
Ask HN: Parents, what are you doing for school this fall? - mbf1
I&#x27;m a professional software engineer with two middle-school aged children and a working partner cramped into a small apartment. Since the shelter in place orders happened and my employer switched everyone to work from home, my apartment has seemed less and less suitable for productivity. It&#x27;s also not the best environment for children to remain cooped up in their rooms on electronics all day, every day. My partner and I have experimented with some online camps and our local public schools have gone purely virtual, but I&#x27;m considering alternative schools this year as well as moving out of our cramped apartment.<p>Parents: What have you tried? What did you love? What did you hate?
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mayugan
Hey Parents!

    
    
                  We're hoping to fill in some of the issues that COVID has created. We're providing a free education app for kids aged 5-10. Our curated content that we've filmed and gamified surrounds intriguing concepts! hopefully we can buy back some of your time!
    

Below is a quick description what we do:___ Hey There HackerNews! We're Mayu &
Glenn, the founders of ThinkStation
([https://beta.thinkstation.io/exclusive/](https://beta.thinkstation.io/exclusive/)).
We provide an education platform for kids aged 5-10 to learn intriguing
concepts through gamified e-learning... Live! Kind of like a mix of
MasterClass, Peleton and Gamification! Now more than ever, we know parents are
stressed out. We want to help you buy back 45 minutes of your day to enjoy a
sip of coffee, nap or work! Your kids can learn about the dirty jobs of the
middle ages, or learning what is money whilst you sip away on a tea with a
book! We've founded ThinkStation with the idea to allow parents to trust the
content their kids consume, but also be active when doing so!

It would be great if anyone with kids aged 5-10 sign up for our BETA and help
us build an amazing platform for both Parents and Kids alike! (Link:
[https://beta.thinkstation.io/exclusive/](https://beta.thinkstation.io/exclusive/))

Also -- If anyone knows where else to post, let us know :)

Feedback always helps!

------
joe_hills
Single dad here in a small apartment with a 7yo whose school went fully
remote.

I switched to a reduced-hours contractor status at my day job and went "full-
time" on my side project so I can make my own schedule.

I do the bulk of my focused work either after my kid goes to bed or before she
starts school for the day.

During the day when she's in class, it seems like every class period, there's
at least one or two tech issues she needs help with. To keep that time
productive for me, I do household chores, meal prep, and any easily-
interruptable work-related tasks (like writing correspondence).

It's not ideal, but I feel like I can make it work for us indefinitely.

~~~
westondeboer
This is how I am working also. I have requested that all meetings in the
future happen after 3, so the kids will be done with their schooling.

Today was the first day of school and my kids are in 3rd grade.

Just like you said, there was at least four times that I needed to come over
and fix tech support issues. And help them figure out how to do something.

I am trying to figure out which is better right now, with using ipad, laptop,
or chromebooks.

~~~
actfrench
With regards to tech, I run a digital learning pod for kids ages 3-9 and we
have a lot of families in product, hardware, software, machine learning and
education in our group so we pooled together our knowledge and tried a bunch
of different combinations to find what worked best for our group.

My priorities as an educator were for the kids to be able to jump up, lay down
and whisper across the room. I also wanted to make sure the devices were safe
(for small ears) etc. I wanted the kids to feel as much as possible like they
were in the room with me. I didn't want to create an experience where kids had
to sit still at their desk or strain to see or hear.

As a teacher, I prefer when kids use a mac laptop because when they screen
share or use an app their image does not disappear (which gives less of an in-
person feel). I like that they can open multiple windows, so for example, I
can be showing them one app, while they're working independently - and I can
see their face when they're trying to work independently. Otherwise it makes
me feel less like I know what's going on with them.

The big downside with the chromebook is that it doesn't support a lot of
amazing apps which are so great for learning, especially at a time when giving
kids a fun app they can use independently is a big support to the whole
family.

As much as I like a laptop, a lot of our parents prefer the ipad, however,
because kids are a bit more free to move about the house. Also, it's
considerably less expensive, which makes it easier for all of us to help keep
access to our group equitable. We do our best to sponsor any child who can't
afford our group but wants to join and we're trying to make this as scaleable
as possible so we can offer it to more families everywhere.

Ultimately, this is the winning combo we went with.

Ipad (most recent version or possible)

Wide lens (so kids can move around) [https://www.amazon.com/Xenvo-iPhone-
Camera-Lens-Clip](https://www.amazon.com/Xenvo-iPhone-Camera-Lens-Clip)

Airpod pro (by far the best for sound and most comfortable)
[https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro](https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro)

Ipad stand (so kids aren't constantly looking down)
[https://www.amazon.com/Gooseneck-Tablet-Mount-Holder-
Bed/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Gooseneck-Tablet-Mount-Holder-
Bed/dp/B07Y84SCR6)

Hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions about our
findings:)

~~~
p1esk
Why do you need airpods?

~~~
actfrench
For the sound. If kids don't wear headphones it's impossible to hear. Also,
this really helps with younger kids who already might be learning to pronounce
words correctly

------
jwally
Texas, Dallas: Nothing ground breaking, but I'll provide my anecdote as a
possible antidote to survivor-bias:

I have 3 kids (5,3,1). The 5 year old was supposed to start public school this
year, but her pre-school opened up a private kindergarten and we opted in.

When the pandemic first broke, we pulled our kids out for 2 months and it was
hard for us and them. My wife worked in the morning when I had the kids and we
swapped at noon, and finished up work after we put the kids down for bed.

We tried following some sort of curriculum for the first 2 weeks, but it fell
apart pretty quick and devolved into me throwing the kids in a wagon and
walking around the neighborhood then going in the backyard and pushing them on
a swing. Anytime I had a meeting in the morning or my wife had one in the
afternoon, we'd plop them in front of the TV then struggle pulling them away
from it afterwards (google wifi is great for deus-ex-machina internet
outages...).

It stings having to pay an extra $15k / yr, but for our kids learning and
mental health I'd happily pay double. In my humble opinion, our teachers don't
make near enough for the service they provide.

~~~
bertjk
> we'd plop them in front of the TV then struggle pulling them away from it
> afterwards (google wifi is great for deus-ex-machina internet outages...).

I can totally relate. One day our kids will figure out that our fiber internet
service is actually quite reliable, and that I've been using the ASUS router
app to disconnect specific devices at needed times. My 9 year old is starting
to suspect something is amiss. "Daddy, can you stop buying chromebooks? Maybe
you should buy another brand. It stops working all the time but your computer
never stops working."

~~~
Tempest1981
Really struggling with Zoom on a Dell Chromebook. It's 7-10 FPS, and outbound
audio quality is often unusable. It shows this warning: "You CPU usage is
affecting meeting quality". I guess it lacks a decent CPU to do video.

Closing all other apps helps a bit; I guess it lacks RAM too, or is using CPU
to compress RAM? Still, sometimes outbound audio gets 5-30 seconds behind.
Very disjoint experience. Not meant for the Zoom era.

------
zwm
Young couple here with a 9yo living in a 900sqft apt. Both of us were
fortunate enough to scrape by with above poverty income and government
sponsored medical insurance while working from home. What have worked is...
(1) 60 mins walk morning and evening, (2) 3 x 180 mins outdoor activity per
week, (3) 3-5 x 60 mins tech tickets to be rewarded throughout the day for
responsibilities and ability to reset emotions after an outburst; first ticket
given in morning for just waking up on time and folding blankets, etc, (4)
encourage hobbies such as coding, drawing, guitar, blender which keeps child
occupied for a couple 1-2 hr and allow us to build our online business, (5)
child diagnose w/ ocd, adhd, and likely mild autism, so we are always on our
toes but the strict yet flexible schedule allow us to work with our child's
personality, (6) sunday kid day! I think what helps the most is my child can
combine hobby time + tech ticket to give me a few hours of uninterrupted time
each day. I also try not to feel like the child is neglected and as a parent,
I want to spend enough quality time with my child without regret. It's an
uphill battle still after 2 years of home school. The toughest part is getting
time to spend with your spouse but unlike us, you might be able ease things
with family support.

~~~
actfrench
I think it is so admirable that you've made such sacrifices to give your child
the best education they can possibly have. Have you joined any homeschool co-
ops or babysitting co-ops to give you and your partner a little time together?

------
whafro
I have a first grader. Our public school system, which is ordinarily great,
has a very vague plan that begins with a hybrid system that operates two
mornings a week.

In response, we teamed up with five other families of first graders in our
area, and have contracted with a tutor to handle the other three-and-two-half
days of the week. We may switch to the remote learning option, since it seems
like 75% of their class will do that, which would the benefit of in-person
social experiences, but simplify logistics. When not in school, the five kids
will be in a basement apartment at one of the families' houses with the tutor,
working on their distance learning.

We still have a zillion and a half things to iron out, but it's both progress
and ridiculous.

~~~
HaloZero
Whoa. Must be interesting on the pandemic pods. I haven't heard first hand
about this in any of the articles I've been reading about it.

Do all 5 families have some kind of agreement about safety and rules about
exposing yourself? Or is it some friends that you trust? I'm always curious
about the dynamics there.

~~~
whafro
We all know each other reasonably well, but we will be laying out an agreement
that we all have to follow. The initial contract was just "we're in this, for
better or worse, through the whole academic year."

We had a number of conversations before deciding to "pod up," and certainly
before contracting with a teacher/tutor, so we have a sense of each person's
risk tolerance. We agreed we were close enough to take this first step, and
we'd iron out the rest later.

------
shaftway
Background: We're in the bay area and our kids are 10 and 8.

We were lucky enough to get an au pair right before the lockdowns started in
our area (literally picked him up the night before local lockdowns went into
effect). We've had really positive experiences with the au pair program in the
past, and our current one has been great, so we've treated him really well.
Because of that he's agreed to extend until next summer, and that application
went through before visas were locked down. This means that there's a
dedicated person here for the kids for 45 hours per week, or about 9 hours per
weekday.

We have a decent sized house, but it's hard to get any real focus time because
even with the au pair and school the kids don't really respect boundaries. So
the kids do most of their schoolwork in their rooms or at the dining table.
They work in blocks of about 2 hours, and I schedule breaks to coincide with
theirs. During the breaks we try to go for a short walk or something to get
the wiggles out, and then it's back to work. Tuesdays (and sometimes
Thursdays) I go to my spouse's office where I can isolate and get some real
work done until late. We trade that time for Fridays, when I stop work a
couple hours early so the au pair can leave if he wants to. If I need to be
able to really focus I leave the house and go to a park where I can tether and
crank out some real work. This is difficult though, as I need 2 laptops and a
phone to get work done.

This wasn't a traditional au pair experience, so we plan on some really nice
thank you gifts for our au pair at the end of his contract, and hopefully
we'll be back in school next fall and can go back to something a little more
normal.

~~~
PenguinCoder
What is the cost and experience of having an au pair, like ?

~~~
shaftway
This is actually our 10th au pair, so we've had a wide variety of experiences.
Some good. Some bad.

The cost and contractual obligations are easy. Agency fees are usually around
$9000 for a year for a brand new au pair (it's cheaper if you extend). That
covers them overseeing all aspects of the program, like background checks,
facilitating contact, and organizing events for the au pairs. You pay the au
pair $200 / week. I'd say our total costs are in the area of $21k / year. You
also need to provide a private room for them. A real room. They can work up to
45 hours per week, 10 hours per day, no overnights and they need 36
consecutive hours where they are off per week (where "off" means they can walk
out the door and be gone for those 36 hours). The contract is usually for a
full year, but can be extended for an additional 6 to 12 months.

Usually our au pairs are responsible for getting the kids to school, picking
them up, taking them to activities, and making sure homework gets done. This
year will be...... different.

You can set up family rules. You should provide these before you match so
there are no surprises (surprises are usually bad for both parties). Our rules
are pretty simple; no drugs, no drunk driving, ask before you use the car, be
well rested and ready to work, when you leave give us a vague idea of where
you'll be and when you'll be back so we know when and which ditches to start
looking in if you don't return. I'm happy to supply a redacted copy of our
rules if you're that interested.

You don't need to supply things like a car or phone, but getting the best au
pairs is competitive (I understand right now it's ___extremely_ __competitive
because nobody wants to, or can, come to the US). So we put together a kind of
offer packet to make ourselves more appealing. We have a car dedicated for the
au pair, but if they want to go more than 100 miles they need to pay for a
service appointment. We provide a phone and a service plan. There 's a
community pool. And we pay for various memberships to amusement parks and
museums so they have stuff to do (both with the kids and during their off
time).

If things are going really bad you can go into rematch. Either the family or
the au pair can trigger it, but once that's triggered the au pair has 2-3
weeks to find a new family or they are sent back. You as the family can take
as long as you need, but you'll be without an au pair until you get someone.
It usually takes at least 6 weeks to get a new person from out of country.
It's hard for au pairs to find a rematch if they cause the rematch, especially
given the short timeframe, so often they have to take a less desirable
position.

We've gone into rematch twice. The first was with our very first au pair. She
was really uninterested in the job because she was preoccupied with boy issues
back home. The final straw with her was lying about causing a couple thousand
dollars in damage to our car. The second one was at the beginning of this
year. We got our first au pair from China and when she got here her English
was significantly worse than when we interviewed her. The kids had a lot of
trouble connecting with her, but we finally triggered rematch because she took
a car she wasn't insured on out for coffee when nobody else was around. It was
the third time she had done it, and after each of the first two we had someone
who was a native Mandarin speaker explain to her that she couldn't take it. So
in both cases the real issue was about trusting them.

We thought about going into rematch a third time. We had an au pair that was
really good with the kids, but she was shockingly racist, bigoted, and fascist
(she outright said people of certain races and certain religions should be
executed, and when we compared it to the Spanish Inquisition she had never
heard of it and then claimed that that was fake history and had never
happened). It warranted a lot of discussion between us (the parents) and we
decided to occasionally ask the kids if they heard her say anything like that
to them. As long as she kept those opinions to herself around them it wasn't a
problem, and it led to a lot of interesting discussions. Ultimately I think we
softened her views.

We also had one au pair who ended our contract early. Our son has ADHD and he
was just being diagnosed, so she had a really hard time with him. She decided
she just didn't want to work with kids. She gave us a couple months notice
which made it easy to get a replacement for her.

All in all it's been a very positive experience for us. The kids have had a
wide variety of experiences with other cultures. Most of our au pairs have
been European, so they've had Spanish, German, Austrian, French, and Polish
influences. Our current one is our first male au pair (most agencies won't
accept men), and he's been fantastic. He's from Brazil, so it's been an
interesting new experience for the kids. My best friend married one of our au
pairs (they were about 2 years apart in age) and moved to Austria with her. We
stay in contact with most of them (even the rematches; our last rematch texted
me last week asking for a couple of my recipes). We've also set up little
vacation "franchises" around the world, and have traveled to Europe with the
kids to visit ex-au pairs a couple times.

Happy to answer any more specific questions.

~~~
PenguinCoder
Great reply, thanks for the detailed information. Quite obviously during this
time, having a live in au pair would have been helpful. I would be interested
in seeing the specific rules you made, from experience (email is slightly
obfuscated in my profile). I wouldn't be able to afford the 21k/yr price tag,
even if that is a really good price.

~~~
shaftway
I separated the cost issue so it wasn't lost in the other wall of text.

I use a DCFSA
([https://www.fsafeds.com/explore/dcfsa](https://www.fsafeds.com/explore/dcfsa))
to pay for it. Au pair expenses are a valid expense for this. Our marginal
income tax rate is around 35%, so this helps a lot.

    
    
      Without DCFSA:
        Pre-tax Cost:  ~$32,300
        Post-tax Cost:  $21,000
    
      With DCFSA:
        Pre-tax Cost:   $21,000
        Post-tax Cost: ~$13,650
    

This is all an estimate of course (like increased insurance or rent on a
larger place can't be paid for using a DCFSA), but it makes the point. So I
think of the cost as around $13,650 for 45 hours / week, 50 weeks / year, 2250
hours in total. No matter how many kids you have.

If that big chunk is hard to swallow, the agency fees are ~$8000, and most
agencies will let you break that up into a payment plan. The au pair is paid
$200 each week, so that ~$10,000 is naturally spread out. The remainder is
what we estimated our additional costs to be, like food, insurance, etc. and
that gets spread out as well.

------
jph00
I've been surprised at how well our 4 y.o daughter has adjusted to the online
world, on the whole. Whilst not all of our friends' children have the same
experience, I've noticed it's fairly common for children we know (at least of
this age) to quickly adapt to making friends and socializing and learning
through Zoom/Skype/etc.

Mornings are spent on "Kid's Club" via
[https://www.modulo.app](https://www.modulo.app) , which is a fairly new
startup that provides online spaces for kids to learn together, hang out
together, etc. My daughter has made a number of new friends through that and
she's able to do a lot of the same stuff she was doing before (art, learning
apps, etc), but in a more social way. Sometimes she gets to help other kids
when they get stuck with their learning apps, and visa versa, which is fun.
We're likely to expand this to some of the afternoon too, since they're adding
a Spanish program.

Overall, I've noticed that her development has thrived since she's moved to a
more self-paced environment. There's been no sign that using screens a lot is
causing any problems. We've set up an iPad on an adjustable goose-neck stand
so she can (and does) run around a lot and her friends can still see her. We
also make sure there's time outside for exercise.

We've found a lot of good online resources, generally free or very cheap, such
as Cosmic Kids Yoga, Draw Every Day with JJK, Mo Willems Doodles, and Khan
Academy Kids. We've also discovered kids coding apps, like CodeSpark and
SpriteBox, that have been a big hit. The teacher at Modulo.app does a good job
of helping us find resources for stuff our daughter takes an interest in, and
we share stuff we find with them too.

We're both full-time parents, and certainly we're not as productive as we were
before, but for me it's a totally acceptable compromise. I get to be more
involved in my child's development and I get to see her much more than I did
before. One key thing is to have carefully planned schedules for everyone in
the house. Kids are generally much happier when they have a schedule, and it
also means as parents we know when we can arrange meetings, do live coding,
and so forth.

We're very lucky to have these options. I know a lot of parents just don't
have the ability to work from home, or to reduce their working hours to spend
more time with their children.

~~~
dbancajas
is modulo.app the official app endorsed by school? or are you homeschooling?

~~~
actfrench
Hi:) I can answer this. I'm the founder of Modulo. Modulo can be used as a
supplement or replacement for school. If families want to use it as a
replacement, they need to register as homeschoolers, but we help families make
sure their kids are on track academically and developmentally. feel free to be
in touch if you have any questions. My email is manisha@modulo.app

~~~
logicme
This is a great idea. You probably would get more business if you didn't have
workshops for 'undoing white supremacy' and 'racismo'

Many of the ppl that will be homeschooling are doing so bc of the blm
education being introduced in schools- it isn't just about covid.

[https://www.modulo.app/notmyidea](https://www.modulo.app/notmyidea)

~~~
actfrench
We are very proud of introducing diversity and inclusion into our program.
It's of critical importance that we learn to think deeply about the systemic
racism in our society - as students and educators. A good education is well-
rounded and helps children understand history and social systems in a broad
way, not limited to a certain group or perspective. Race, racial tensions and
inequity are some of the biggest issues facing society today. Our kids are
worried about it and they are the ones who are going to be helping change the
way our society runs. They need to be prepared to think about this, analyze
multiple view points and make intelligent and informed decisions. Hiding it
from them will help no one. Education is about illumination, not casting
shadows over what is happening and what has happened before us. While some may
be leaving the school system because schools are finally addressing these
issues, many also are homeschooling because they feel these topics are not
adequately integrated into our curriculum.

~~~
burfog
Focusing on race is what keeps people focusing on race. It's fundamentally
divisive. Teaching children to think of everything in terms of race is the
biggest factor in perpetuating racism.

I suppose there is a market for that, and you're serving it, making money as
you divide society.

~~~
mcv
That is exactly why it's important for kids to learn about that divide, and to
break through it. To understand the experience of other people, to recognise
the injustice of it, and to do something to change that.

The division is caused by treating with different skin colour or ethnic
background as lesser, or as criminals. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't
make it go away. It's real, and it needs to be addressed. Making kids more
aware of that is absolutely important.

~~~
burfog
Human minds don't work that way. They learn, but not always what you intend
for them to learn.

If the kid is white, possible learning outcomes include:

a. self-hate, leading to depression and self-harm

b. reading between the lines, learning that to be normal he must be racist
against black people, because that is just how white people are

c. rage at being disfavored by every diversity initiative, leading to a desire
for revenge

If the kid is black, possible learning outcomes include:

a. hatred toward white people due to being told that white people are to blame
for all the bad in life

b. giving up on life because the world seems so racist that life is hopeless

c. deciding that if most people believe he is prone to crime, it is probably
true or he might as well make it true

Most of the above will be recognized by both sides as "othering" that is
enough to prevent friendship. That's what is being taught, even if not
intended.

~~~
mcv
I think you've got this exactly backwards. We have already seen what not
teaching people about this leads to: a continuation of the racism. Kids get
taught racism, consciously and unconsciously, intentionally and
unintentionally. By default, we tend to reinforce the patterns we see. We need
more awareness of the old patterns in order to change them.

Of course you shouldn't teach them self-hate, depression and that sort of
thing, but you can teach black and white kids to unite against those old
patterns that have kept them separate, to have them work together, to teach
them they are equals.

I keep seeing too many excuses not to tackle racism, but that means it will
continue to exist and hold new generations back.

You don't solve problems by ignoring them. Of course you should also not solve
them by making them worse. So you should absolutely look critically at the
_way_ in which kids are taught about this, but it's important to make kids
aware that this is something that has held previous generations back, and they
shouldn't be held back the same way. Sheltering kids from history is not going
to make them learn from it, and as we know, people who don't learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.

~~~
burfog
That just isn't how humans learn. You think you are teaching to not hate, but
they learn that hate is normal. They want to be normal. You teach that
diversity is important, but they learn that they are the undesirables or that
they don't have to try in life. Just focusing on the differences puts them on
different teams, and thus in opposition. It won't be otherwise.

We have seen what teaching people about this leads to, because we've been
doing it for decades, and the result is not a lack of racism. You don't solve
racial division with racial division.

Most of these efforts do shelter kids from history. Kids learn a false
narrative that slavery was just evil white southerners enslaving black people.
Nothing is said of the fact that the first slaveowner in the pre-USA colonies
was a black person named Anthony Johnson, or that free blacks in the USA often
owned slaves, or that black slaves were purchased from black people in Africa,
or that the very term "slave" comes from the white Slavic people, or that
black Africans are still being sold today, or that enslavement (generally, and
particularly of black people) is endorsed by a major world religion.

~~~
mcv
Teaching not to hate is hard to do. Instead, teach everybody is different, and
that that is normal. Teach them that people have different looks, different
backgrounds, different religions, different believes and personal convictions,
and that that is normal. Expose kids to those differences, so they won't see
different people as Other.

Don't make it an us-vs-them thing, but unite them. Let them embrace those
differences.

~~~
burfog
Differences will be ranked, and they will be used to form teams.

You can't stop human nature. At best, you can divert it to something less
problematic, like nationalism. If everybody is on Team USA, then there is no
room for racism.

We will never eliminate the urge to judge, rank, and exclude. It's very deeply
in our DNA. All the social mammals have the urge.

------
weagle05
The whole thing is fubar. We're doing our public school's virtual school for
our 3 elementary age children. I don't see how its sustainable. This age group
cannot do school by themselves, so my wife and I are having to do school while
also trying to keep our work going. My productivity is just going to be shot.

This is day one, but here's what I'm going to try this week: 1). Get up
earlier. I'm going to try to be in front of my computer with coffee by 5:30am.
I'm hoping I can log a couple solid hours of work before I have to punch in
for school. 2). Long lunch for the kids. Their school schedule only gives them
50 minutes, but the school is going to have to deal with it. I'm going to do
90 minutes so I can try to focus on work while inhaling a sandwich or
something. 3) Bourbon when the kids are sleep.

I really hope we can get a rhythm and my kids can pick up some study skills
where we don't have to be so hands-on.

~~~
jeffrallen
Your proposed schedule will also need time for burnout and therapy. Maybe not
a good plan...

You're going to have to let something slide. Choose one priority and then fit
what you can into the time that's left, and accept that it doesn't all fit. I
hope you choose your child as your priority, but you'll find your own way.
Good luck.

~~~
actfrench
I agree. Everyone knows that this is hard. And I think you should definitely
consider asking your school to give you some leeway or change the schedule to
make it work better for your kids. I know a lot of parents who have asked
their companies and their schools to accommodate to what they needed and were
surpised at the flexibility they found. This is a new situation for everyone.
Ask for what you need and you might be surprised by the answer.

~~~
actfrench
I'd also add that kids learn a lot faster with 1-1 instruction than in a group
setting, so if you want to consider homeschooling, you might find that you
only need to teach them an hour or two a day and that will be more than enough
to keep them at or above grade level. The rest of the time they can plan and
enjoy being kids.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning)

------
james_pm
One of our two kids is 17 with special needs. I hope she will be able to
attend in-person, daily. Her class sizes are already small and online learning
isn't really effective as it's a modified, non-academic program she is in.

The other is 16 and will be attending in person every other day for half a day
(1/4 of the time) and doing synchronous, online the rest of the time. She is
attending an online summer school course this month to get the hang of things.

(context: Canadian, kids go to public school in Toronto)

------
actfrench
Hi all, I just wanted to offer my support to anyone who needs help thinking
this through...I've been a teacher for 15 years, and also the founder of
schoolclosures.org (which has helped over 100,000 families impacted by school
closures. This fall, I started offering digital learning pods (for social
interaction) combined with mastery learning (personalized recommendations for
learning apps for independent study + 1-1 tutoring) for families impacted by
school closures (Modulo.app) I've worked with hundreds of families looking to
enrich their child's learning as a supplement or replacement to school. I'd be
happy to talk to any family looking for support in figuring out what to do
this fall. Every family's situation is unique and it can be helpful to speak
to someone who has experience in the area. I know this has been really
stressful and confusing for all - f anyone would like to talk (free of
charge), I'd be happy to lend an ear and advise as best I can on education,
homeschooling, curriculum, social-emotional concerns, financial security or
anything related to school or working from home with kids. My email is
manisha@modulo.app

------
winphone1974
I have 2 in elementary and one in middle school. Our public schools will
supposedly open physical classes with an online option as well. You need to
pick and commit to one. I'm strongly in the physical camp for many reasons,
most importantly the online school in the spring was garbage and a lack of
socialization at this age is a very real and serious public health concern-for
healthy young kids with no underlying health issues maybe as important as
COVID itself.

That said I personally don't schools will stay open until even Christmas and
don't know what our next step will be. We've investigated private school as
the class sizes are much smaller and they have far more flexibility and
motivation to make in person learning work.

Context: western Canada with big public school classes and very few cases, the
majority impacting very old and those with previous health concerns

~~~
GiorgioG
> lack of socialization at this age is a very real and serious public health
> concern

(No offense intended) I keep hearing this and wonder what proof we have of
this? I have two kids, one introvert, one extrovert and neither seem to have
been impacted. Sure they'd like to hang out with friends, but they're
basically the same personality/kids/temperament they had pre-pandemic.

~~~
nxc18
Not a parent, but fwiw even the fully grown adults I've interacted with are
starting to show serious deficits in social skills after months of relative
isolation. I've historically been on the socially awkward side, so its kind of
refreshing to be the comparatively graceful one.

I don't know if there's evidence, but if this were to go on for years I could
see kids missing milestones. Having gone to school with kids who were
homeschooled without proper socialization for too long, I can comfortably say
social skills need to be learned. It may not seem like much, but not knowing
how to interact with peers comfortably is a serious problem, especially as you
start to enter situations like interviewing for a job or trying to make
friends in a new city.

~~~
bradlys
> Not a parent, but fwiw even the fully grown adults I've interacted with are
> starting to show serious deficits in social skills after months of relative
> isolation. I've historically been on the socially awkward side, so its kind
> of refreshing to be the comparatively graceful one.

Huh? I've not experienced this at all with anyone I've seen during the
pandemic - even with people who I've only talked online with. This includes
people who have basically not seen anyone in person for months and aren't
working.

What are these "serious deficits in social skills" you're noticing in adults?

~~~
nxc18
At the few socially distanced gatherings I’ve been too, as well as when
running into people in the streets, there’s been a lack of the usual nuance
and care that I typically expect. That’s mainly expressed through less careful
filtering, either of direct content or indirect content. E.g. evidence of
marital strife that would normally be papered over more effectively might come
out. Words are chosen less carefully causing unintended meaning to leak out.
What might normally be a ‘we’ turns into ‘me’ and ‘her’.

An example from this weekend, I ran into a colleague in town who is having a
hard time - his roommate moved back East in May and the core parts of his
social group are either immunocompromised or left the area shortly before his
current absent roommate moved in. He was having trouble masking how anxious he
was. There were untimely interjections. He mentioned wishing he could talk to
people who didn’t work for our company - it’s a company town and no one our
age/socioeconomic class (that’s an ugly thought but I won’t go down that
rabbit hole) works anywhere else. I would expect him to be more nuanced in
expressing the idea of hating small talk with people that work at our company,
given we were actively making small talk and I work at said company.

Maybe serious is a stretch, but I’m seeing the typical CS/engineer social
deficits expressed in people who are in sales/management roles and in people
who previously were more capable. It probably wouldn’t stand out in San
Francisco or a tech school campus, but in my current circumstances it
certainly does.

This isn’t a judgment of anyone involved - everyone I’ve talked about I love
to death. As a socially awkward person myself, I tend to love and appreciate
other socially awkward people. They just might run into challenges when the
stakes are higher.

~~~
bradlys
> there’s been a lack of the usual nuance and care that I typically expect.
> That’s mainly expressed through less careful filtering, either of direct
> content or indirect content.

I wouldn't call those behaviors "socially awkward". Given the time we're in -
I think people realize there's little reason to try to save face. In all
likelihood, they're trying to be more real about things they're facing because
they realize everyone is dealing with a lot of the same shit.

You might also see people reaching out more than they did before (in terms of
depth of interaction/complaints - less superficial) because - well - they
can't socialize as much with others. They might start socializing with people
more intimately than in the past because it's what they have available.

None of the stuff you're saying sounds very... socially awkward. It just
sounds more honest...

------
dec0dedab0de
Our school district made everyone decide if we were going to send the kids in
or keep them home for remote school. My kid is in junior high, and did pretty
good with remote school, so we decided to start the year at home.

I already worked from home so that wasn't a change. One thing that did change
right at the beginning of lockdown was that I got diagnosed with a chronic
illness that requires treatment that makes me immunocompromised, so that
played a role in the decision.

~~~
jeffrallen
Sorry for your illness, and I wish the best for your family!

------
MontagFTB
Our school district is 100% distance learning for now. If you find yourself in
a similar situation, here are some tips we have found helpful, especially for
our 2nd grader:

1) Print out the daily/weekly schedule for the student, and put it up on the
wall somewhere. This is one less tab they have to keep open and refer to
constantly. Also, a second copy helps parents keep on top of the kids
schedule. A color printer here is a huge benefit. We have an HP Color LaserJet
Pro M255dw, and it’s amazing.

2) Get a headset with a microphone; aim for comfort more than style. Something
over-ear with a cushioned headband. They’re going to be wearing it all day,
and earbuds can fall out of small ears. My 7yo daughter looks like an airline
pilot with hers on. They’re huge, but she loves them.

3) Encourage your child not to panic when something goes wrong. Adults are
much better equipped to handle meeting malfunction than kids. They won’t get
an unexcused absence or other demerit because of a computer malfunction. The
kids extend grace to the teacher when they see it, and they’ll be treated in
kind.

~~~
westondeboer
Which headphones did you go with?

~~~
MontagFTB
We went with the "Bopmen Computer Headset with Microphone" (wired, not
wireless). So far so good.

~~~
westondeboer
Oh, with the built in microphone option! Great idea.

Thanks for that recommendation!

------
emidln
My wife is a stay at home parent and taught my daughter for the last 3 months
of the school year last year. My daughter (then in the 4th grade) was
attending a private school in the Chicago suburbs. The transition was decent,
with her school already having a 1:1 laptop program and Google Classroom
integration into her curriculum. The only change was that 4th graders didn't
take their chromebooks home, but when school was abruptly closed, the laptops
came with. All of her subjects had asynchronous work pages or chapter
questions, asynchronous reading, asynchronous projects, and then synchronous
instruction, synchronous classmate discussion/talk/project time, and
synchronous project presentations. My daughter's grades improved slightly,
likely from the additional focus given the lack of classroom distractions at
home. My wife was available to answer immediate questions while I was working
from home in most subjects, although I helped out when additional perspectives
were needed to learn the material (my wife and I had very different education
experiences, so our methods tend to be divergent).

This year we had the option of a similar remote program for the first semester
or in-person, with the commitment lasting until the grading period is over.
We're very fortunate to have one parent who can easily dedicate time during
the day and a program conducive to remote learning. I can only imagine the
sleepless schedules that would be involved in a less structured online program
or with both parents working.

The major reason for not moving to home schooling this year is to guarantee
our place at the private school for 6th/7th/8th grade without a significant
donation to get back in. It is sorta unfortunate to pay extra to home school
our kid, but we enjoy the community in-person when that was available. We're
lucky we're in a position to be able to choose this.

------
dataminded
We tried virtual via our daughter's private school and were really
disappointed.

We are going to home-school with a private teacher.

We also found a couple of other families that we'll consider play-dates or
select group lessons with.

~~~
chrisseaton
Like a traditional live-in governess (governor?)?

Clever, since they’re then part of your family bubble. Must be expensive
though!

~~~
dataminded
She does not live with us. We have a great relationship with her and are
confident that we're aligned on the importance of social distancing. I'm in an
at-risk group which makes it especially important that we protect ourselves.

She's been working for our family for a bit over a year. We originally hired
her as a full-time nanny when wife decided to do a dev bootcamp.

She has a bachelors in early childhood education/development and is personally
interested in crafting positive developmental experiences for kids. Our girls
really appreciate her and get a lot of value (and education) from the time
they spend together. We'll supplement her efforts with more structure in the
form of a curriculum.

It is very expensive (relative to our income). We live cheaply and don't do
many luxuries. It made sense for us to invest in high-quality childcare for
our girls.

------
dsr_
Massachusetts: our school district is offering a choice between full-remote
and hybrid week-in/week-remote programs, but noting that at least the first 2
months will be all-remote for everyone. Since our kids are of reasonable age,
we asked them and accepted their preferences for all-remote. They get to
change their minds at the end of the first semester.

------
GiorgioG
Home-schooling. Our public school system can't get its stuff together.

------
jedberg
I will start by saying I had the easiest possible situation to start with, and
100% acknowledge that privilege. My wife is a stay at home mom and I've worked
from home for five years, and have an office with a door (and we have a yard).
Also neither kid was in formal schooling yet in March. One was in preschool,
which just shut its doors March 18th and gave us refunds, and the other is
only three.

During the summer we enrolled the five year old in weekly art camp (all over
Zoom). She had fun doing art and it kept her busy for a good chunk of the day.
The camp was only an hour but then she'd spend a bunch of hours afterwards
finish the project. She's enrolled in their after school program now which
starts in a couple weeks.

She was supposed to start Kindergarten this year, but since we're in
California, that's all remote over Google Meet. Right now she has a 1 hour
Meet in the morning, and that's it. Starting next week there will be three
meets throughout the day, once with the whole class and then two small groups
with the teacher or a parent.

So far it's working out. The kinder teacher is embracing online learning and
has good activities that work over Meet, and she's totally cool with younger
siblings joining in (because apparently 1/2 the class has a younger sibling).

Beyond that, the kids just play with each other all day, and sometimes I take
a break to play with them. My wife gets to work on her own projects but has to
take frequent breaks to mediate their playtime or help them transition
activities.

We have a rule in the house of no electronics when the sun is up. Sometimes we
let them break the rule to play educational games, especially right now during
the heat wave when they can't even go in the yard. But the rule is a good
fallback when they want to use electronics: "Sorry, sun's still up!".

Also we're super lax about cleaning up toys, so I can't walk in a straight
line in my house anymore. There are toys everywhere. But it's a small price to
pay to avoid the daily clean up arguments!

------
meristem
Here: 8-year old twins with very different interests, school system fully
remote for at least first 8 weeks, they are in different classes (it is the
best solution, although 2x work for us). I have the weirder schedule
(consultant, flexible hours with unmovable deliverable commitments)and my
husband has mornings available. 1. We chose to keep them in public school,
remote. 2 We chose to keep their nanny for an extra year to help with school
(she has a psych degree and education experience) 3. We've set them up on the
dinning room table, and 30 minutes into it realized we'll need to split them
physically and get headphones with mics(no solution yet for physical
separation)

We have loved: teachers who are technically adept.

Suggestions: Can you get a mobile wifi take one kid out at a time to do school
outside? (This assume you are also in an area you can be outside in a safe
way, between COVID and heat)

Can you and your partner talk to your companies and change your work hours?
Are your employers on board with "this is not working from home, this is being
at home during a pandemic, attempting to work"?

Have you found a way to prioritize some personal time daily/weekly so you two
do not burn out to a crisp?

What we hate: the complete disruption. We are not great at teaching our kids,
not because of lousy skill (we both taught college), but lousy patience
teaching a young age group. We have done a lot of "learning on the go" this
summer--for example: taking kids into a river, talking about currents, water
sources, why stones in rivers are round, ecosystems, etc. Or playing with
Gravitrax to explore gravity, friction, the topography of our 100 yr old
house's living room (and why /how construction settles). But it is hard and it
is not "curricular & organized"

We are also in a socioeconomic group that can afford a nanny, and have
professions that have allowed for flexibility. We have had it "easy".

There is no way to overstate the sheer hellish hell of choices this all can
be, and YMMV with anything I wrote here.

------
tmaly
Back when everyone went stay at home, my daughters Montessori school started
zoom lessons. It was quite hectic to be doing work from home and keeping the
kids in the right zoom room.

I spent time teaching my daughter different topics and used workbooks over the
summer. She is in good shape for the start of school.

Right now the school is bringing kids back in, but giving them the option to
do remote learning. I am going for the in person learning. Each kid is getting
their own workspace, and they have to wear masks when they are not at their
workspace.

If they were not considering in-person learning, I would probably opt to get
some families together to create one of those learning pods.

------
toddmorey
We're in a tough spot because my wife has struggled with chronic respiratory
infections and is in the high-risk patient population. But our youngest has
special needs and remote learning can't provide the educational support he
needs (though damn the teachers are awesome and creative and trying all they
can).

First three weeks are remote for all students in my district, but we'll have
some hard choices ahead balancing health and education needs. Seems so much
these days is choosing between options that are all far, far from ideal.

Oh, and we live in Texas where 7,500 new cases/day are still being reported.

~~~
actfrench
Hi Todd, there is a group that might help you. It's a homeschooling group for
children with special needs. Since many parents have pulled their kids out to
address special needs, these parents have a huge wealth of knowledge about how
to homeschool neurodiverse children.
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolingpoppies/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolingpoppies/)

What curriculum or learning apps have you tried so far? Some are better suited
to different types of educational needs than others. I'd be happy to recommend
some resources that might be helpful and also can connect you to specialists
and tutors who are volunteering for free to help kids with special needs
during the crisis.

Please let me know if I can be of support in any way I can.

------
wyclif
Negros Occidental, Philippines: I'm a US citizen, married, ops engineer with
two kids (ages 9 and 2). I've been WFH for 5 years before the pandemic, so I'm
an old hand at remote work.

I'm going to homeschool the eldest myself for the first time. I actually know
a lot about homeschooling because of circumstances I won't explain here, but
I've never done it before and my wife and I were both educated at public and
private schools from K through university.

Down here, I work about 4 solid and productive hours a day with only very
occasional Zoom meetings, most of my team interaction is done over email,
Discord, or Slack. I have a degree in the humanities so I've been spending the
past few weeks designing a curriculum. It will revolve heavily around reading
real books (no textbooks) and we'll be using Khan Academy for Math, I will
handle the Science and Biology. Most of the books I will be using I've found
for free on archive.org and follow the contours (but not the letter) of the
Charlotte Mason curriculum book recommendations.

Doing this schedule isn't as hard as it is for some families because of the
time differential: we're UTC +8, 12 hours ahead of EST. So I plan to do
homeschool in the morning, while it's evening hours in the US, and be finished
by lunchtime here, then work most of the afternoon when it's overnight in the
States, and send all the status emails at the end of my day when they'll be
only a few hours old when EST wakes up. It works great for me so far.

------
bachmeier
Do you have an option (family, friends, whatever) to stay for a while
somewhere else?

I have a kid in middle school. While it's less than perfect, it wasn't that
bad even in peak lockdown. We have a big house with a big backyard and there
are lots of big parks in town. If there is any possibility (even on a rental
basis) to go to the middle of the country, you might look into that. (Don't
worry, nobody's ever died of boredom from being more than 50 miles from the
coast, in spite of what some might have told you.)

~~~
jeffrallen
Yes, country living makes home school easier.

------
ping_pong
I recently quit my job as a programmer and have taken the task of overseeing
the kids education while my wife works. She is on Zoom meetings literally all
day and then works until midnight, so me quitting alleviates most of the
stress on the both of us.

We are home schooling them full time and pulled them out of private school. We
are right now going through the process of figuring out their schedule, but we
have also hired a home school consultant who is simply invaluable. We are
trying to come up with a schedule for the school year as we speak.

Our son is profoundly gifted with behavior issues so he has special needs that
frankly make it easier when he's home schooled, but the pandemic is making his
social isolation worse, so we need to figure that out. This year will probably
be messed up for everyone so experimenting this year won't be that much worse
even if we mess up home schooling.

We also have resources available through Davidson and John Hopkins' CTY, so
they will be taking courses through that. We'll try our best but we also know
that this is a once in a decade situation that everyone is suffering from, so
we're not putting too much pressure on ourselves to get it perfect. Most
notably is the social isolation, so figuring that out is important for us.

~~~
actfrench
Hi, I'd love to know the name of our homeschool consultant (and I'm sure
others would as well) if you're willing to share.

With regards to social isolation, if you're interested, we run a digital
learning pod to help kids stay connected and develop social-emotional skills
online. We meet twice a week and activities are designed to keep all members
participating actively and engaging with each other and the facilitator. Kids
facetime and skype outside the group and meet up for interest-based groups as
well. It's working so well that some kid who had no friends at school when
they were meeting kids in person now have developed wonderful friends with
kids in the group.

Several of our kids are highly gifted or have other considerations. If you'd
like to try it out, we'd love to have your son in our group. It's a unique
challenge helping kids feel connected using an online medium, but we've
discovered, not impossible and can even increase the diversity of the group
since kids can connect from all around the world.

Here's also another article I wrote on Staying Connected which might be
helpful. [https://www.modulo.app/all-
resources/onlineconnections](https://www.modulo.app/all-
resources/onlineconnections)

------
davidkellis
My wife and I homeschool our children. We are part of a local homeschool co-
op, and the kids love it.

I've been working fully remote for a year and a half, and homeschooling
doesn't hinder my remote work in any way. I periodically have a "break-in",
where one of the kids barges into the office during a meeting, but it's no
more interruption than any other common interruption (e.g. someone comes in
late, someone pardons themself to the restroom, etc.).

------
0x4d0x45
Between us my girlfriend and I have four kids (12,9,5,5) that live with us
full time.

The 12 year old is doing fully virtual/remote which was fine this spring and
we expect no trouble.

The elementary schools in our state are all enforcing masks all day, no
cafeteria (lunch in the classroom), avoiding all interactions with students
not in your homeroom, maintain 6’, etc.

This will all add up to something untenable for our 9 year old, he’s got
sensory and social issues and it’s just an impossible environment.

The virtual option this spring was also largely impossible for him due to the
same issues (combined with the uninspired way the school approached it).

The upshot is that we’re homeschooling our 9,5,5 kids, the two youngest being
in kindergarten this is basic stuff we’d be doing anyway, sight words and
addition/subtraction.

We’re in a house in the country so when it all becomes too much being cooped
up together we just throw them out in the yard and lick the doors. :-) j/k

(No seriously we sometimes actually do this for 20 minutes...)

------
jeffrallen
My children will go to public school. Until their class has a positive case
and then... We'll see.

They are 8 and 10, and honestly, digital learning and communication tools were
a total flop last year when they spent 8 weeks at home.

All we can do is give then love and stability to let them know it's ok not to
know the answer... Not to the homework, and not to covid either.

------
charklet
We are doing distance learning in a small pod with a caregiver with our
elementary schooler. We are rotating houses. The most difficult part,
surprisingly, is finding other families with the same needs as you (age, cost,
siblings, distancing level).

I chose to go pod since it adds a little more socialization without nearly as
much risk as a larger group.

~~~
actfrench
For what it's worth (I've helped create dozens of pods), it's sometimes good
to be really specific about what your pod is (not to be everything to
everyone) and then post about it in your local facebook parenting groups. I'm
also happy to help get the word out if you need support. I know tons of
parents looking for pods:)

------
binaryorganic
We’re online only until at least October, but we’ve opted in to a full year of
remote learning regardless of what the school does.

I’ve switched to stay-at-home Dad mode and work on side projects in my spare
time.

My kids are just old enough to be able to manage most of their school work on
their own.

I feel pretty lucky considering some of the tough choices others are having to
make rn.

------
mcv
We had our lockdown in April and May, including homeschooling our two kids of
5 and 11. We're fortunate to have a pretty big house for a city, but still
space could be cramped: we have a parents' bedroom, living room and balcony
upstairs, and a children's bedroom and large work/game/guest/second livingroom
downstairs.

Quite often, my wife was working upstairs, I downstairs, my oldest son in his
room, and my youngest son was mostly playing and watching TV with the
occasional school-related lesson on a tablet. On Thursdays, our cleaner would
come, and we all had to cram into half the house while she cleaned the other
half, or we had to leave the house. Sometimes we ended up working in bed or on
the balcony.

My oldest son was quite capable of doing his own schoolwork, though he's
always finished way too quickly and spent the rest of the day gaming, so this
made his gaming addiction a lot worse in retrospect, but at the time, he
didn't need much attention. Or youngest did, though. It's hard to work when a
5-year-old wants your attention. But our regular babysitter had all her other
babysitting jobs and restaurant jobs cancelled, so eventually we hired her 3
days a week to entertain and teach our youngest, and that worked very well. I
still ended up shifting a lot of work to the evenings and weekends, which
works fine: play with your kids during the day, work in the evening. There's
not much else to do anyway.

So the isolation wasn't perfect because of outside help, but that did make it
bearable. We always kept a lot of distance from our cleaner (who always wore
masks and gloves), and the babysitter didn't have much else going on in her
life anymore, so we figured she wasn't a big risk.

So I guess that's my advice: adopt a near-permanent babysitter. There are
probably plenty who are currently our of a job, and as long as they don't do
much else than babysit at your place and go back to their own home, they're
not a big risk. Get someone responsible, though; not a party animal.

------
thorin
I'm a little confused at the current situation in the US. It seems in the UK
that the priority will be to get schools back full time in September. My kids
have been in school 2 days for the last few weeks before summer and just had a
couple of days in a tennis camp. Are most US schools going remote for the
foreseeable future?

I'm a single parent so have been working a full time software architect job
from home while looking after the kids 3 days a week. To start with we did
quite a lot of learning but it dropped off to survival half way through
lockdown, they were 4 and 6 so couldn't work independently. It's been a tough
year so feeling pleased we've done as well as we have. I really feel getting
the kids back in some kind of social environment with some kind of education
is an absolute priority for us right now. Let's see what happens!

~~~
actfrench
I think a lot of people in the US are concerned about health risks and the way
social distancing policies are being put in place. We have still far from
flattened the curve in this country - and there is a lot of new research
showing that kids carry the disease as much as adults. As a teacher, this
doesn't surprise me since little kid diseases always seem to affect us adults
much worse than it does them.

~~~
thorin
I can't assume there will be much social distancing at school. My ex-wife has
had the illness once but suffered no ill affects, slight cold for 2 days so
it's possible the kids and I have had it although they isolated for 2 weeks
with me around then. She works in a busy hospital. I have very little contact
with anyone as a work from home dev.

Any contact with the grandparents is likely to be carefully controlled and
they won't stay in our house. Things do seem to be improving now in Europe,
but going downhill in American, good luck guys.

------
d33lio
I do not have children (I cannot immagine what my co-workers with young
children are doing to manage the lack of public school infrastructure),
however I'm surprised bespoke online private schools aren't popping up like
crazy.

It seems so ideal to just hire a bunch of professional tutors or college
students to have dedicated one on one time with each student for their
perspective subjects each day. What's most critical and missing from remote
school now is one on one feedback and help. Heck, you could even wrap
comprehensive PSAT, SAT and testing prep in with the package.

Public school systems obviously don't have a good approach - IMO primary
school education is more essential to get right than your college education.
It's much harder to re-define fundamentals down the road.

------
dgut
We also live in an apartment. During quarantine we divided our time with our
four year old 50/50\. Our main bedroom became an office the kid wasn't allowed
to enter while either of us were working. No electronics with the exception of
Skype time with grandparents, just a lot of playing, reading, physical
exercises and the like. Since opening up, we still divide time 50/50 but take
the kid for walks and cultural activities conducted in a safe manner that have
been moved to the main city park and plazas to maintain distance. Our city has
a lot of space for kids to roam carelessly and free. School are scheduled to
open in September, so no change there.

Location: Oviedo, Spain

------
Haul4ss
My kids will be in 9th and 7th grade. My school district is starting 100%
distance learning. I did opt for hybrid when it's available.

I'm setting up study areas in the house for the kids that are away from each
other and me. I'm going to get comfortable headphones for their school-issued
Chromebooks.

The plan is instructional blocks that include webinars, basically, along with
some study time with the teacher available online. They can come up to my
office if they have questions as well.

I built out my home office to mirror my work office this past spring, so I'm
pretty well setup to be a remote employee and hopefully the quiet spaces I
setup for the kids will be good for their remote learning.

~~~
roel_v
"I'm going to get comfortable headphones for their school-issued Chromebooks"

Have you researched this yet? I'm having a hard time finding good headphones
for children.

~~~
actfrench
We tried out everything available and ultimately went with Airpod pro. They
seemed to be the most comfortable for kids and also easiest to jump and move
around. Wirecutter also wrote an article on this.
[https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-kids-
headpho...](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-kids-headphones/)

------
rudyrigot
We’re on my developer salary in a modest Chicago suburb house, which is enough
for us by itself, so my wife was able to leave her job to focus on our 6yo
daughter full time, with little financial concerns. We can pretty much last
like this indefinitely, if nothing changes.

We were living in the Bay Area a few years ago, and then a couple of years in
Chicago itself, I’m very thankful we happen to find ourselves in a more
affordable area as this is going on, because everything would have been much
trickier...

------
glitchc
I have one son in elementary school. Since the school system switched to
online learning, it's been a mixed bag. Having our son around all day is quite
nice, and we have fun, however, he's not learning much from the online
experience at all, so we have to teach everything ourselves. Before, it was
just a matter of supplementing what the teacher taught. Assignments are
overwhelmingly negative: They're all slide decks. It feels like office work
for both the child and the parent. My son was sick of making slides by the end
of the school year and I don't blame him.

Net result: We will be sending him to school once it opens.

------
spanhandler
Homeschool for the very advanced older of our two elementary kids, done by one
partner who's also going to be working from home, kind of. Many worries about
that, including 1) will that actually work out OK?, and 2) if it does will
that one end up _so_ far ahead that we're now stuck homeschooling forever?
Sort of a good problem to have but also... not a good problem to have.

Middle kid's going in, at least until they probably shut down in a month or
two. Youngest is going to grandparents whom we very much hope we don't give
The COVID, but none of the rest is happening if that one's home. No way.

~~~
sparrish
Been homeschooling mine for 15 years now. The fact that you're concerned about
#1 means you're going to be just fine. Engaged and caring parents make great
homeschoolers. It's the apathetic parents I've known that fail to educate
their children.

~~~
actfrench
Here here! And the best think about the homeschooling community is people like
you who cheer others on and support them! :)

------
seneca
Home schooling. We live in one of the better school districts in the region
(and pay dearly for it), and we were pretty displeased with the public schools
already.

Between politics being increasingly injected into public school curriculum,
lack of ability to come up with a workable solution during COVID19, and just
overall poor performance of the program we've had enough and have decided to
opt out.

Luckily we're able to afford having my spouse be a stay at home parent, and we
plan to move to get out of the high COL associated with the supposedly great
schools.

~~~
actfrench
This crisis has exacerbated many of the problems that already existed in the
school system: increased spread of disease, poor social engagement
(bullying/racism), non-inclusive approach to history and politics and failure
to teach things to form their own framework of values and think critically (or
involve their parents in that process). None of these problems are new, it's
just becoming more socially acceptable to homeschool. Good for you for making
the right choice for your children. Having your spouse at home with them will
be ideal.

~~~
seneca
Can't say I particularly agree with you. Things like an "[inclusive] approach
to history and politics", and everything that implies, are a large part of why
we pulled our kids out of public schools.

I fully respect other adults' right to hold their own opinions. I am not a fan
of high-jacking education of children as a way to push those views, which has
unfortunately become common place from both ends of the political spectrum.

------
phjesusthatguy3
One of my children is entering high school this year, 100% online, through the
district's virtual learning program. The other is finishing the last year of
middle school, 100% online, &c. My job was never in danger because of where I
work, and my wife was already at home, so she's committed to working with the
kids on their work and I'm working with them when I'm at home.

We never would have made it through this year if my paycheck disappeared. I
can't imagine how everyone else is doing this.

~~~
jeffrallen
Getting by with a little help from Jack Daniels, probably.

------
michaelgrosner2
We have a 3 year old in NJ (suburb of NYC). His pediatrician and my wife's doc
both recommend he go in-person to his preschool. So far schools are re-opening
but are 3 days a week instead of 4, with staggered drop off times. We are
preparing for a shutdown a few weeks in by lining up a pod of 4 other kids and
a teacher.

I honestly think that our area of NJ has a good a chance of making it through
in-person for the long-term due to being so slammed by it at first & the pro-
social reaction from most of our neighbors.

------
AnimalMuppet
Well, we have a large house, and we homeschool, so we don't have your set of
problems at all.

But our youngest is a senior in high school this year. She's taking some dual-
enrollment classes, but they're online-only. If she were a year older, and
looking at going to college this fall... I don't know what we'd do. I guess
we'd be restricted to schools that are within commuting distance, because we'd
have no confidence that they wouldn't go remote-only at the drop of a hat.

------
eries
I'm another +1 for Modulo.app, our 6yo is really enjoying "Kids Club" as well
as a number of zoom classes. We sometimes supplement with outschool too, but
at this point we have built up a nice roster of instructors who work 1:1 over
zoom.

It doesn't seem likely to me that schools will be able to safely reopen in the
US anytime soon, so I'd encourage everyone to take a look at the emerging
startups appearing in this area, like Prenda, Primer, Dexter [full disclosure,
I'm an investor]

------
h0p3
Among other things, trying to teach my offspring reminds me of how profoundly
unqualified I am to be a father. It feels like I've thrown everything plus the
kitchen sink at the wall to see what sticks. I do not claim to do a good job.
They've maintained wikis for a while with us, and that has been something I
hold in high regard. Feel free to HMU,
[https://philosopher.life/](https://philosopher.life/), if you want to talk.

~~~
actfrench
The most qualified person to be your children's father is you. You're the only
one who cares enough to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them to help
create a personalized, enriching experience for them.

~~~
h0p3
Hello Manisha, that is very kind of you, and I admire your work. I will agree
I am the most motivated and accountable person in their lives.

~~~
actfrench
Heart emoji.

------
danans
Taking things one day at a time, and learning to be patient with everyone: the
teachers, my kids, ourselves. We have shifted our kids' babysitter toward more
teaching-assistant type duties.

Also, I'm trying use my free time to teach the kids intellectually stimulating
stuff they wouldn't learn in a classroom - like how to play poker, how to
calculate flooring area from an architectural plan, how a wall is constructed,
basic chemistry while cooking in the kitchen.

~~~
jeffrallen
Since your babysitter's responsibility is growing is his/her pay also growing?
Sorry for the rude question, but "essential workers" have rights and needs
too...

~~~
danans
Yes, it is.

------
cc23
I tend to start work early and get a lot of work done in a short amount of
time. I drink bulletproof coffee right when I wake up, fast until 1, and
finish work by 430, when my kid wakes up from their nap. I am lucky to not be
pulled into a lot of meetings, so I have large blocks of time dedicated to
only coding. I try not to do anything else during work hours except work, and
maintain a flow state for most of the time.

------
kbutler
15-year-old: I miss my friends. Want to do my concurrent-enrollment advanced
study classes. She's starting school, we'll see how long in-person school
lasts.

12-year-old: School over the internet is awesome! Takes me a quarter of the
time and I'm not just waiting for the teacher and the class. Doing an online,
tech-focused, home schooling program, with in-person advanced math class and
drama class.

~~~
actfrench
That's so interesting that your kids have had such different experiences. Do
you attribute it to their personality or to the way their teachers/schools are
doing distance learning?

~~~
kbutler
Personality, motivation to be with friend group, and availability of
interesting/challenging courses.

The 12-yo had been explicitly told he "could miss two weeks and not fall
behind", and the teacher tried to forbid working ahead in the math book. (The
in-person math class is up a grade level plus "advanced").

------
ifend
Montana: 5 year old going into Kindergarten. Wife is quitting her job (at a
school - non-teacher) to stay home and assist my son with 100% online
learning.

If the school/community manages to create a safe in-person learning
environment for the next few months my son will transfer to in-person
learning. I highly doubt this will happen though given the current trends.

------
adamredwoods
Full-time tech worker in Seattle in a stressful job, wife works full-time, one
9yo.

We are going to get an Alexa or Google smart speaker to help maintain
schedules and screen-allowance timers. Maintaining a set schedule is key.

We have tried white-boards, but they get messy with lots of other priorities
we try to organize (shopping, garbage night, bills, etc).

------
drc37
All kids are going to school, but only 4 days a week (I don't know why 1 less
day reduces any risk). Masks are optional but recommended. Currently, all
after school sports are still going forward as before. The district is
offering an homeschooling option but limited on the number. It is already
maxed out.

~~~
icebraining
> All kids are going to school, but only 4 days a week (I don't know why 1
> less day reduces any risk)

If the days are staggered, it would reduce the occupancy rate of the
classrooms, which seems sensible.

~~~
drc37
But, they are not. They go all 4 days, all day. So, completely senseless and
half-hearted like most of the COVID rules out there. I can only think that
they may be doing deeper cleans on Fridays, but they haven't said that they
are. So, who knows.

------
consultutah
2 kids in high school. They started last week with online only. Their schools
offered the option of online only or in person classes and each student was
able to choose. Even though the class list for online only is much smaller
than what's available in person, we thought it safer to go that way.

------
giantg2
I feel like people might as well homeschool if you have to watch them anyways.
Many kids can be done their work by 1pm if they are homeschooled. Better than
staring at a screen all day. And we wonder why the newest generations have a
life expectancy less than the previous ones.

------
flarg
London, England. Small house, big garden, Mrs was a teacher, 4 year old boy.
He plays Lego, games, in an inflatable pool, in a sandbox, and does max 4
hours of learning a week with my wife. He's never been so happy and it'll do
for a year as far as I am concerned.

~~~
jeffrallen
Excellent plan, good on you.

------
bg4
Our school is doing e-learning for 3 weeks then, supposedly, going back to in
person. 60-90% of the school population (depending on school) opted for
e-learning for the year so when my kids go back there is only 8 or so other
kids in the classroom.

------
achenatx
private kindergarten - 3 weeks virtual only, then 100% in school (10 kids)

private 2nd, 7th - 3 weeks virtual only, then hybrid model. One week on, one
week off, 10 kids in class.

I ran calculations for the probability of a serious infection and it is
something like

1% prevalence * 5% transmission rate 1% hospitalization rate

.0005% chance per contact of being hospitalized

chance your child doesnt get hospitalized per extended contact .99995

with 10 children in the class plus a teacher, the probability of being
hospitalized is .99995^10 or 1/20,000

I can work from home and my wife is a stay at home. I know a little about a
lot of things so can teach them pretty much anything. We had a lot of fun in
the spring.

I dont love the pandemic, but it has been great for us as a family.

~~~
actfrench
What do you think about the chance of your child passing on the disease to
someone older or the teacher?

------
yumraj
Which Home school program are people following?

Especially looking for California and 2nd-3rd graders..

Is there a curriculum that you follow and use books? Or is there an online
Home school thing..

Looking for pointers...

~~~
eries
Math: [https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/the-best-math-
programs-...](https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/the-best-math-programs-for-
home-educators)

Reading: [https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/the-5-best-programs-
to-...](https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/the-5-best-programs-to-teach-
your-child-to-read5)

------
t0mbstone
My wife is a school teacher who is currently teaching remotely while I work
remotely as a programmer.

We live in a small two bedroom apartment, but we rearranged the whole house to
make it all work.

We converted our bedroom into a bedroom and office for my wife, our 4 year old
son's bedroom into a family room and office for me, and then we turned our
entire living room into a school and play room for our son.

We then hired a nanny to tutor and play with our 4 year old son during the day
while we each work in our respective offices. She is an ex-teacher who has
been self-isolating since March (the same as us).

She charges $12 an hour for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, which works out to
$360 a week. This is about $100 more than keeping our son in his daycare, but
now he's getting one-on-one interaction and tutoring instead of just being one
kid out of twenty in a room with only two teachers.

Unless my wife's school district (or my office) is willing to provide hazmat
suits and/or effective PPE, we intend to stay home until a vaccine is
released.

------
dtwatljfk
Our children will attend private school in person.

------
pgrote
Elementary and middle school students. Local school district is virtual for
the 1st quarter, but we had made the decision it would be virtual for our kids
until a working vaccine arrives or the virus transmission rate is under
control.

Our productivity at home will be lower and I will have to relearn fractions,
but we're going to make it work.

I am disappointed we didn't use the summer to better prepare by starting to
teach the kids, but it seemed like none of us wanted to do anything related to
school given what is happening.

~~~
actfrench
I think it's great that you gave your children a break this summer. Sometimes
kids really need to just relax and play. It's been a hard year. Learning isn't
linear, so they will likely catch up quickly. Also, there a ton of great apps
and youtube videos for teaching fractions (you might not even have to help).
Let me know if you'd like some recommendations.

~~~
pgrote
>Let me know if you'd like some recommendations.

I would be thankful. I appreciate your time.

~~~
actfrench
Of course! Can you email me at manisha@modulo.app and we'll find a time to
talk?

Also Math Tango is our all time favorite app and they have lots of great
fraction stuff.
[https://www.originatorkids.com/?p=1008](https://www.originatorkids.com/?p=1008)

More fraction specific - Slice Fractions is a favorite in our community.
[https://ululab.com/slice-fractions/](https://ululab.com/slice-fractions/)

------
jerf
We ended up doing full-on homeschooling. Our local policies have them
physically going in in about 3 weeks, or being "virtual".

We have a legally deaf-blind student that we feel will not be able to cope
with everyone wearing a mask and having to be distant. (Under normal
circumstances, he tends to get rather close in because he's trying to see you;
he's got rather more European personal space sensibilities than American
ones.) We also have a sneaking suspicion that "in person school" will last
less than a week before someone coughs and everyone is sent home. (So to
speak.) We think this is going to be a very unstable and destabilizing option.

The local virtual option was well established here before, but involves
children sitting in front of computers for nearly the full 8 hours, as if they
were at school. As adults, we're hardly willing to be on 8 hours of video call
a day and asking for this from children is absurd. (I'm not too worried about
the details of whether it's exactly 8 hours, the point is, they're clearly
trying to function as a school _day_ replacement rather than a _school_
replacement; the two are not the same.)

I've also noticed my oldest is falling behind in math, because they're going
just a _touch_ faster than he can quite keep up with [1], and I've kind of
wanted to fix that anyhow. I can see the memeplex forming where he realizes
that there's no reason to put any effort in, because almost no matter what he
does, the curriculum goes zooming on and gives him an OK grade. Even if we
only do this for half a year or a year I'm hoping to have a chance to break in
to this cycle.

At the moment I'm not focusing too hard on the "socialization" problem.
Lockdown is precluding a lot of good solutions to that anyhow. We can address
it more thoroughly later.

The main thing I'm having to reconsider is music. I still want to offer a
music program, but now band isn't an option and/or is not a reliable option.
(This is true even if we took the full-physical option anyhow.) We're doing a
trial run of the home schooling this week (before our actual start date, so we
can decide how we like it), and I'm considering trying to offer the kids some
music programs involving instruments that are capable of functioning alone. I
took enough piano that I could easily teach it; I'm also considering electric
guitar as a versatile option that seems to have some passable electronic
teaching options. (I feel like even on an instrument I don't play myself I can
still fill in the gaps in such programs.)

[1]: A previous comment of mine on the topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23490872](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23490872)

~~~
spanhandler
If you want support from an app for piano and especially if you already have a
keyboard or digital piano with MIDI out, I would _strongly_ recommend Simply
Piano on the iPad. I'm not affiliated, just a very, very happy user with a
young kid getting more out of that app than I would have imagined—I started
off keeping pace, having played a few instruments but not piano before, but
when your kid spends every spare minute on the damn thing it's hard to keep
up, after they get the hang of it.

It's not so hot at form—it tries to teach and reinforce it but of course it
can't dynamically check that you aren't screwing up—but is great at most other
things. Heavy focus on playing recognizable and fun music (they license _tons_
of stuff) to keep up interest, with arrangements adjusted down as necessary.
Long, segmented "curriculum" plan with some branches, free play modes on songs
you've "unlocked", sheet music available and play modes that scroll the page
for you. It's really nice.

