Thanks, great question. I think I am subconsciously worrying that if she has to return to school, she won't be prepared (say, for writing an essay in an exam, which would be by hand). But I need to trust that actually she'll be able to adapt. And I feel like once I've had my first review (we only started formally homeschooling last term) I'll be less hung up about the guidelines; I've heard they're pretty flexible.

I saw on twitter an even simpler version - a square box fan and someone duct-taped a filter over the front (and apparently he'd run it for months and it hadn't caught fire lol). Cost him $39 (this was in the US - lots more here as things harder to get). I look back now and can't believe I didn't invest in an air purifier during the bushfires, nor was it suggested. It must have been so damaging breathing in all that smoke for 4 months straight. Now I have one for home and one for my workplace.

Really cute video on making a Corsi/Rosethal box!

Only thing I would add would be ensuring some sort of physical recreation - whether formal sports or classes, or informal daily walks or fitness.

I forgot to say she's done quite a few Outschool courses (that ran for weeks) run by a published author. She learned so much from those courses about structure and so on. I was really impressed.

Whoa. A million dead just this year and nearly six and a half million from the start of the pandemic. What a milestone. COVID-19 deaths reach 1 million worldwide so far in 2022 - ABC News

My daughter's a gifted writer who has written a novel, writes creatively for pleasure etc. Her writing is almost solely online on google docs; she loathes writing by hand but will do her daily copywork (generally a poem that we discuss). She will under duress do short answers to questions (say for history or whatever). But the idea of writing an essay, a lengthy piece, especially by hand? No way. No how. I say year 6/7 as we have about a term and a half left of year 6 and then it's year 7, and most of the work I'm giving her is year 7 (I want to finish year 7 maths this year). So. Technically we're supposed to (Aust. curriculum) be doing persuasive and narrative writing and so on. I myself had to write essays from about this age. Should I bother? She'll probably pick it up at a later age anyway and she's honing her sentences structure, grammar, punctuation through creative writing. What do you think?

Oh yeah I forgot to add an awesome art studio with everything, also a tech workshop with everything available. The kids and I sat down at the beginning of the school year (this year? last year?) and drew a huge map of our ideal school, incorporating all our ideas. So I have a picture in my head.

Outdoors & Covid safe. It'd have one of those tree-top ropes courses, a creek, a labyrinth, lots of dirt to dig, an outdoor history memory trail, a small farm. There'd be overnight stays to look at stars and make safe campfires. To make it covid safe, each kid would have their own tent. It'd have a full-time kitchen which would cook food that parents could buy on pick-up to serve for dinner (you'd pre-order). Kids who were interested could help cook in the kitchen. It would provide breakfast and lunch as well. (Masked and gloved for cooking; outdoor for eating, with a roof for rain but no walls, if you know what I mean. There'd be adequate staff. Young energetic people to supervise for games time so people like me haha could focus on teaching reading 1:1 for those who needed it; it would use phonics and have proper assessments to check that kids can actually read. There'd be a super equipped Lego space and someone whose job it was to clean, maintain, order and basically look after the Lego. Like an obsessed Lego person. There would be lots of swings of different kinds, like hammocks and net swings and so on. Kids could go off and read in a hammock. There'd be small groups for teaching, you'd have a mentor who'd chat to you about your area of interest. There'd be a great library (masked indoors) and parents could borrow from it too. Teachers would be encouraged to follow their own interests and go down rabbit trails, and have a mentor as well to chat with. There'd be elders who didn't want to do so much teaching but would be good mentors. In terms of inclusivity, there'd be an early intervention program which would start from babyhood in supporting families to support their kids, and slowly include kids into programs until the school was familiar and accepting. Teachers would not be expected to put up with having chairs thrown at them (etc). There would be a behaviour team. There would be proper instruments available so kids could learn an instrument and they would be encouraged to practice at school rather than at home, ie there would be practice time built in each day, preferably with a music person (say a student teacher) helping. (Because I now know how to play violin, piano, guitar, recorder, ukelele, as it's expected if your kid learns an instrument, you're 'teaching' them at home as well . . . I feel like that excludes a lot of kids/families from learning an instrument). Practical skills like changing a tyre, how to access a doctor, how to budget, what to do about tax, would be 'taught' at the level of the child - so older kids, basic for some kids and more complex for other kids. There'd be the sense that you came out of school with some sort of skill. There'd be awesome excursions to museums, to the beach, overseas if that was possible . . . we saw a bunch of young British students in Sydney this week which was cool! There'd be no uniform but some rules about what you couldn't wear (eg rude words on shirts). Philosophy would be interest-led, teaching children how to own their own learning, so they feel confident to learn what they need to know. And family-centred, so the family is a team. Dissing families would be simply unacceptable (I had a workplace where it was just not done to criticise a family, and I can tell you, it was fantastic. Less stressful and far more useful to think "how does X need help?" rather than "Doesn't X suck!") Technology wise - I feel like phones everywhere are such a danger. I don't know the answer though. So that's my thoughts today!

Absolutely. I'll also add that many in the govt/society see school as a service to the economy (keeping children minded so the adults can work and buy and keep the money flowing) and not as a service to the children who are humans in their own right, not just 'potential workers'. I hear a lot of people who want school to be run for long hours, like long daycare 6.30am to 6.30pm, to make it easier for workers. I hear this from parents as well as govt (our premier, for example). And even if that happened, I can tell you parents would still be expected to do a lot (and blamed for everything). I worked with one child who was absolutely lovely, highly gifted, and very, very difficult in the classroom due to undiagnosed adhd. I can't imagine that hitting him would make him better; equally, if I'd had him 5 days a week I would've gone insane.

This was happening until Covid - parent volunteers weren't allowed in after that - not sure about now. I went in twice a week when my son was in K and ran one of the maths groups and worked on reading with individual struggling kids - they knew I was a teacher so took advantage of it! It seems that corporal punishment is still technically legal in QLD private schools, looking at the law, but I don't know if it happens (and it's not recorded, so neither does anyone else). Laws banning corporal punishment began from 1989 up to 2015, depending on the state, mostly to ensure private schools were included. It's illegal federally in early childhood settings.

So the leaders didn't even show up. Long story but anyway I won't be the only parent writing emails. I read an interesting article about allergies reducing the risk of getting covid, up to 50% for food allergies, 35% for stuff like asthma and eczema. Got allergies? You could be at lower risk of catching COVID (theconversation.com) Also read that some guy picked up Monkeypox, HIV and Covid all from the one encounter. First case of monkeypox virus, SARS-CoV-2 and HIV co-infection - Journal of Infection The man was also still infectious for monkeypox long after symptoms had subsided.

Argh. When we joined scouts this year we explained we were covid cautious, told no problem at all, their policy was 100% outdoors. Tonight they're meeting at a Pizza Hut for dinner. Not outdoors (I know the store, no outdoor dining), and really? Not healthy. Not why we joined. And if I don't let them go, they let others down (we give a lift to one girl, plus apparently this is all towards a 'planning an outing as a patrol then doing it' badge). Everytime something like this happens, it's another stress. Already stressed about the stuff we can't help like medical visits, prob an upcoming hospital visit. Adding stuff like this is stressful because somehow we're the bad guys who don't want kids to have fun.

No idea, but in Australia we have writing association which runs courses on publishing in each area - so romance writing, mystery writing, YA books, picture books. There are state and national associations. Maybe look for something like that where you live?

Makes me think of the Cavafy "Waiting for the Barbarians" poem. People start by freaking out, but then: " Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution.

That whole situation sounds really hard esp for people who already are struggling. I have to say Australia does have issues with GPs in rural area and at the moment there are a lot of Drs who charge money on top of the govt payment which can be a huge disincentive to people. There's been a lot of media about it recently and hopefully the govt will step up and increase the payment. It is odd that in one practice I've never had to pay at all, while at the other I'll have to pay $100. But the second one is my nice female Dr who I'll visit once or twice a year, she takes her time and is lovely. The other place, the guy is great, but super quick and pushes you out within 10mins so he can get the next person through. So we go there if we're sick and need a prescription or whatever.

Absolutely.

Caught the train to the city today - definitely noticed that coughing people were less likely to wear masks. It's mandatory on public transport but maybe a quarter in masks and mostly surgical. Read that Australia will soon be hitting ten million total cases and fourteen thousand total deaths since 2020. I think those numbers would have utterly shocked people in 2020 but now? Flu numbers, by the way, would be less than 500 deaths over the same period. Struggling with the Flo Mask, by the way - it really is difficult to wear with glasses. I am saving it for high risk situations and wearing usual N95s otherwise.

See if you can find a really nice female Dr (ask on your local FB groups) and it is a good experience, you feel like you've ticked stuff off your list, and mine at least always congratulates me on stuff. I'm overweight and she's never been awful about it, in fact she enjoys discussing peer-reviewed studies with me lol.

I'd say at least a quarter of people ignore our 'closed' sign. I had a few walk-ins at first, now I double-check it's latched properly. I wouldn't overthink it, just one of those things that happens with people, for people are weird.

Yes, I've had blood pressure and blood sugar checked each year at my Dr, but I don't get reminders - when I visited this year, she pointed out that I hadn't done it since 2020, although I was sure I had. On the other hand, my husband never visits the Dr unless he basically needs the hospital (last 2 times that's what's happened). But I've accepted that I can't make him do it. He hasn't got his 4th Covid booster yet either, although he said if he need surgery for his latest 'need hospital' thing, he'll get it. I feel like it's pretty selfish not to take care of your health, but basically I've accepted that there's nothing I can do about it.

I wanted to try stand up paddleboarding for years - and then I gave it a go and loved it. We own an inflatable one and an inflatable kayak, so we can each take a kid with us. I prefer paddleboarding because I find it really meditative. It can be a bit of a pain having to inflate/deflate the paddleboard all the time but that's the only downside. NB I am overweight and uncoordinated and I can stand-up paddleboard, could do it from the beginning.

Oh, fair enough. I assume that'd be the case here, although I got a new asthma preventer med from a random Dr. But she did examine me and I needed it.

but how does that work - you've got to start somewhere, right? Do you mean they can't treat them if they haven't had a physical? Anyway, definitely not the law in Australia. You can go to any doctor you want, if they have a space, and they'll treat you. There are some doctors who won't take on new patients because they're busy, I hear about issues in certain areas of Australia where people struggle to find a GP, but I have been to a lot of different doctors in my local area without problem. If my kids are sick, I can get in that day to someone, even if my usual Dr is busy.

Australia here - I go get blood tests each year (for Vit D, cholesterol, iron and blood count) and the Dr will check my blood pressure, ask a few questions about any bodily changes since last time. I don't think I've ever had my reflexes checked though. She'd only check my ears if I had an earache; I see the optometrist each year who does a full on eye check, and I go to the skin Dr to get my skin checked.