A Good Week

Good Food, and adorable.

A visit from family!

And done.  

Patric on shot two this week.

 

And my stint as cafeteria worker after 13 months is over on Wednesday when all of the children go back to school!

 

Nick's High School Experience So Far

Nick is "back" in school. 

As of this writing, it has been one year since the children went home. 

He has been in physical class on campus six times since they started rotating kids back in class over five weeks ago.

"I didn't think it was possible, but COVID school is worse than COVID remote learning."

He is quiet all day.  All. day.  

There are five kids maybe in his classes.

Two of his teachers don't teach in the school. 

He sits and does remote learning while sitting in the classroom, in a mask, not talking, no interaction.

So far in high school, he has 56 class absences. 

He didn't go to class, didn't turn in attendance, missed roll call, whatever the reason. 

He has a 4.0 High School GPA, 4.25 when weighted for his Honors classes. 

So, in addition to being the lunch lady, principal, janitor, driver's ed teacher, teacher, parent, counselor, and extracurricular manager, I have now failed at being truancy officer. However, it is really tough to actually care at this point, when no grades are affected for absence.  

My favorite teacher to student, complete opposite comment from what Ben received, both being entirely inappropriate: the kids are "lazy" for wanting to go back to school because they just want the teachers to do everything for them.

Driver's Ed update: After being told they would finish their November class with the driving portion in February, we received an abrupt text message in March that the driving school is backed up and still doing the driving portion for the kids who took the class in June 2020.  

So, just one more thing we'll do ourselves and out of step.

I'm exhausted.

 

First Day of High School Ben

Not normal at all. 

Seven months into his first year of high school, he went to school after 11 months out of school and in his bedroom.

The first two days of his week in school were from home because one was a teacher conference day that I had no idea about and the other was a teacher work day during which they apparently don't work.  *see below.  His fourth day of the week back was canceled due to ice, that wasn't.  

After the county told us his bus would be here after it would actually be here so he missed it, I drove him in. 

He wasn't allowed out of the car until he passed a medical questionnaire. 

He attended remote classes from within his classes from his own computer that he brought from home. Most of his teachers weren't there.

One class had two students in it, including him. The teachers have said out loud they hope the kids don't show up. 

His social studies teacher was there and asked him in class: "Ben, have I ever seen you?"  Turns out the answer is no, because he was attending a different social studies class the entire semester.  No one ever reached out.  At all. And he had no way of knowing because neither of the two social studies teachers have graded any work the entire semester so grades wouldn't indicate anything was wrong, and the teacher in the class he had been attending just ignored that he was there.

The kids were told in one class that they were essentially stupid for wanting to come to school because they could be home sleeping in and not working.

A school board member has tweeted publicly that it is just white kid's families that want to go back to school, indicating what, I'm not entirely sure.

We paid for and he took the classroom portion of Driver's Ed in November before turning 15; to date, he can't finish the class, get a permit, or learn to drive because they haven't scheduled the behind the wheel portion of the class.  When I asked recently when that would happen for either of my boys? Here is the cut and paste of the entire sentence fragment + one complete sentence response: "Once they are assigned to a driver.  The driver will contact you."

 Week one of return: two days completing remote school in school, three days off.  And, he had the life lesson that the adults have all checked out hammered home.

 

School Brunch

Mesmerizing

Sometimes vegetarian

And stuffed hashbrowns from the waffle maker. 

We're going to perfect this one with some trial and error.

All because discussing actual school will take a dissertation.

 

Back to School

And school lunch and home school and all things from home. 

Back to the new grind, until we can go back to the regular grind, which we are waiting for with anticipation at this point.  We don't yet have a date for in-person school, or in-person driving classes, or an end for our endless internet usage here. 

But, we are hopeful if not confused.

One started remote again 4 January, still finishing first semester; one starts remote again 5 January, beginning second semester; girls don’t go back until the last week of January. Neither of them have a class schedule yet, so don’t even know what courses they will be taking.  All are remote until 18 January.  Then one starts going in and out every other week.  The girls start one week in and two out at the end of the month.  And, one, I have no idea except he is supposedly going to go on a similar one in two out schedule in two weeks, but I don’t know yet if it will match the girls.  But he also has to go one day next week in person to take one final exam that doesn’t count toward his grade.

Rather Not Any More

We have tried to make a zillion packages of peaches work. 

But when they make a game of guessing what it is before opening the package, and then

they disagree on the verdict even after seeing it, I think we need to give up. 

Thank you school lunches, but we have run out of innovation. 

There should be a Top Chef School boxed lunch challenge.  Everyone would be sent home. Except we're home, which is part of the problem. 

I'm Over this.

But why?

What are you talking about?

Who are you?

Nightly in my house now, I bring my phone out after the meal is over and question all the children--who is this person texting me?  Did you do whatever they are telling me you had to do?  When will you guys ever just go back to school?

More Spooky: School Lunch

We have received so many frozen cups of peaches and strawberries that no one wants that I went ahead and made freezer smoothly packs to see if I can get anyone to eat them in any way.  Applesauce puffs went over well.  There is also a good dog biscuit recipe we found that used applesauce.  

It has become a joke that if it is labeled delicious, it definitely is not. 

They are pretty good sports about it, but there are only so many cold mushy vegetables with some sort of meat on a bun that you can choke down.

The amount of plastic bags is astounding. 

These.  No one knows what to do with these. 

School Lunch

My eyes have been opened recently to what is school lunch. 

The system is handing them out for free around the community, so yes.  

Even if funnel cakes are really an item?

Chicken and rice and garden salads showed up once during the very first offering. 

They still hope for that lunch every time we open a bag. 

They do not wish for fat free milk of the regular nor chocolate variety. 

So we give those to the neighbor.  8 a day add up.

We're Still Here

Homeschooling away.  

Class from the bedroom, from the kitchen, together, apart, we roll along. 

"Mom!  The toilet is smoking!"

 All middle school pranks take place here too.  

One thing I don't miss from the world before: public restrooms.

First Day of School 20-21

Like all the cool kids, we have first day of school pictures from inside the classroom this year.  Nick got started two weeks before the others this time. 

I was unaware that a fork was part of the school supply list. 

But the girls ate breakfast in bed nearly up to starting time before running off to their separate rooms to begin class together but not in the same room. 

And Ben was a mixture of smiling for me and looking sad to begin again, particularly like this. 

As the cafeteria worker, I had lunch ready.  Although this really only takes care of 2.5 days....

As the IT department, Patric and I failed at tech upgrade in preparation for five people in Zoom meetings daily.  Nick took his first high school exam on his iPhone.  sigh.  But we got it fixed within a day.  We're learning. 

As social worker, I am available all day, every day with open office hours since no one has a similar schedule to another.  With no friends to catch up with, the traditional passing in the hall is now switched for coming by and chatting with me.   When I am cafeteria worker, this schedule doesn't work at all--4 kids in 3 different lunch periods that span 2 and a half hours each day. 

After crashing all the internet by logging into Zoom calls separately and then getting on face time with each other during the first 5 minutes of class, we had to put some rules in place.  So Alida immediately started sending her sister pictures during class instead of face timing with her. 

And it took the first roll call for Alida to show her boredom. 

School's Out!

All online learning, video uploads, Zoom meetings complete!  

Onward, to see what happens in August after a little summer break. 

Above Elaine had to teach someone to sing and sign the scales with her, and maybe more importantly agree to be videoed for classroom upload (or maybe also blog sharing...)

Homeschool Fail

Good thing the schools have picked back up because while we seem to be good at gardening, we do not seem to be very good at spelling.

Homeschool Success

Collecting all of the devices before bed: phones, computers, games has begun again in an effort to bring us to some normal hours around here that even their dad and I are struggling with.

And then I ran into this: a teacher video conferencing through one computer, the assignment up on another computer, and going through the math on the white board together via video.  We can do this.

Homeschool Fail

And the morning following Easter, we were set to begin online school for real through the school system.  Everyone was up but mostly due to the storm that ripped through at 5:30 am and knocked out our power until after noon that day.  All morning school meetings were missed.  The lack of any power to any device left the children with little left to do. 

There was a "Draw Nick" art contest.

Simple

Aged?

And bulked up.

Before We Were Home

Conversations with Nick: 

"How was stock trading in class today?" (a class exercise he had told me was going to happen)

"Pretty good.  I made about 40%."

"I'd say that is pretty good.  How did you do it?"

"Well, I bought telephone low and sold high."

"Well that doesn't always work, well done."

"Yeah, but we're studying the Great Depression.  So I knew when the crash was coming.  Oddly, even though that was the point, a lot of kids still didn't put it together."

Good to pay attention in class.  Well done. 

We don't look at the markets for real right now.

I will be looking for FDR New Deal related YouTube videos this week, in order to do something.

Becoming Normal

Summer was a burner in many ways, but we're getting back to normal and back to school around here now. Having Alida show up to make the noodles they love is evidence of a more usual activity about the house. 

Having a Nicholas sighting is even possible these days. 

That's all good, because one day during first school break Ben showed up around 2:00 in the afternoon and made himself breakfast cereal and lunch of leftovers at the same time. 

He tells me he didn't want to take the last Sunkist (the favorite).  So, he took the second-to-the-last Sunkist and grabbed a Coke as well.  

The mayhem is ebbing and we're finding a rhythm. 

All Good Things

Must come to an end.

 

So, we scurried back from the beach, cleaned ourselves off, and sent the children off to school on July 9 to start their 7th and 8th grade years.

 

Year-round-school will take some getting used to.

 

I did have to go back to the archives to remind myself that Nicholas did once know how to smile.

Which made me smile.

 

Nicholas Sews

 

Middle School 7th Grade Sewing Class Project:

A Quilt.

 

We went to the sewing store and chose the fabric, discussing how patterns can be mixed and how black can be more than black.  He chose a music note pattern and a large white paisley on a black background. And knowing we were moving to a warmer climate soon, the flannel twin sheet from his bed made a perfect backing, which was envied by all classmates when they showed up with cotton.  Needless to say, he received an A in this elective course, and he loved the quiet class that started many of his days this last year.  His bedroom in the new house will be designed around this piece. 

 

Of course now every time there is some piece that is in disrepair around our house that I move to throw out, he lectures me on how we could fix it.  

Track Season

First race out on the hurdles, Ben won!

 

Nick ran the mile, half mile, and some other long race. 

 

So proud of them both!