Day 1
80 is jazzed at the novelty of homeschooling, and organized a schedule that follows her school schedule. I don’t know that it’s the most practical schedule, but I’ll take the child-directed one first.
The day started with music and shop. For music, she played the piano. We have a keyboard that has a tutorial mode where the keys light up and the accompaniment waits for you. Uh, it’s ideal.
Next was shop. 80’s school has shop once a week, and it’s her favorite. She had made a loom a few weeks ago, so she worked on the blanket while we listened to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
80 has a tutor for extra help, so they met over video chat. The tutor set up her computer so she could stand in front of her whiteboard, and they did some math and writing together. I messaged with friends (it’s delightful that now that everyone is distant, geographically distant friends feel somehow closer).
80’s school organized a Google Hangout readaloud with one of the teachers. They emailed us details, including rules of engagement:
- You must mute yourself right away when you join the “meeting”.
- You can only unmute yourself if you’re “called on” (you have raised your hand and the teacher has said your name)
- If you unmute yourself out of turn, we will, unfortunately, have to check you out of the session. You can try again next time.
This seems completely reasonable for a group of 40 people, many of whom haven’t been in a videochat with more than one before. I’m sure many adults are learning the same lesson this week.
The kids were excited to see each other, it really does seem to have a positive effect, just to see their classmates and teachers. They had some technical difficulties, which is absolutely expected – I’m reminded of this meme: 
We truly are all stick-footin’ it now, in general.
We are leftover pizza for lunch (I made sourdough crust pizza last night!) and now 80 is mowing through the worksheets her teachers sent home.
It is only occurring to me now that I rarely see my kid when she’s medicated – she’s usually at school for it (and she takes a break on weekends). She is in a quiet, undistracted environment now, and it’s working. At least for day one ?