Corona Virus Shutdown Preparation

I was going to do a blog post about our first week homeschooling, and then it got to be too long, so I thought I'd break it up into our couple of days of preparation and then the week itself.

I worked at the library all day on Monday (March 16) before the schools closed, and it was absolutely bonkers with folks checking things out before the shutdown (the library closed indefinitely March 17th and I'm currently on "administrative leave"). Here's a chart comparing materials checked out for all the days in March - look at that spike for the 16th, and the increased activity wasn't spread throughout the day, either. It was quiet all morning until they announced the closure.

My colleague took this photo of the empty shelves in the "New Books" section after we closed at 9pm.

Well, I certainly did not want to be homeschooling, and I really certainly did not want it to be because we're in the thick of a global pandemic. It's not that I was dreading the kids being home - I was looking forward to summer and them being off school and at home with me and Leah! It's more that I was feeling very, very overwhelmed with getting them through their schoolwork, especially Amelie, who receives quite a bit of support at school. Plus, being cooped up in the house is not nearly as much fun as regular summer vacation.

We went ahead and sent the kids to school on Monday because I was working  all day and then on Tuesday (March 17th) because the teachers were sending home their packets of work, and then CPS would be closed until April 13th.

Here's Sam and Leah on that Tuesday before the big kids were home:

And I took her for a walk in the carrier for the first time in a bit - we've kept up the family daily walk every single day.

They both brought home about 10 library books each, plus 10-15 shorter nonfiction curriculum books, pencils, and new composition notebooks. The packets of work are at least 120-150 pages long (though 20 pages are PE exercises).

I asked the big kids what it was like on the last day of school, and James said that his teacher and one of his classmates were stressed, and that they didn't do their scheduled specials (like music and PE). Amelie said about half of her classmates were absent.

Anyway, my homeschooling friend talked me down from the ledge, and I decided to shoot for one hour of parent instruction per day per kid, broken up into two 30-minute chunks. I figure we get through what we get through! If Sam's home (and he's been working from home since Monday), I've been doing math in the AM and he's been doing language arts (etc.) in the afternoon.

Here's the schedule I came up with, clipart and all:

It really has been very helpful! They'll be wandering aimlessly or otherwise off track and I'll say, "What's next on the schedule?" and off they'll trot to the fridge to check it.

Sam's preparation was to build the kids two desks where they can do their schoolwork:

Those are Amelie's legs poking out from beneath her "hut." She slept under there the first night. The desks have enjoyed a great deal of use as forts, etc.

Another big change for us has been meal planning to go to the store much less frequently (we're sending Sam). We were probably averaging a trip to the store 5 times a week between the two of us. Schnuck's is within easy walking distance, and doesn't take long at all to pop in and get something on the way home from work or to walk over there and get a little exercise with Leah, and then I like to make the occasional trip for cheap snacks and produce at Aldi. But we knew that was off the table, so Sam went on Sunday (March 22) prior to the citywide shelter-in-place and stocked up really well.

He said that he'd never spent that much money at the grocery store in his entire life. He only got a gallon and a half of milk and one loaf of bread, though, since he said they were running low.