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Ugh, I understand, it’s hard. What worked for me is we became “work bros”, meaning I got him all excited a few days before with the “work bros” concept …. I moved his work area to where we could see one another but still had enough space to hear well with headphones ….this stopped the popping in and out of calls for the most part. I made him feel like we were partners and would treat him like a coworker in a silly way. I also explained to him my needs like he’s a big boy. “Mommy really needs you to wait patiently when I’m on a call”, then I kept a notepad nearby where he could write me “secret work bro message”….it’s work 😂 ….I realize all kids are different so this may not work but hopefully you get some other ideas too
Yessss to all of this. I called my 7 year old my partner. Made him feel like we work together. I even speak to him as such on a regular basis and it makes him feel like a teammate. I do the whole team work makes the dream work and we are in this together. It really worked for us. And I feel he actually matured quite a bit bc I had to step away to take calls and he had to be a big mature boy and handle his work. I'd come up with a menu too for the week for lunch and discuss it with him like how I'd chat with my coworkers..."was thinking tomorrow we go to that new Cafe." This idea and perspective helped us too.
I made the kids take a walk with me daily to get fresh air. They complained a lot but at least we got outside
I would pull a 6 year old out of virtual school, ask for worksheets, and sit the kid in front of movies at this point. Or something else that doesn't require you to assist the same way. Audio books can be fun and fairly autonomous if your kid likes them.
Mentor
Is there a friend/neighbor in your daughter’s you can switch on and off with? You each cover 2 days a week (or 1 day a week if there are 4 parents in the picture)? Would she be more inclined to pay attention and participate if she had a friend doing it with her? Also, this is kindergarten, I assume? Maybe figure out the most productive/useful hour of instruction (honestly there probably isn’t much more than an hour of true content), and just block your calendar and make sure she does that 1 hour (you could still work on your computer, just don’t schedule calls during that hour so you can be in the room with her).
Subject Expert
I’d hire someone. Have them rapid tests before they come in each day. Having the same 1 person in your house every day with a rapid test is not super high risk. Even if it’s a neighbor who comes in 3 hours a day, it gets you some uninterrupted time.
Synchronous classroom learning was a big fail for my sons. They figured out how to be watching youtube while the teacher was talking. (7 and 8 yr olds) On top of that, the teachers would "assign" things that were youtube videos or some other software which never loaded or worked. I made a rule that if my kids click on a link and it doesn't load, then they don't have to do it. I had a zoom meeting with my son's teachers to discuss what their educational goals were (there's an important quiz on Thursday at 10am or whatever). I demanded downloadable pdfs of all required assignments and had the teachers direct me to which chapter in the textbook the kids were on. That way I could make sure the actual work was done. They pulled through with B's.
If I had to repeat this experience I would only do asyncronous learning with reference to actual textbooks. I know the teachers are scrambling too, but I am not a teacher and was losing my mind trying to coordinate all of two different kids' online school while also trying to work. Thank God they are back on campus most days. We're in California so the schools have tried to have class outdoors as much as possible to get the kids some fresh air.
My son is the king of watching YouTube while “learning.” Ugh. That’s one of the reason I stuck him in the Y last year. I had to put a little blink camera in his room and yell at him every time he was goofing off.
Are there other parents that you can group up the kids with?
I have friends who partner with 3-4 other kids and do virtual school together. The parents all rotate which house they're at (so the parents can be engaged with the kids while they're virtual learning but only a day or so each week, rather than every day.)
She said it worked out really well because she could be focused on her own work for the other 4 days of the week while her kid was at the other houses. And was able to be more present in her kid's schooling for the 1 day each week that the kids were at her house.
Are you able to hire someone who can help?
No, not really, unfortunately. The whole point is to quarantine from holiday travel/spread, so it would feel counterproductive to bring a random caretaker into our house. Our regular babysitters are high school students, so they’re in school.
Can you both shift your work hours?
Not really. I’ve blocked out their breaks/lunch so I can handle that, but that’s about it.
Where do you live ? Just trying to assess if this will happen to us!
Northern NJ, an NYC suburb.
Yikes. It was announced in middle of the holiday break!
The last day of school. Great Christmas present.
We used Alexa and set reminders when it was time to log in after breaks. So if the teacher said be back in 15 mins, our daughter would tell Alexa to set a reminder for 15 mins. I’m really hoping our schools can remain open
This is a great idea