My School Expanded

 This summer, when it became apparent that public schools were not going to open in person, I was convinced that my school house was full. But then there was the afternoon that I was on the mower and God pointed out to me that, in fact, I was being selfish and there was room for two more in my school house. Renee and Lydia, my nieces. The option for them was to spend the day sitting socially distanced in a classroom with a handful of other staff children--doing their online work alone and twiddling their thumbs in the afternoon. That does not sound like a happy month! We finished week one at Carla's Academy last week and I think it's safe to say that they had a happy week. 

With Janell's permission to share my stories, I'm going to document this four week journey because I want to remember how I didn't think I could do this, how I have a group of friends and family that support me, how Mom and I worked together and how crazy this whole beginning to school year 20-21 is. 

There were a couple reasons that I wanted to Renee and Lydia to come to my house every day and not be split up between multiple locations. I thought that it would be easiest if one person (besides Janell) figured out the school platform and took responsibility for and I wanted the girls to have a school routine. My request was that my Mom would help me on the days that she would have kept Renee and Lydia at her house. Mom was more than happy to do that!

Renee is independent. She does her work alone and I really don't interfere. I check in with her but she doesn't ask me questions and always assures me that she is fine. Her teacher seems to have a way of organizing the day's work that Renee can follow. 

Lydia's teacher uploads the week's work in one long mostly unorganized list. Each day I go through the list and compile the next day's work in a list. If it doesn't help Lydia, it sure helps me know what needs to get done!

Typing is time consuming for Lydia. As much as I can, I type what she dictates. In math, she has to enter the answers in a separate document than the worksheet. It is cumbersome to switch back and forth between tabs for every problem. What 9 year old has the attention span for that? Another major roadblock for success is that often maps and graphs do not fit on the screen in a size that is readable.

And then there was this Social Studies project. My student was not interested. It was a pain to navigate on the screen. I let her submit a half hearted effort--and she got 100/100. I know that not every answer was correct. Could the teacher leave a note for the parent when we don't have to try, please?

On Thursday morning Renee opened up her computer to find that all of her work from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday had been deleted. That created an avalanche of emotions. Ultimately we found out that her teacher had made a mistake and had deleted her work. Thankfully her teacher was reasonable and did not require her to redo the work. 

All the weird Google Classroom things aside, I think they are living their best school life for right now. The weather has been just gorgeous and every morning all of the children are outside playing before we start school and at lunchtime and after they finish their work.

This is all in addition to keeping my own four students going on their work. I feel like Anna is the one getting the last bit of me. Mom was here 2 days last week. She helps with the housework and usually at least one child with schoolwork. 

Last week went better than I could have hoped. I felt more tired than I imagined I would. I struggled with math as much as I thought I would. I hope these kiddos felt as loved and cared for as they are.