Done, Week One

School officially started this last week. It's all online, which considering our present circumstances is good. Had it been in-person I would have continued with homeschooling. My only other experience with online public school is from when the lock-down first happened, this last March through May. I was less than impressed and took advantage of the online resources that were made available because of the lock-down to provide Hulk with a more meaningful scholastic experience. When deciding what to do for this next school year I was optimistic that the previous experience was a result of the suddenness of the stay-at-home order and that since the school system had had all summer to prepare things would be better.

They are and they aren't. Hulk's second grade teacher has spent this last week reviewing letter sounds and numbers. This is frustrating because, by second grade, the majority (if not all) of the students in the class should be reading and doing math. If she wants to review, go over sight words and simple addition/subtraction (like 1+1). So I feel it's a waste of Hulk's time to sit there and sound out letters. He seems bored. There is also a plethora of emails - Hulk has six teachers. His has his regular second grade teacher then there's a teacher for music, gym, art, media, and a counselor. All of these people have assignments for him to do. In some cases he needs to use several different web sources. I feel like he's started college.  But I'm the one that's exhausted from trying to keep track of everything.

Every night we go through this slew of information together to make sure he hasn't missed any assignments, I write down what he needs to do and then he checks it off when finished. For kids who don't have parents or guardians able or willing to do that for them I imagine this online system of schooling is overwhelming. The homework that his teacher gives is too easy for him (he has told me this himself, gleefully, which was his mistake). So when I write out what he needs to do I make it more challenging. For example: instead of writing four sentences about his first week of school, he needs to write six. Instead of listing ten nouns, he needs to list twenty. Etc.

Fortunately school is only three hours a day, though he probably spends about that same amount of time each day doing the homework assignments. Because school is half day (and when he does his homework is flexible) this gives us freedom to do things as a family - like the zoo or museums. I also signed Hulk up for a bunch of free online classes that the Cincinnati Observatory is hosting for kids. Also, his online schooling is only four days a week. This gives an extra day to catch up on homework and I plan to create a special weekly Spanish curriculum for us to do on his off day. So it's not all bad. 

At the end of the week we decided to stay home, slow down, and have a tea party. Viking Girl had been requesting one all week but we'd been too busy with Hulk's school work.

And I'm pretty sure the only reason Hulk came to the party, instead of play with his legos, was for the food ;)