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Should long-time homeschoolers help crisis schoolers?


Sarah0000
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No one has asked my advice, so I'm not offering it. The seeming abundance of advice (maybe this is just confirmation bias since I am in the homeschooling word?) directed toward crisis schoolers makes me cringe, although I am not exactly sure why. It just seems a bit presumptive? Part of it is that in our public school district, all the kids seem to have been sent home with an inordinate amount of work, so parents are just scrambling to keep up. No one in my area is trying to find curriculum or asking for help in structuring their day.

I have had quite a few friends texting me "I don't know how you do this" type things. I was just telling my husband yesterday that I think homeschoolers are going to come out of this a lot worse, socially. Like before, people thought I was weird but also didn't think too much about it? But now, everyone has *experience* and knows for certain I am weird. And probably has an opinion on my capability to do what I am doing as well... 

I am very introverted, so personally I am not looking forward to the all the "what? you are homeschooling?? I tried that and hated it!" conversations with random people. 😉 Could be wrong though!

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7 hours ago, KrissiK said:

A teacher friend of mind said the packets they are giving out are all review. They cannot move forward with new material.  I think what I don’t understand how it’s all going to work out is high school. I have high schoolers in my roster taking Edgenuity, or other online classes and for them, it’s business as usual.  They are expected to finish the course, and they will complete all the coursework for that class. But kid who go to a public B&m school....there is no accountability. A kid on an on-line school will have completed the required coursework for those 5 credits, but the other one.... do they get 3 credits for what they completed before the shutdown? How does that work?

Why do you think there is no accountability? My public schooled high school junior has a TON of schoolwork everyday. Essentially he has to teach himself (4 of his classes are APS, so yeah, not easy) plus do the required work. He has deadlines, the work is graded.  I’m not sure why you think it would be otherwise? 
 

eta: none of his classes are “review”. They are still covering new information until it’s time to review for the AP exams, as it would be in a normal year.

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Even though I have homeschool for years, this is the first time I am homeschooling while my husband is working from home for weeks and having conference calls throughout the day. Our walls aren’t soundproof even with the room door shut and so my teens have to be quieter than usual. So it’s a totally different scenario than when someone suddenly switch to homeschooling due to bullying or medical reasons. We are lucky my husband gets paid while working from home or it would be a different kind of crisis homeschooling with the crisis more on the financial and health insurance aspects. 

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27 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Why do you think there is no accountability? My public schooled high school junior has a TON of schoolwork everyday. Essentially he has to teach himself (4 of his classes are APS, so yeah, not easy) plus do the required work. He has deadlines, the work is graded.  I’m not sure why you think it would be otherwise? 
 

eta: none of his classes are “review”. They are still covering new information until it’s time to review for the AP exams, as it would be in a normal year.

 

Totally depends on the area. In my district, the teachers were specifically told NOT to give out any additional work or assignments, only the rudimentary sheets from the district were allowed. (literally two-three pages with suggested activities for each grade). We really got lucky b/c DD's teachers this term already had active Google classrooms with all the work laid out. DS got 3-test prep questions a day for math, a 15 minute reading mandate, and a choose your own adventure writing exercise. That's it. I am teaching online from 5a-9a every morning and then teaching DS math, civics, English and science from 10-2 with a break for lunch. Then sewing masks. Then fixing dinner. Then teaching online from 8:30-9:30 at night. Then getting up the next day and doing it all over again. It's not easy.

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9 hours ago, SKL said:

Should farmers help suddenly hungry people?

Should doctors help people who usually self-treat at home?

Should public schools help former homeschoolers who send their kids to school?

I think people should help whom they can to the extent they can.  Obviously that is going to look different for different families.



LOL, I think if any of them find themselves in a catastrophic moment in which they are able to help their neighbor? Heck yeah, they should!

 I'm not going to any person's house, but I will definitely post links, talk it through, help anyone who needs or wants it.  Thus far, judging from tagged FB posts, I've provided necessary and important counsel...   🙈  I got tagged the first Monday in a "the first thing to do as a homeschool mom is start the coffee" post, LOL.  

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7 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

I told a friend that the biggest difference between us as homeschoolers vs. Homebound public schoolers is choice

Not just that we chose homeschooling (which is totally relevant because when everything isnt working I can fall back on "Why did we choose this? What are my goals?)

But also that we chose the curriculum. We chose our schedule. We decided that this math is better for us as a unit (not just is it better for my student but does it have the resources I want to be successful at helping my kid, etc.). We decide "nope that isnt working, let's do something else" or "math has been an hour long battle today- let's set it aside and come back tomorrow". They may or may not have those choices depending on the type of distance learning they are doing. 

Homebound schooling is a really weird mix of things that the teachers haven't totally figured out, either. So be patient with them. Be patient with your kids. Step away from extra workbooks and try some connecting and learning activities (play a game, read together, watch a documentary, whatever) in your non-school time

 

Yup.

I've posted an offer to help if anyone wants supplements or alternatives to what the public school is handing out (in some areas in my state it is just some worksheets, and my neighbors haven't gotten anything yet). I've also said that this is NOT homeschooling - as homeschoolers we can pick what curriculum we want, we can ease in at the beginning of the year, and we get the teacher's manual!

 

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1 hour ago, MEmama said:

Why do you think there is no accountability? My public schooled high school junior has a TON of schoolwork everyday. Essentially he has to teach himself (4 of his classes are APS, so yeah, not easy) plus do the required work. He has deadlines, the work is graded.  I’m not sure why you think it would be otherwise? 
 

eta: none of his classes are “review”. They are still covering new information until it’s time to review for the AP exams, as it would be in a normal year.

Here teachers were told they aren’t allowed to assign any required work and no grades given until they returned to school.  Now school is cancelled for the rest of the year (in VA).  Our public schools are highly rated with AP, IB, Biotech, Governor’s programs.  Not sure if they are going to change the original plan.  I think students will be finding out what is what next week.

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My kids definitely have assigned work every day.  It takes one of my kids maybe an hour to finish all of it, and the other kid is lucky to finish by midnight.  Part of it is the difference in their ability and interest levels for academic work, part is because yes, I am allowing them to play around with their screens (which they need to do their homework and which I can't stare at all day on top of doing my own work).

Call me what you want, but I am not in a mental or physical position to give my kids a terrific education right now.  I'm glad the school is giving them work.  And the work is incremental to what they have learned in school.  They are moving forward in the math book, and today they finished their science projects demonstrating energy transformation.  They have the standard assignments for spelling, literature, Spanish, art, music, a PE log, and I know they have had graded quizzes in history, science, and math at least.  They have writing assignments daily about religion and current events.  Grades are being recorded.  I am not sure if the work is more or less than what they do at school.  (I don't even get to see most of it - which is also true of what happens when they are physically at school.)

I had thought of a couple questions to ask on here about some things, but I decided this is not the time to try to get fancy about education.  What their "school at home" lacks in educational brilliance, it makes up by teaching my kids to self-manage their work load, stress, boredom, and other things.  It reminds me of how summer vacation was when I was a kid, but with more academics.😛

I should add that I had already intended to use the summer for strongly reinforcing math, writing, and grammar as well as sending my kids to some great science-related summer camps.  I still plan to do that if it works out.  I will have more control over their overall workload at that point.

 

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So, so, so many people on my Twitter feed and FB are posting silly stuff about how their "homeschooling" is going. Just jokes really, like how their kids are in detention so mommy can watch a movie or whatever. I think it's rubbing a lot of homeschoolers the wrong way, and here in particular, traditional public schoolers are mad about the things charter schoolers spend charter funds on. So between the two things I think some folks are getting mad now that so many people are suddenly asking for advice about what to do for their kids' education. Probably the people truly worried about their kids' education are not the ones who behaved poorly towards us in the past...probably? 

And our local schools handed out computers to every single student to take home to do schoolwork. After all the fuss over the charter funds spent on charter schoolers. 

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I homeschooled my older two through high school, and now I have a 10th grade "crisis schooler". This is our second major interruption of high school, actually, as we had a significant earthquake last year.

I offer advice on homeschooling all the time, but this current situation is not homeschooling for most people. The kids have assignments from their teachers and Zoom meetings. The parents are not the teachers here.

I've seen some shared posts from (usually young) homeschoolers offering inspirational-type advice, but it seems a little silly to me, albeit well-meaning.

A teacher friend did talk about how she was homeschooling her own two teens plus a full classroom of homebound kids, so there definitely are people using the term for what is going on now.

As far as my Crisis Schooler, I'm letting her handle it for the most part. I get a lot of e mails from teachers but she is getting the same e mails and seems to be reading and acting on them. Our district is slow to get going, but distance learning is supposed to start next week. If she needs something, I will do what I can, but plan to be mostly uninvolved. I *did* tell her to do some PSAT/SAT prep now while she has downtime, and have encouraged daily physical exercise. She's rediscovered art, which I am thrilled about, and hope that she does a lot of that during this time.

My college student is a couple thousand miles away doing her distance ed at her sister's home. There were a few parents on the college's parent page asking for homeschool advice for their college student. I don't even know what to say about that. 😉

 

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I much prefer answering questions and providing possible help to people on a format like this board where people can outline their situation and can ask specific questions.  Multiple people can answer and the OP can choose what things to try. In person help is often messy. People often want you to just do it for them instead of wanting advice on how to do it themselves. Plus, you just don’t have the objectivity or the multiple points of view to compare. 

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I haven’t seen any hostility.  The local group did start redirecting people to a Facebook page specifically for Covid schoolers because it became to hard to find info about whether usual meetups were cancelled etc due to the hundreds of new people looking for info.

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I have seen a few people saying “this isn’t real home schooling”. I don’t think they’re being hostile they are just pointing out there’s a big difference to planning out your kids education for the long haul versus monitoring your kids using resources provided by the school or education department for a few weeks.

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If someone asked me, I'd be happy to help (obviously it would be via telephone or email or FaceTime or whatever).  But, I honestly don't know of anyone looking for help.  Aren't public school students still doing their public school curriculum or following their public school guidelines, just at home?  That's my understanding.  I haven't seen any heated exchanges between public schoolers and homeschoolers either.

If public schoolers want to call themselves homeschoolers during this period -- whatever.  Of course we know it isn't actually homeschooling, but to them it feels like it.  I don't mind -- it's only temporary.

I guess the one way it might occur to me to help really doesn't have to do with my having homeschooled my kids at all.  But for example, the other day I overheard someone saying their high school dd who was now trying to keep up with her French at home was really struggling, plus she was bored.  I thought that if I had known her, I'd see if my dd (going to grad school in France but temporarily on-hold with that during the coronavirus) might be interested in having Skype-chats in French with her, or something like that.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Patty Joanna said:

Schools in our area got called off a couple of weeks ago, until April 24.  I will not be the slightest bit surprised if it is called off until September.

If I had a K-8 kid in public school at this point (and maybe K-10), I would officially withdraw for the rest of the school year, and *homeschool* (not distance-learn).  I would make the bet that the time we could spend in homeschool with traction will have a better result than in the "wait and see" distance learning.  Then, in September, enroll again (or not).  

Kids going back to school in late April, for 6 weeks, after a hiatus?  No traction there.  Let it be an adventure!  Ask for all the help you can get! Do something you can NEVER EVER do again!  Make it an opportunity instead of a trial.  

I am watching three families from my parish do exactly this--making it an adventure--and they are having a blast.  I am so happy for them!  Even without fancy field trips, they are finding ways to connect, to learn in ways they have not been able to in the past, to try new things...and really, they are accelerating their academic, as well.  

That said, I really do feel for those for whom this is a financial disaster, or a stretch of doing double duty (working from home AND teaching my kids).  Choice makes a big difference...but so does attitude.  

That's what I would do as well, and I AM seeing people do that. I'm also seeing a lot of posts (multiple ones a day in homeschool groups) of people that planned to start homeschooling next year, and this was the incentive to start now. 

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11 hours ago, mlktwins said:

Here teachers were told they aren’t allowed to assign any required work and no grades given until they returned to school.  Now school is cancelled for the rest of the year (in VA).  Our public schools are highly rated with AP, IB, Biotech, Governor’s programs.  Not sure if they are going to change the original plan.  I think students will be finding out what is what next week.

Even for high school? I mean, how will the kids be ready for the AP tests if they haven’t covered the material? I know the format has changed, but if teachers aren’t getting their students through the required chapters/skills, what then?
 

Maybe they have already have covered the essentials in your area? Schools in my state don’t start until after a Labor Day, several weeks after some other states. As a result, new material for the APS still has to be covered through at least the end of the third quarter.

I totally get just doing review for the younger grades, but high school has different consequences (not that I’m insinuating you make the rules! Lol. I’m genuinely curious about how this ordeal is going to play out for college bound students). 

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3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Even for high school? I mean, how will the kids be ready for the AP tests if they haven’t covered the material? I know the format has changed, but if teachers aren’t getting their students through the required chapters/skills, what then?
 

Maybe they have already have covered the essentials in your area? Schools in my state don’t start until after a Labor Day, several weeks after some other states. As a result, new material for the APS still has to be covered through at least the end of the third quarter.

I totally get just doing review for the younger grades, but high school has different consequences (not that I’m insinuating you make the rules! Lol. I’m genuinely curious about how this ordeal is going to play out for college bound students). 


Yes, even for high school. My DDs classes typically require EOC exams. There is no instruction happening. My DS, while a 6th grader, is doing pre-A light. Also, no instruction or grading is happening. Our schools weren’t scheduled to be out until mid-June and we have a block schedule so DD received two and a half months of instruction for a year-long course.

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It is my understanding that the AP test has been shortened to only cover the material that you should have learned through March.

I think the AP tests for the year are not going to have much meaning- and definitely some colleges will not accept them. The disruption to education is very much not equal and, as always, poor kids and struggling districts are falling behind.

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I would help anyone who asked for help whether they are homeschoolers or have kids home due to the current crisis. I would not give unsolicited advice. My sister asked for some suggestions which I provided. I don't have any kids learning at home anymore but, throughout my homeschooling years, never experienced anything negative from people with kids in school. 

When my boys were in public high school, AP courses ran in the fall semester (block schedule with half courses half the year and the other courses the second half) and they had an AP "study hall" the second half of the year so all material was covered in the first half.

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19 minutes ago, MysteryJen said:

It is my understanding that the AP test has been shortened to only cover the material that you should have learned through March.

I think the AP tests for the year are not going to have much meaning- and definitely some colleges will not accept them. The disruption to education is very much not equal and, as always, poor kids and struggling districts are falling behind.

Idk about colleges not accepting them. Have you seen anything about that? My DS is wanting to keep as up to date as possible (more info helps his anxiety). It seems that would only punish the students who have no control over how the tests are administered, or how much material their teachers have bothered to teach them. Although, the requirements are on the college board, so theoretically they can teach themselves.
Totally agree with the bolded. It seems this will affect education for years to come. 😞


 

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5 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I have seen a few people saying “this isn’t real home schooling”. I don’t think they’re being hostile they are just pointing out there’s a big difference to planning out your kids education for the long haul versus monitoring your kids using resources provided by the school or education department for a few weeks.

That's exactly it.

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1 hour ago, MEmama said:

Even for high school? I mean, how will the kids be ready for the AP tests if they haven’t covered the material? I know the format has changed, but if teachers aren’t getting their students through the required chapters/skills, what then?
 

Maybe they have already have covered the essentials in your area? Schools in my state don’t start until after a Labor Day, several weeks after some other states. As a result, new material for the APS still has to be covered through at least the end of the third quarter.

I totally get just doing review for the younger grades, but high school has different consequences (not that I’m insinuating you make the rules! Lol. I’m genuinely curious about how this ordeal is going to play out for college bound students). 

Yes, for all right now - even high school.  Mine are home so I don't know how much has been covered yet.  They start the week before labor day.  A lot of my neighborhood goes to the 4 schools for AP, IB, Governor's school.  Some teachers are giving review stuff on-line, etc., but no new material.  Some are taking the time to study for the SAT.

I totally get what you are saying!!!  I'm just telling you how it is here.  A lot of my neighborhood FB friends are chillin with their high schoolers in these programs!

ETA:  I wrote this on an earlier post, the county next to us has called it for all seniors in good standing as of March 13th.  So...they will all receive diplomas without any further work if they were in good standing before they closed.

 

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1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

I think they should just try to enjoy themselves and assume that this IS their summer vacation. My money is on kids going to school through most of the summer to correct for time off now.  

Are any school systems saying that is a likelihood?

Here they are definitely not planning to extend school into summer - hence online schooling.  I think it might be partly because the schools are not air conditioned.  Our system even takes days off in the fall if it's too hot out.

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I think many colleges were moving away from giving credit for AP exams before this. The inequality between districts was fairly invisible so it was easier to ignore. 
Now district/school inequality is so visible- I just can't imagine an argument that everyone had equal access or opportunity for a decent score this year.

So I do think colleges will have to look at this.

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I think this question will settle out by July. 

Our local school system is closed until 1 June.  The school year usually runs until the first week of June, so I don't know if they'll go back until after summer break.  The teachers are all teaching online, and trying to calibrate the load for families. Everybody is trying really hard. 

I think that if (God forbid it comes to this) they don't go back on time in the fall, we'll have a bunch more real homeschoolers. This school-online business is hard for everyone. I think they'll withdraw their kids and take control.  But as long as they expect the school to reopen in a few months, their main goal is to comply and keep up. 

When all this first flared up, several moms joined our online homeschool group because they didn't like how the school was handling it. We all jumped to help them find curricula, but they didn't seem to know what they wanted, so we backed off.

I don't think they'll actually homeschool in the long run.  But we'll see! 

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Nope. Because they aren’t homeschoolers.  Most home schoolers aren’t even home schooling like nothing is going on right now.

If pressed my advice is to relax about the schooling. Let them do whatever online if the school says they have to bc it’s mostly about the comfort of hearing or seeing the familiar than the academics. If the school isn’t requiring that, then let it go. Fall and schools will return eventually.

 

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On 3/26/2020 at 12:36 PM, Arcadia said:

My friend uses Khan but she is a SAHM and only need to park herself next to her high school kid to monitor his usage. Some families here have no one free to monitor computer usage and kids are pretty savvy at getting around parental controls. Textbooks and worksheets are easier to keep an eye on while a parent is on conference call. 

Ah, yes, I have one of those kids. Two to three layers of parental controls are PITA. 

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18 hours ago, Sarah0000 said:

 

And our local schools handed out computers to every single student to take home to do schoolwork. After all the fuss over the charter funds spent on charter schoolers. 

Our school district handed out loaner computers only to those who need it. Not enough to go round. Even the free school lunches being given out are lower in quality compared to neighboring districts. People here are still thinking that charter schools are taking away the best students from public schools and those who can’t get a seat in charter schools are going to private schools. 

Schooling at home is making people I know looking forward to school reopening. School closed on March 16th and shelter in place started on March 17th for my county and five others. There is no childcare provided for healthcare workers so the nurses I know have to rely on grandparents or siblings as their spouses are working too. 

https://abc7.com/business/ca-unemployment-claims-surge-to-highest-numbers-in-decades/6053102/

The state saw nearly 187,000 unemployment filings during the third week of the month, ending March 21. That's more than triple the number from the week before and nearly five times the number in the same week last year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's weekly unemployment insurance data.”

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5 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

Nope. Because they aren’t homeschoolers.  Most home schoolers aren’t even home schooling like nothing is going on right now.

If pressed my advice is to relax about the schooling. Let them do whatever online if the school says they have to bc it’s mostly about the comfort of hearing or seeing the familiar than the academics. If the school isn’t requiring that, then let it go. Fall and schools will return eventually.

 

I told my neighbors who admitted they did nothing school related yesterday and instead cleaned out the garage as a family that it was all good. 10 years from now it won't matter if they skipped a math worksheet, but they will remember this time together forever. Both parents are home - one laid off, one now doing school online - and I reminded them that they will probably never get this much time together as a family again - enjoy it and don't feel guilty. 

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"Crisis schoolers" are not home schoolers. What they are experiencing right now has nothing to do with home schooling. They are not picking books, going to activities, organizing field trips, etc. I am still paying a ton of tax dollars to educate their children (and they are paying nothing toward mine). If anything, "crisis schooling" is going to make home schooling seem way worse than they already think it is. My money, the money I forcibly pay to educate their children are now paying for them to have hot spots. My money already paid for their ipads, Macbooks, and everything else I have funded for them. None of these things are available to home schooled children. They don't need my advice, they are still in public school mode. They are getting their lessons from their teachers, that I paid for. They are getting their internet and their computers, that I paid for. They are still in public school mode and still making posts online, where their kids will either see now or will see some day, about how miserable it is to be stuck spending time with their children. I saw a meme today about how if school is called off much longer, parents will come up with a vaccination. These attitudes against their own children affect them. 

IF a former public schooled parent wanted to home school, not just have their children home during the quarantine, I would happily help. But "crisis schoolers" are not home schoolers and they generally don't want our advice. Home schooling does not apply to this.

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If asked, I  would help where I could but am not offering unsolicited advice.......except to my sister. She has three kids suddenly at home while she’s also trying to work from home. She was frustrated with not being able to stick to the schedule she made. She shared it with me and it was super detailed and taken from a public school classroom schedule. I suggested that since her home isn’t a school, they may feel less frustrated trying to stick to a more general routine rather than a highly detailed rigid schedule. 

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I started a Facebook group for this very thing.  It's  called Temporary Homeschoolers.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/temphomeschoolers/

I invited experienced homeschoolers to join the group who were willing to help folks who have been thrown into this, due to current circumstances.

The group has grown a lot, and I believe is a positive resource for everyone.

My philosophy is that folks who are schooling at home right now are going to call themselves homeschoolers.  They don't know any different.  So, this is an opportunity to show them a little about what homeschooling truly is.  We've been able to calm a lot of frazzled nerves, and help folks understand they won't ruin their kids.  We've encouraged a lot of deschooling and taking the opportunity to focus on non-traditional education, since many schools haven't provided full curriculum yet, and probably will not be able to for some time due to equal access issues.  

I know this is not "real"  committed homeschooling in most cases.  But I see no reason to be antagonistic and divisive.  I'd rather extend a helping hand in this extraordinary time.  The vast majority of folks will probably return to public schools when they reopen, but if they can go back with some homeschooling myths dispelled and a new respect or appreciation for homeschoolers, it will be worth the effort.  

This situation has also caused A LOT of folks who were already on the fence about homeschooling to decide to give it a go.  So, we've been able to share various resources with them as well, and answer a lot of genuine new homeschooler questions.  We've also been able to share with them that this, crisis homeschooling, or isolation homeschooling, is not representative of how homeschooling looks for most of us.   

So, that's my perspective.   I certainly don't feel that all homeschoolers are obligated to help in this way.  It's just my little way of doing what I can to help my neighbors in this awful time.       

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I feel like what I offer is what I would offer before the pandemic. If someone asks, I’m happy to offer advice/resources appropriate to what they are asking. 

I do a monthly article for our office for a newsletter. Usually it’s recommended books. This past month I did a list of educational resources for people that might be looking at learning at home given the pandemic. I tried to list things that are free and not a full curriculum. 

The way the question was worded was “should” we help. I don’t think we are obligated to somehow go out and set up training programs for people who are suddenly homeschooling. Or to set up Zoom calls to counsel them (I think the person doing that in this thread is really awesome....but I don’t think it’s a “should” for everyone). But I can’t imagine not answering a question if asked in a way that was actually helpful and not something like “well, since you aren’t a real homeschooler, I can’t help you.” 

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So far i've had two people reach out to me. They both were asking for enrichment activities. I gave them a bunch of age appropriate free resources. I understand that they are not homeschooling. I am not recommending currirculum or teaching methods or even planning resources. This is a temporary set-back, not a life change. 

More often, I am offering support and encouragement and reassurance that what they are doing is NOT what we usually do. That this situation is hard. That it is easier for me than it is for them. Most of the complaints I have heard are from people who are now trying to work full time from home without childcare. Or who are out of work, home with thier kids with no resources. One mom said she doesn't even own a computer and now her kid has to do online school. She is not prepared. That's hard. 

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I know some people have said they see new families who have been forced into crisis schooling decide to take the plunge into homeschooling. I've seen that too. But I'm a little concerned that there will be a backlash against homeschooling when all this is over because so many families will have experience what they *think* is homeschooling in an environment of chaos and stress. I do think it's important offer support while reminding people that crisis schooling is not homeschooling.

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4 hours ago, StellaM said:

 But I can’t imagine not answering a question if asked in a way that was actually helpful and not something like “well, since you aren’t a real homeschooler, I can’t help you.” 

I don't think anyone here would say that.

I will say that public schoolers are not beating down my door for advice on how to do public school at home - even though, actually, dd2 did public school from home for 5 years! So even when you have relevant advice, it's not being sought out here. I think because parents are relying on the school system and the teachers to give them guidance. Which is fine. And how it should be, most likely. 99/9% of kids at home will not be at home for the long term. Most of them will return to school as soon as it's safe to do so, so they should really keep those ties with institutional schooling and teachers going.

I too doubt that anyone would refuse an outright request for help. But often times people mistake complaining and venting as asking for advice, when really the person just wants to vent and doesn't really want advice on how to fix it.  This isn't so much my personal approach, but I have seen it over and over again.  It's not that I never vent, but once I've vented, I tend to go into actual fix-it mode but many people don't want to expend the energy to actually fix it.

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I wouldn't say "I cant help you, you're not a real homeschooler" buy I would say "my experience as a homeschooler may not apply well to your current homebound situation, as its all so different. Our regular homeschooling experience doesn't involve a stay at home order and a frustrated teacher trying to figure out a brand new technology while he/she is also in an unprecedented situation. So take what I say with a grain of salt."

 

Today my FIL offended the crap out of my 15 year old by saying that his cousin is "starting virtual homeschooling, but you already do that" ... my teen then explained that he does NOT do virtual schooling and basically that homeschooling allows him to fly (planes) and they're crazy if they think it's the same, it isnt even the same for him since he cant fly lol 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I gave advice, unsolicited advice no less, to my church’s Women’s Facebook group.  There were so many panicked posts from moms whose kids were suddenly home.  Because there was such a wide variety in school response from packets & assignments right away, to radio silence while the school district figures out distance learning to “nothing you do or don’t do will change your grade,”. The parents were freaking out.  If I can alleviate some of that stress and anxiety, I am going to do it.

 I encouraged routines over schedules.

I shared the myriad of websites that offer great educational resources that are open & go, like museums, aquariums, virtual tours of state parks, nature documentaries that have guided notes, worksheets or other 

I shared YouTube channels (CrashCourse I love you) and the study guides I have made to go with them.

 I recommended read-alouds, nature studies, journaling and poetry tea parties.

 I have recommended online resources for keeping up with foreign language skills.

 I told everyone to read Story of the World!  

These parents are getting a peep into homeschooling.  Just a little narrow glimpse the way that babysitting as a teen gives you a little peek into parenting.  Some of them might love it, some of them might hate it.  I don’t care if they call themselves homeschoolers.  I know the difference.

Sharing what I know is my way of being helpful.  I can’t sew masks or anything else useful, but I can try to alleviate some of the stress around at home education.

Amber in SJ

edited to add:  I am posting from my iPad because one of my children is Zoom-ing a dance class.  I am not responsible for all of that whacked out punctuation and sentence structure.   

 

Edited by Amber in SJ
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