School at home

On Monday, March 9 (the same day that I taught my first online class), Billings closed for just one

day to give the teachers time to prepare for possible distance learning. Aaron was back in school for two days, and then on Wednesday, March 11, all the schools announced at least two weeks of closure starting that day, public and private. A few days later this was updated to six weeks, through April 24. I expect it to be longer.

Billings has a comprehensive educational plan for the students: Aaron will have a full school day at home, with an 8:30am Google meet to start every day, and one or two more synchronous meetings each day, so that each class meets live a couple times a week. There is a regular schedule of independent work in between, with work assigned for each class every day. Aaron is currently extremely irritated at this, but I am thrilled. He will continue to be educated, and I don’t have to be the one to make it happen.

Jordan, meanwhile, has literally nothing. The Seattle public school system cannot provide equitable access to distance learning, so although the teachers might send home some options, they are strictly optional. I am fairly stressed about this. I am afraid Jordan will spend every day sleeping til noon and consuming nothing but screen garbage and tortilla chips. We need to create a plan, and an accountability system, and I already have a job. (Which just got a lot harder, by the way.)

Here are some of my current ideas for the school-less time:

• Daily obligations such as 30 min of reading, 30 min outdoor exercise, 30 min music practice, etc.
• A project that takes a week or more, with a deliverable. Examples: writing and performing and producing a piece of electronic music; coding a program with a demonstrable result; baking a different quick bread every day to master the form.
• Regularly making dinner for the family, maybe 3x/week.
• A big yard project, like if we had a giant pile of dirt delivered the boys could move it from the driveway into the garden.
• Household chores assigned each day: kitchen, laundry, disinfect surfaces, etc.