petsmart for gear, pausing only to text DH a photo of 'our' new dog. She came spayed, chipped, and vaccinated.

Our fall/winter sports are essentially outdoor conditioning only. No competitions. DD only participated in comp. cheer and fall cheer and that's already been ruled out for the year. For the most part, our state and local government are doing a nice job of balancing safety and reopening. Those who want/need in-person school will have access to as much as medical guidance allows. Those who need distance ed can at least have live instruction everyday. They've committed to providing computers and hotspots for those who need them.

DS's middle school operates in 'teams', four per grade. There were about 1200 kids/day in the building in three grades. Each team of kids was roughly 75-100 kids. They all share the same teachers for core classes but there were sections for honors, regular, and gifted cohorts. Math/science or English/history were grouped together.

This is exactly the conclusion my kiddo came to also. It was a relief not to have to force her.

The opening number is a total tease. It's there mostly to introduce the characters and storyline and is sloooowwwww so you can hear the words. It's much more fun as it speeds up.

I like the idea of packets soooo much better for the middle school set than the online only stuff too. I'm resigned to DIYing a hybrid option for him (live instruction online, paper projects/assignments) b/c I don't trust the district to maintain some continuity of learning in the event of sudden closure. *Some* 6-8th graders would be OK learning exclusively online but I'm not sure they're well served by it any more than the elementary set. In the spring, ALL of DS's assignments had to be completed online. There was no actual writing involved in any subject. DS isn't skilled enough with software, apps, or typing so everything took much longer than the teachers anticipated in their plans. An assignment that was supposed to take one hour a day for a week took DS 12 hours with significant help from DH (which is why I told the teacher that was the ONLY assignment you're getting, sorry not sorry). And this is my conscientious A student child. While we plan to work on computer skills, I don't want him spending hours learning how to use the computer when he should be learning the actual subject matter. His outschool math class is MUUUUCH better. He watches the live instruction component, completes the work on paper, and then emails it to the instructor for grading/critiques. This is something he can do independently (and a few reminders). He struggled mightily with Google doc submissions and all of the apps they asked him to use.

THIS. We could open like that too if we were led into battle four months ago by responsible adults. Alas, that ship has sailed. We have uncontrolled community spread in wide swaths of the country.

To be fair, some of the classes my DS will take next year may be eligible for high school course credit and require passage of an EOC exam. If he returned in January, he’d have to sit for that exam like everyone else. Our area also teaches US history over two years and this is the first for him. The scores on the EOC exams help determine course placement for the following year too. So, it’s not as simple as ignore what they’re doing. I suspect we will, overall, cover the topic much more thoroughly than his school but I’d be remiss if I didn’t look at the EOCs for these content areas.

We are stretching it out and covering 0 to 1865 this year. I want to follow rabbit trails and supplement with other resources (a people’s history, Frederick Douglass, Federalist Papers, etc). I have two weeks set aside at the end of the month for planning and prep. DS is a solid reader and likes history.

It helps to have a public that believes the recommendations and has driven caseloads down. We are nowhere near that level of preparedness.

Geeze, I hope so. Our state is still relatively safe altho cases are rising somewhat. We're nowhere near the exponential growth seen elsewhere...yet but we also had a mandatory public mask policy issued several months ago. After a blip over Memorial Day when it looked like people locally let their guards down, things are back to 90%+ masked in public.

WOW. Our district is requiring masks for kids in MS/HS and recommending them for ES students.

THIS. Who's going to substitute teach under these circumstances? Most subs fall into the high risk group. They're typically older and retired. There will be shutdowns and disruptions, especially in places where people are still behaving cavalierly. I think, for kids who can do it, online or homeschool will be a lot less disruptive. I was super relieved today to hear about our district's plan to offer an ALL ONLINE (LIVE) option with regular district teachers (they're accepting applications from volunteers) as well as a 2-day a week in-person option (phase 1) that may move to 5 days a week in phase 3. Our district has a 4x4 block schedule for high schoolers so three-four hours online/daily is what I expect. The statewide virtual school was inadequate and didn't offer the same courses as our district. DS will still be homeschooled because exclusively online instruction doesn't work for him but this will be awesome for my DD. There will be no fall/winter sports (conditioning only) too and cheer is all DD wanted to do anyway.

I just find it tacky. How someone can claim to be a flag-worshipping patriot and then violate the flag code six ways from Sunday by altering it with blue lines, draping it over a beer belly, limp willy, or boob rack, and/or flying it (tattered) from the flat bed of a lifted truck (all things I’ve seen) is beyond my understanding.