What is remote learning like for me and my family?

#victorialockdown
#remotelearning

I have 3 daughters in grades 1-6. The youngest is 6, the oldest 11 years old. They are all in literacy support - the older two have significant reading delays.

It's 1 hour into the school day. Thus far, I have spent 5mins between 3 kids making sure they have signed in for role-marking, 10mins per older child 1 & 2 to help them figure out their first 1hours activity and half an hour helping the 6 year old through reading a book and

writing answers to their questions. Remind OC2 to log into her literacy support video conference at 10am.

Next up, get the Ms6 to find a "special item" for show&tell and get her logged into her half hour class video conference.

Listen in for a while as the teacher talks about how much they -must- have from us every day because the dept is being stricter.

Check on OC2 (older child 2), find she forgot to log in for her literacy support, fix this.

Wonder where OC1 is. Probably fetching a snack?

I go to locate her. She should have started her second activity of the day by now. She has not done any work - she has been secretly watching YT instead.

She whines and sulks when I try to correct her. I have a choice now. I can stand over her and try and coax or scold her into

doing some school work. Experience at this tells me it will cost me over an hour to get her through assigned work that is timetabled for half an hour.

... I go back to my room and cry as I finish writing this. I am barely recovered from illness that kept me in bed all last week.

*deep breath*

I took a break to have something to eat and feed the cats. I start work on a grocery shopping list but put it down to get OC1 logged into her literacy support session and OC2 logged into her class video conference. It it now about an hour since my crying break.

Next task. Check out Ms6's assigned maths and writing activities. Print relevant worksheets.

OC2 asks what to do next. I redirect her to the list of assigned activities in google classroom.

OC2 tries to choose made-up names for her spelling activity. She tries very hard.

I lose my patience after four assorted rounds that boil down to "are these names ok?" and yell at OC2 that names=/=spelling words.

After going to another room to calm down, I point OC2 at dictionary dot com and tell her that if a word isn't found, she can't use it for spelling.

Next I log Ms6 into her literacy support session. She's happy - she loves seeing her teacher for this.

I check on OC1 and am deeply relieved to find her working on her maths. It will still probably take her far too long but it is something.

I sit down again, to catch my breath and drink some water. I am exhausted and shaking and I have a headache building. I check twitter, write this thread.

... Where did that grocery list go?

... OC1 & 2 need me again and I direct Ms6 to do her handwriting practice.