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Our first week was rough. But our school came up with a much better schedule for our kindergartener. Class is now from 8:20-9am, meet in small group with the

Our first week was rough. But our school came up with a much better schedule for our kindergartener. Class is now from 8:20-9am, meet in small group with the teacher for 30 minutes (time depends upon your group), then closing instruction at 12:45pm-1:15pm. The rest of the time is "self study". Basically, you have assignments you need to do and complete with your kid. You can do it during self study time. Or at night. Or whenever. The first week they tried to do 8:20-11:10 (with 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes) of instruction. It really didn't work. This new schedule has been much more feasible to deal with.

tboyd47 6y ago
I imagine most school districts, including ours, will land on something like what you just described, albeit after a period of jerking parents around. Since your school was only planning on three hours a day, sounds like they are more flexible than mine, which demands six. I understand even the most school-marmiest of homeschooling parents wouldn't impose more than 1-2 hours of class on 5 and 6-year-olds. I have been preparing for the possibility of homeschooling all summer, so we were ready to pull the trigger. I just didn't expect it to be Day 2!
- dorchadas 6y ago
  The district I teach at (high school) is requiring two hours for kindergartners, three for 1st and 2nd graders, and 4 for all the rest. Everyone is done by noon, and teachers are there until three to answer any questions people have while working on assignments. I think for the lower levels, it definitely might be best. Though a coworker has a son starting kidnergarden in a neighboring district, and they're there from 8-2:30, with planned time for recess and lunch. However, they're only in the main class for 30 minutes at the beginning and the end, and then each kid goes into a small group instruction with an instructor, and gets one-on-one time. I'm interested to see how that will work out overall, as it sounds like it could be a good compromise if you can get enough instructors.
scottlamb 6y ago
Nice! That's what I was hoping for but it's not going quite like that. We're on day 3 of virtual kindergarten. * Day #1 was a "minimum day": class from 08:35–11:50am, with a break from 09:40am–10:20am. That was okay, except for a technology fail: the (awesome) teacher has two pages of kids, so she doesn't always see when someone is "raising a quiet hand". And growing pains as kids learn the classroom etiquette. After class, we dropped off our kindergartener at the preschool where his younger sister goes. That gave him play time with other kids without exposing our family to another group of people, and it gave us some uninterrupted work time. * Day #2 was similar, except there was a long gap between the end of the morning Zoom at 11:30am and the "circle time" at 1:45pm–2:00pm. The teacher used this to start meeting families one-by-one; the other families didn't have much assigned to do in that time. The gap was frustrating. Day #4 and #5 will be like this again, except our kid might be absent from afternoon circle time... * Day #3 was an "asynchronous day" similar to what you're describing. It went pretty well. Next week they're supposed to be on Zoom in the afternoon until circle time, too. I'm not looking forward to this at all, even though the afternoon time is supposed to be some of the most fun stuff (music, art, science). It sounds like our teacher is not the one deciding all this, but I'll pass along your message anyway. I don't know how parents with less flexible work arrangements manage this at all. There are a couple programs to support them, but I think they involve a bunch of kids in the same room in different virtual classes on different schedules, not enough adults there to help them focus, and no reason to believe it's any safer than regular school. I imagine they're quite horrible.

tboyd47 6y ago

I imagine most school districts, including ours, will land on something like what you just described, albeit after a period of jerking parents around. Since your school was only planning on three hours a day, sounds like they are more flexible than mine, which demands six. I understand even the most school-marmiest of homeschooling parents wouldn't impose more than 1-2 hours of class on 5 and 6-year-olds. I have been preparing for the possibility of homeschooling all summer, so we were ready to pull the trigger. I just didn't expect it to be Day 2!

dorchadas 6y ago
The district I teach at (high school) is requiring two hours for kindergartners, three for 1st and 2nd graders, and 4 for all the rest. Everyone is done by noon, and teachers are there until three to answer any questions people have while working on assignments. I think for the lower levels, it definitely might be best. Though a coworker has a son starting kidnergarden in a neighboring district, and they're there from 8-2:30, with planned time for recess and lunch. However, they're only in the main class for 30 minutes at the beginning and the end, and then each kid goes into a small group instruction with an instructor, and gets one-on-one time. I'm interested to see how that will work out overall, as it sounds like it could be a good compromise if you can get enough instructors.

scottlamb 6y ago

Nice! That's what I was hoping for but it's not going quite like that. We're on day 3 of virtual kindergarten. * Day #1 was a "minimum day": class from 08:35–11:50am, with a break from 09:40am–10:20am. That was okay, except for a technology fail: the (awesome) teacher has two pages of kids, so she doesn't always see when someone is "raising a quiet hand". And growing pains as kids learn the classroom etiquette. After class, we dropped off our kindergartener at the preschool where his younger sister goes. That gave him play time with other kids without exposing our family to another group of people, and it gave us some uninterrupted work time. * Day #2 was similar, except there was a long gap between the end of the morning Zoom at 11:30am and the "circle time" at 1:45pm–2:00pm. The teacher used this to start meeting families one-by-one; the other families didn't have much assigned to do in that time. The gap was frustrating. Day #4 and #5 will be like this again, except our kid might be absent from afternoon circle time... * Day #3 was an "asynchronous day" similar to what you're describing. It went pretty well. Next week they're supposed to be on Zoom in the afternoon until circle time, too. I'm not looking forward to this at all, even though the afternoon time is supposed to be some of the most fun stuff (music, art, science). It sounds like our teacher is not the one deciding all this, but I'll pass along your message anyway. I don't know how parents with less flexible work arrangements manage this at all. There are a couple programs to support them, but I think they involve a bunch of kids in the same room in different virtual classes on different schedules, not enough adults there to help them focus, and no reason to believe it's any safer than regular school. I imagine they're quite horrible.