Owen’s P/T conferences blew us away.

We just had Owen’s parent/teacher conferences and his teachers ALL had amazing things to say—they all commented on his attitude, empathy, helpfulness, friendliness, kindness, work ethic, class participation, grades…everything. After the shitshow of last year, we could not be happier or more proud.

I managed to record a snippet of his math teacher taking about him and this literally just scratches the surface of all the amazing things they said about him…

Katie’s Curriculum Night

Only one parent was allowed (thanks, Covid) so that means me. Which I’m fine with because then I get to check everything out! I sat at her desk and got to look inside to see if it was a mess (it wasn’t, but her teacher said she makes them all clean their desks because ALL PARENTS LOOK). They all got to design their own name for their desk.

I really love Katie’s teachers and I think she’s gonna have a great year. I especially liked being able to see all the artwork and projects they’ve been working on (hanging in the hallway).

Back at the table already.

Yep, I’m back to babysitting the kids at the kitchen table because they were both caught watching YouTube instead of being in class. Again. After just two days back in school after holiday break.

We thought Owen was in class. Had the chromebook out and looked busy. As usual. Then we got the email from attendance asking where he was. And the email from his teachers asking where he was. After some questioning and change of heart, Owen finally admitted he had been watching YouTube for two straight days.

So he got assigned to the table.

Katie felt all high and mighty because she didn’t have to sit at the table (the known punishment) and then got caught on YouTube an hour later. Hence them both being at the table.

Yes I am thankful that I have an at-home business where I can work at the table with them. Or at the very least walk through the kitchen or by their desks throughout the day. But this is exhausting.

I posted in a Facebook group and I am not alone. By a long shot.

And today was a phone call from Katie’s teacher.

She said she just wanted to touch base because Katie hasn’t been showing up for class and when she is there she’s often not paying attention. WAIT, WHAT?

She said they can see how long kids are logged into class each day and it should be between four and four and a half hours. And she’s been getting 1-3. Most days are 2 or less. UM EXCUSE ME WHAAAAAT???!!

I mean we know she spends too much time farting around and we are constantly telling her to get back to class, but I’m here with her all day and she appears to be in class. Except apparently not. Her teacher said that she often doesn’t pay attention in class—half an hour in she gets called on and doesn’t even have her book open. So what is she doing???

Of course I’m home but I’m working and doing stuff so don’t pay close attention to her (just like I don’t with Owen) and yes we’ve had some internet issues but not hours worth. Or weeks worth. So it looks like for the near future she will be sitting right next to me at the table and I will be working on my laptop again so I can keep her on track. Just what I want to have to do, right?

The worst part of all this is that she’s waaaaaay behind on school work. She doesn’t do it in class when she’s supposed to OR in her asynchronous time in the afternoon (when she literally has a list of assignments from her teacher) so we’re trying to get her caught up. And that’s a complete joy as I’m sure you can imagine.

We have told her that we know this year is weird. And it sucks. And it’s hard. But none of that is an excuse to skip schoolwork.

Heaven help us.

I just opened an email from owen’s teacher.

I wanted you to know that Owen is struggling to attend math class. Lately, he has been coming to class, turning his camera off and not responding when I check on him. For example, his icon is in my class right now but he is not responding to me when I am trying to help him. Anything you can do to encourage him to stay with the class would be appreciated.

UGH.

That was from 9:19am when I was putting on my shoes right behind him. And saw it on the screen. But couldn’t see if his camera was on or what he was listening to with headphones on.

So needless to say we had a HUGE discussion with him about it. Especially after his poor grades last marking period (two As, two Bs, a C, and a D). He hasn’t been doing his homework, he hasn’t been asking for help, and apparently he hasn’t been active in class.

I don’t want them in school because that’s just not safe but this remote learning sucks 100%.

The drama is exhausting.

We had a lot of drama when trying to catch up on math homework tonight. There might have been screaming and crying. The rest off the night got better (after she had some cool down time in her room) but this was waiting for us when we came to bed.

Sigh.

This is the default reaction from both kids whenever we try to help them or teach them or tell them what they did wrong. We have no idea where it comes from (though I’m sure Katie says it because Owen does).

So I wrote this back.

Parenting is exhausting.

It took just four minutes.

Well today started out okay with me waking up before my alarm and I got to have some nice leisurely quiet time before the kids got up.

And they showered without much drama and they ate breakfast without much drama and we took school pictures without much drama… And then the shitshow started.

Owen had some technical difficulties dealing with an external monitor and Bluetooth headphones and Google meets and when I asked him if these were the same headphones that he used last year he said yes but they didn’t work for Google meets then either.

YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE TOLD US THAT AT SOME POINT BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?! (What I was screaming in my head—not what I said to him.) But he was completely losing it and this was him just four minutes in to Remote Learning. /cry/ Even though I wanted them home to be safe…THIS. JUST. SUCKS.

But things have gotten a little better since 9:04 AM when it was the worst and I think we might make it through this day without me needing to drink a gallon of margaritas.

I went outside to enjoy the weather in my egg chair…and Owen came out on a break and he seemed much better.

Not quite a lazy day.

So I knew when I woke up this morning that something was different about today because our room had a really distinct bright white light in it…which can only mean that there was snow outside on the ground. WHAT THE F, MOTHER NATURE?! Then Katie came in all excited because she thought today was going to be a lazy day—apparently she thought that since LAST Friday was a lazy day that THIS Friday was a lazy day, not realizing that last Friday was a holiday.

“BUT THERE’S SNOW OUTSIDE….” she whined.

“Yes, and in regular times, you’d still be going to school.”

I did agree that today should be a LAZIER day (because my ulterior motive was me not getting out of bed at all!)

So here it is 1pm and I just got out of bed to put my mask on and then I crawled back into bed.

The Hudson read three stories for Katie’s class!

Katie’s teacher sent a YouTube video of her reading a story so I asked the kids if they wanted to do one…and to my surprise they both said yes. Katie whines and complains so much about reading that I was FLOORED that she was excited to do it. She knew exactly the book she wanted to read (they’ve read it in class), she knew what one I should read (an old favorite), and Owen knew what one he wanted immediately.

It’s official. Distance learning is going to break me.

I’ve created a pretty good schedule—learning in the morning (broken up into subject blocks) with all afternoon for creative play and outside time. With time planned to check media and chat with friends. And I do know that the schedule isn’t hard and fast so I’m trying to be lenient.

But I just can’t deal with Katie arguing that 11-3=2 (she knows better, she’s just really stubborn and refuses to admit she’s wrong) and that you can make the word CAME from CAMPING. She’s arguing that her workbook isn’t school (no, technically it’s not from school but it IS schoolwork). And she’s lost her laminated login/password sheet which we obviously need…and she’s “looking” for it by sitting at the computer and staring at the monitor… Until I tell her to keep looking until she finds it…and 2 minutes later she’s doing something else. 😒

Owen is better overall…but once he got online for his Google class meeting, all was lost. I let him finish his blocked time and let him know he needed to wrap it up… But almost 45 minutes later he was still chatting PLUS he decided to play his recorder and sax for his friend (there’s that noise I posted about earlier). I know he’s excited to talk to his friends, but it makes me stabby when he’s just ignores me.

I know everyone has different schedules so I’m trying to be forgiving but I’m losing my mind…on Day 2, hour 2. 😭 This is something I didn’t even think about as going to be challenging.

I know this is new for ALL of us and it will likely get better but until then… Sigh.

This is our third school schedule.

I did a daily schedule the first week we were out of school. It worked pretty well. The kids knew what time blocks came next and pretty much stuck to it on their own.

Then came the week of spring break and we got off the rails a little. I revised the schedule a little in preparation of the anticipated actual distance learning… Only to have the teacher’s schedule sent out after I had finished so I had to revise a little. After a day of no one really even following it…I came up with a new schedule that put all academics in the morning so when it was lunchtime, that was the end of school. I had been trying to break it up throughout the day but I kind of think it made it harder, so…we’ll see. I actually hate having a schedule at all, but if we didn’t have it, every day would be a dumpster fire as no one would do any schoolwork but they’d beg for tech all day.

I already see some minor changes I want to make, and I’m sure this will get edited a few more times before we get settled into our new learning routine. We have at least a month ahead of us…

I’m appreciative that we are able to do distance learning and that I am actually able to be here for the kids and it’s not a hardship for us…but it is frustrating that ALL the hard work I did to get the kids detoxed from tech has all been wiped away within two weeks. 

I just thought I’d share what homeschooling is like for us.

Extrapolate this to similar events happening ALL DAY LONG and you can see why it’s mentally EXHAUSTING.

As of 9:30 we were already off schedule because Katie “forgot to eat” so her reading time is taken up with eating. She asked if she could finish reading during creative time (the next block). I said yes. (Also, if her normal body clock has her hungry at 9:30, school starts WAAAY TOO EARLY but I digress.)

When it finally is time to read, do you think she picks up either of the two books she has been reading? Of course not. Plus we are still working on being able to tell us what happens in a story because we recently figured out that she hasn’t actually been reading to comprehend. 🤦🏻‍♀️

And Owen… he has been asking for the next Harry Potter book forever and so we finally were able to check it out online so he can read it on the Kindle and what does he grab? The same Captain Underpants books he’s read four times already. 🤦🏻‍♀️

So Owen is reading as scheduled and humming while he reads. Katie of course has sat down RIGHT next to him so asks him to stop. He doesn’t—nd honestly shouldn’t have to because she has a whole house she can read in. She refuses to move to her “book nook” she created in the other room AND ASKED TO LEAVE OUT. Owen then starts humming even crazier JUST to annoy her. Mad props to him but I can’t say that so I tell him that isn’t nice but she does move to another room. When the official reading block is up I remind her she was going you finish and she flat out refuses to continue reading even though SHE JUST ASKED to finish her reading.