Forum.TheCaseForEarlySchoolClosure elicits questions.
Let’s sort them out here.
We’ll copy some ideas from the other thread. Later.
from ACM: Here’s a crazy idea - sorry it is US focused because I don’t know the state of education in other countries — all over the US schools have cut music, art and even PE to get kids ready for all their standardized tests. Let’s encourage every household to stock recorders (cheap) or other musical instruments, learn-to-read-music books, song books, basic art supplies along with learn-to-paint and draw and skecth lesson plans — and a daily regimine of no-possible-harm calisthenics and physical activities. Provide a sugested schedule and list of cheap materials. For most kids there’s not much chance they’ve had a lot of this at school anyhow, and the parents could learn it too.
Helping parents figure out what to do with their children will be a MAJOR issue. If they are tearing their hair out at home, they will be that much likely to either pressure the schools to open again, or go to work just to get out of the house! But it’s not just keeping sane, it’s about making use of the time productively, maintaining children’s education, etc. Parents will need things like
- Lesson plans by grade (daily preferred, weekly okay). Even semi-vague guidelines would be better than nothing at all. I think most parents don’t even know where to start.
- If possible, school driven plans developed by at a minimum grade elvel concensus among grade level teachers; even better plans teacher by teacher but this may not be feasible.
- If possible: lessons on TV given by teachers (via local cable access channels)
- Lists of supplies and resources to suppliment plans. Unfortunately this requires up-front action by parents as buying supplies and doing interent research may not be possible once TSHTF
- Ideas for other activities to help reduce stress - exercise, art, music, nature
- Tips for parents on how to talk with their children about what is going on with PF
- Tips for parents to deal with the stresses of havig children home, teaching them on top of PF
Beyond helping parents, there are other issues at the school themselves. 1) When to re-open? Who makes the decision to re-open and what are the criteria? 2)What will the “new” school be like - if mortality is high, class sizes will shrink, teachers will be gone, support staff, etc. 3) what can the shcool do to help the children and staff recover from what they have experienced? The demand for school counselors will be enormous - there will be more obvious emotional wounds, and even deeper ones. Look for misbehavior, poor school performances, etc. by children. Over-taxed parents won’t know what to do or where to go for help. Rather than try to go thru the maze of an over-burdened healthcare system or government programs, having in-school programs would help both parents and students. 4) getting needed supplies may be difficult, as well as food and trustworthy water. 5) Finally, as there may be waves, who will be monitoring teh situation and what would the criteria be for subsequent waves?
I have a book called “The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book” written by Guy Bailey.
The reason I mention this is to address some of the concerns raised by LauraB – at 09:50 when she reposted a suggestion by ACM.
The book should be available through interlibrary loan for a preview, or might even be able for preview from amazon.com
What is good in particular is that the book outlines games that can be played both inside and outside and are, by nature, designed for a limited number of players.
There is also a book out called “Carschooling.” While originally written so that parents could still get some “school” accomplished during time spent in the vehicle … errands, taking other kids to extracurricular activites or classes, etc. … you could implement many of the activities in a home setting.
At Easyfunschool.com there are a host of easy to implement and educational that are very parent/child friendly.
You might want to pick a series … “Swiss Family Robinson” for example … and build a curriculum around that. Easyfunschool.com has started and it should be easy to follow.
There is also a piece of unit study curriculum called “The Prairie Primer” that is a whole year curriculum built around the Laura Ingalls Wilder series (“Little House on the Prairie,” etc.).
There are lots of free things on the internet … including for highschool kids … that are worth printing out for possible use.
All it takes to get organized is a file box and a notebook to keep completed and planned activities in so that you can create a portfolio to have proof of the education your kids’ did for continuity’s sake.
There’s bound to be some useful threads here.
I like the idea of “extracurricular stuff”. Growing food, building things, doing more with less. Most people will need some guidance at first, but maybe it would turn out to be natural? (Not that I’m longing for the bad side of it all.)
Why is CNN pushing the story about Tamiflu causing hallucinations in children at this time? Any ideas or theories?
Are there any public schools closed today 11.14.06?
Argyll.
One of my concerns is for my 2nd grader she is sooooooo SOCIAL!!! I know that I can keep her busy doing art, dance, school work……….and I have to recommend Mark Kistler’s online drawing school she LOVES it. But I am really concerned about her being “isolated” from her friends…This kiddo wakes up talking and goes to bed talking and she is not ADHD, she just LOVES going to SCHOOL to be with her friends. ahhh any suggestions?
Lizzy: That is going to be another difficult aspect of being at home. Especially for teenagers, who are even more likely to neak out and see friends. I am sure that the phone and internet will be in high demand (assuming they work). As a good pracitce for writing and spelling she could also write letters to her friends (also assuming USPS is running).
We’re all going to be craving social interaction. Unfortunately I’m not sure what the best way is to handle it.
These are issues I’ve been thinking of for a while now. I am trying to develop lesson plans to post online, but am behind in that plan. My county has developed “pacing guides” for the four core classes. I teach Social Studies (7th and 8th grade), and we were the last department to get them. These guides have all 7th grade Geography teachers teaching the same thing in each nine weeks period. I believe that this was done to assist in continuity for cable based lessons. For example, 7th grade Geography will be on TV Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 to 11:00 in the morning. This could work to a limited degree. Having electricity is pivotal for this plan, and student access to a working computer. Many do not have this.
There will always be those that find a way to get educated, as evidenced throughout history…just as those that will just find this a new excuse to continue to do nothing. One aspect I am just beginning to mull over is the end result. Let’s say wave three is gone and the dead are buried. School is open again. Those that were in the 7th grade at the beginning of the pandemic may not be educated to the level reqiured to be promoted to the 8th grade, but if nothing had happened they would be in 8th or 9th grade. I think those issues need to be discussed in every school district and that informaiton provided to parents and kids beforehand. It can be a motivating factor to ensure the kids do the right thing IF THEY ARE NOT ILL. I don’t think they should be passed on if they don’t meet the requirements, and we may just have to accept this giant societal “pause”.
In my school district the students have a full set of textbooks at home and a classroom set at school. They don’t even have to carry them back and forth. At the beginning of the pandemic I think I will copy all the reqiured worksheets and make them available for home schooling. As long as we have power I can post to the internet and take student phone calls at home. I do that now anyway.
There are several levels here:
We really need to think outside the box, here. What do we want to achieve?
Parents will need ways (many ideas, a full menu to select from) in order to turn a nightmare into something bearable, maybe even enjoyable.
Otherwise it won’t work.
Ideas?
“Book transfer” might mean “newspaper transfer”. What about weekly lessons delivered as newspapers? This could be scaled up to the national level, or down to the very local level.
We could even use each other’s books: everyone has books we could share. Give 5 books to the neighbour on the right, collect 5 books from the neighbour on the left.
I would place a plastic sheet on top of my books as soon as the pandemic begins, and then grab them from under the plastic sheet, put them in a plastic box, and pass them on to my neighbours.
When receiving a new batch of books, I would leave them near the window for 2 days.
We also need to look into how well people tolerate this sort of situation.
Lugon,
Some great ideas here! What rights do parents have as far as removing kids from public school go? I know the CDC has mentioned “possible school closures” in the future to curb pandemic flu. Wonder how the school sytems view dismissals/removals?
Would love to hear from HDLDA — or perhaps a teacher, adminstrator or two!
Argyll.
How many of those sick have got test results? Are there any definitive test results yet?
Argyll, this thread emerged just from that idea: schools will close in a bad-enough pandemic anyway, and the idea is to close them early and proactively. In order to make it easier for TPTB to reach that decision, we’re looking into what happens after that.
Please look into Forum.TheCaseForEarlySchoolClosure to find out “why” schools should be closed. Then please come back here to contribute ideas on “how” we will make that easier to deal with. And, as usual, please tell others about this so that the conversation widens!
Thanks!
If families are sheltering in place, parents may discover what our family discovered 10 years ago when we started homeschooling. Given the opportunity (time at home + limited or no access to electronic diversions), kids soak up information like sponges without it being force-fed to them. I quickly learned that my wonderful, creative lesson plans got in the way of my kids’ learning. One day I found myself saying, “That’s a great crawl-through model of the human ear, but it’s time to work on spelling now.” What was I thinking? The more I “taught”, the less they learned.
If I were to give recommendations to parents, it would be to start checking their libraries for used book sales, start checking the Goodwill book racks, and find the used book stores in their area. I have found history books, science books, classic literature, foreign language books, poetry for kids (and yes, textbooks) in all these places for $5/each or less.
Cooking and gardening are great for introducing basic math concepts. Gardening and caring for pets introduces life sciences. Working together as a family teaches social responsibility. Taking turns reading aloud nurtures a love of literature. Singing together, drawing (spaceships, maps, treeforts, etc), dressing up — all of this nurtures the imagination.
My basic message is: if families are at home, learning will happen (especially if you unplug electronic distractions during the day, if the power is still on). Focus more on collecting some basic, non-electronic information sources than worrying about lesson plans. Parents have been the primary educators of their own children for all but the last 150 years of human existence.
As far as a home education program goes … in the US homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. Some states have more defined requirements for the homeschooling and some are less restrictive.
First order of business should be for all parents to get to know their rights with regard to their child’s education. That includes a great deal beyond homeschooling. It covers area like permanent records, authority in the classroom, programs your child is entitled to and/or merit-only programs, etc.
Second, if you are truly concerned that you may have to either pull your child from school or deal with extended school closures you should get all the “benchmarks” required in the state that you will be residing in. Do no do it just for your child’s grade … but for those above and below as well. If those are the benchmarks that will be referred to when children return to the classroom, and there may wind up being some testing involved and you want to make sure your child does not regress even if they don’t progress.
Thirdly, while it IS beneficial to try and get the local school districts on-board with pandemic planning, it would be fool-hardy to only depend on TPTB. Sketch out your plan NOW. Take the benchmarks you found and make a skeleton lesson plan that will continue your child’s educational progress.
Fourthly, obtain the resources to follow through or your skeleton lesson plan. There are enough free resources on the internet to sink a dozen Titanic sized boats. I’ll try and gather some of the better ones together and post here.
“a free curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own PNEU schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason’s high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group.”
Also has a series of lesson plans for displaced families.
Federal Citizen Information Center - Education Index
Free or nearly free booklets from the government for learning activities, college planning, parenting concerns.
Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Use the pull-down menus to browse by subject, grade, or both. Also lesson plans to support Assignment Discovery and TLC Elementary School programming.
Lesson ideas and plans created by teachers for teachers. However, many of them are easily implemented in a home or small group setting as well.
From the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lessons and units for art and culture, literature and language arts, foreign language, and history and social studies.
Worksheets, reproducibles, newsletters, books, lesson plans, ideas and more.
Each week, Learners Online publishes a new online lesson that takes learners on a thematic journey across cyberspace. Lessons are tied to current events and help learners extend their knowledge on a wide range of topics. Also an archive of past lessons.
Lesson Planning Center from TeacherVision
Let TeacherVision.com help you create innovative plans quickly with our large inventory of ideas and materials.
Free reproducible lesson plans, unit studies and print ready worksheets for all levels, all abilities and all subjects of Grade School and High School. Featured articles will give you general teaching and learning encouragement, references and support.
Check back each Friday to see the newest lessons added to MarcoPolo, or access all MarcoPolo lessons and resources in the MarcoPolo Search Engine.
New York Times Lesson Plan Archive
The archive contains hundreds of free lesson plans for grades 6–12. You may perform a keyword search to retrieve a lesson, browse the archive by subject, or scroll down the page to view the most recently published lessons.
A collection of lesson plans with handouts by Ray Saitz and many contributors; all of the lessons have been used and refined in the classroom but are also useful in a home or small group setting.
Resources so you can integrate PBS shows with your unit studies.
Access to high quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.
Pick a grade level pre-k through 8th grade and then a topic to locate a variety of lesson plans teaching that skill
Free weekly units, free worksheets for online and offline study, and software to download. They also have a “for pay” component, but there is enough free stuff available that you really don’t need it.
Arts, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies plans.
Offers FREE access to lesson plans, printable worksheets, over 150,000 reviewed web sites, rubrics, educational games, teaching/ technology tips, advice from expert teachers, and more.
This is a big help for me, personally. And, it is very easy to use.
I hope this isn’t too off topic, but I think worth considering. All current school lesson plans and the like were developed to teach children in the way the world is now. If pandemic occurs, the world is going to be a very different place, both immediately and in the future, and so children and other people are going to need to learn entirely different things than they need to learn now.
Society would change, the level of civilization would change, so many things would change that to teach the existing lessons would be somewhere beyond ridiculous. Yep - we’ll always need to know that 2 apples plus 2 apples will get you 4 apples . . . but we may also need to learn to tie good knots, dispose of sewage, forage for food, find potable water or make water potable - the list is endless. Some changes would be short term, but some things in this world would be forever altered.
Like I said - just worth considering. Those lesson plans that someone worked so hard to prepare last year may, by next year, not be even remotely relevant to whatever life is at that point.
My posts are getting kind of long so I will just post some additional links here:
Easyfunschool EasyFunSchool.com has over 1,500 pages of articles, resource links, a newsletter, and many other features to make homeschooling more enjoyable for both child and parent!
Calvary Chapel - primarily religious studies; useful as it is also available in Spanish.
Free Firewood Free online courses, curriculum guides, textbooks & reference materials. Foreign language, English & Language Arts, and 19th Century Schoolbooks links have been posted.
Cyber Guides CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, standards, a task and a process by which it may be completed, teacher-selected web sites and a rubric, based on California Language Arts Content Standards.
MIT Open Courseware The Massachusetts Institute of Technology places most of their course materials free online for anyone to use. Some of the course packages are very complete, and advanced high school homeschoolers would be able to study the materials on their own.
Saxon Math Tests Free placement tests to determine in which textbook in Saxon math your child should be placed. Useful to see where you child tests at in mathematical concepts.
New York State Regents Examinations In New York State public schools, students must pass subject-area Regents exams at the high school level. This site contains sample Regents exams and answer keys. This site may be useful for homeschoolers who want to use the materials informally to determine whether or not a high school subject has been mastered, or to use to test out of material the student already knows.
Classical Education Resources Extensive website on classical homeschooling, including the free “1000 Good Books” booklist
The Perseus Project The Internet’s largest digital library of classical and Renaissance texts and primary source materials. For advanced classical education students.
Mr. Donn’s Pages This site is enormous, and contains links to thousands of free unit studies and lesson plans for all subject areas. The history and literature unit study links are particularly impressive.
Science & Technology, K-6 The New South Wales, Australia, science & technology curriculum, complete with lesson plans, experiments, and activities
French Lessons Online This is a complete college-level first year French course (corresponding to French I and French II of high school level French; one semester of college coursework usually equals one year of high school coursework). This course includes all the basics of language study — vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, culture, and practice. The site is complete with sound files, grammar exercises, cultural information, videos, and even internet explorations. Grammar explanations and practice link to a clever sister site, Tex’s French Grammar, which provides detailed grammar explanations for the entire French grammar plus sound files and interactive exercises for grammar practice. For high school French I, use chapters 1 through 6; for French II, use chapters 7 through 13. (University of Texas - Austin).
Digital History This includes a free hyperlinked online U. S. History textbook, learning modules, classroom handouts and worksheets, active and problem-based learning activities, multimedia including online e-lectures, online virtual exhibits, and links to hundreds of primary sources and history reference materials. This site can be used to create either basic or AP U. S. History course content. (University of Houston)
Astronomy A complete course, physics and algebra-based. (U. S. Government, NASA)
Geometry Basic geometry course; interactive with online video. Originally designed for teacher training. (Annenburg/CPB)
Index of free curriculum links
[[ http://www.middleschool.net/ | Middleschool.net ] An index of free curriculum and resource links.
Even with everything that I’ve posted above, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I didn’t include all of the parent/teacher resources available through the online World Book Encyclopedia. I also didn’t really start hitting all of the stuff that has been written outside of the US, which is quite extensive in its own right … the UK has some really great resources that are specific to their special history and culture but that I’ve used on one than one occasion just because of its high quality.
It doesn’t really take much effort to find this stuff. The effort will come in when you are trying to decide what to leave out. <grin>
Hopefully by having the existing benchmarks that your child will be expected to meet will give you some structure to work with.
I go back and forth on this topic so much.
I have lots of ideas for parents who find themselves suddenly home with their children for an extended period of time — ideas on how to cope and what to do and so on.
But part if me is so overwhelmed by the possibility of a deadly infectious pandemic quickly overtaking the population and killing millions — I feel like, what’s the point in actually preparing people to do productive things with their kids during this time? If it is that bad, it’s going to totally suck, and no amount of lesson plans and activities will really matter.
The only reason I can think of for schools to plan and send home a bunch of activities, and worksheets, and have classes on TV — would be to cover the first week or so of kids staying at home, to provide reinforcement to KEEP THEM AT HOME because perhaps in the first week or two the need may not be obvious to all (Especially if the news reports are sedated and not screaming “300 more die a bloody agonizing death, hospitals overwhelemed”.
I really wouldn’t be worried under such a scenario about 6th graders, say, missing a year of algebra or some key units — when it is all over there will be time enough to pick up and go on.
On the other hand, out of pure kindness to parents who are thrust into a scary, overwhelming situation with children who are suddenly everpresent, 24–7, have no other place to go and nothing else to do but be at home all day long every day, with no breaks whatsoever — it would be a good idea to put together a list of things to do, just to give people a helping hand. But these things really don’t have to be “educational”.
Average concerned mom, your information and links here could prove vital to parents who choose to pull their kids from school before TPTB decide to close schools. In many states they need to have a plan and you have a wealth of resources from which to pull one together. Personally, I created a folder in my “favorites” file with your name on it! There were just so many great links that I want to go back and use, on a regular basis, not even just related to pandemic situation! Thank you so much!
I really should drink coffee before I post in the morning. ACM, I do have a folder of the many great ideas you listed or inspired for families to do with kids…that is in a thread (for moms only?) or some such name. Terriffic stuff. But I mixed that thought with my thanks this morning to Kathy in FL for all of the great links she posted above (and the tons of recipes in other threads.) For Newbies, posts by either of these women are well worth the search to find them!
MA-Mom — I only wish I could take credit for all those great ideas! (-:
And actually LauraB’s initial post at 09:50 quotes me — but I on;y wrote the first paragraph — I assume the rest of the post was by her.
As long as we are sharing free homeschool/online resources, try this site out if you are interested in curricula/activities for Waldorf-based preschool.
www.waldorfcurriculum.com (free preschool curriculum available there.)
I’m not actually worried about schooling our children, I’m worried about keeping them alive. If this thing hits with any type of vengence, I think school is the least of our worries.
Keeping many of them alive might mean reducing respiratory contact for the whole of society, and more so for children.
Let’s think of it this way: if the attack rate in children would be twice as high as in adults (40% vs 20%) and the case fatality rate would be, just a number, three times as high as in adults, then we would want to keep them six times as protected - ok, the numbers are probably not sensible from any “model” point of view, but the qualitative idea is there: we would not want them together in large numbers.
So it’s either at home or with the same number of children all the time. I think it would be conceivable to have them in twos or fives, provided it’s always the same twos or fives, and provided they don’t have to walk through a lot of aerosol clouds unprotected. Does that make sense?
Things our children will learn in a pandemic: Survival skills, how to cook without a stove or oven, how to get through a difficult situation, there are other ways to entertain ourselves without electricity, how to create your own fun without video games, new card games, when you in a tough situation, take a deep breath and keep going, brainstorming for ideas to get over a huddle, we all need to work together to get it to work, etc. (The news this AM and last few days is freaking me out!!)
Ruth — I totally agree with you.
Thinking as a game. Ever tried that?
Just look for alternatives in a situation, 100 uses of a dead cat, and so on. Teams score points.
Also, just look at facts in a situation.
Or combine: facts, then options.
May become second nature.
However — I think of it like this.
If you tell people they might need to stock up on food and supplies for an extended SIP (say 12 weeks) at first you think — it doens’t matter what food; just some calories to keep your body alive.
And that is true. Just a lot of rice; or 12 weeks of Power Bars; would keep people alive.
But if you have some advance planning - it probably makes sense to think more about variety — and about what the human body needs not just to survive — and to think about actually living through that 12 weeks period —
even more so if it looks like we are talking about a pandemic YEAR — or a pandemic 3 year period.
So it is the same with thinking about what to do if the schools and daycare centers are closed. Because this came up as a key objection if you will for parents as to why close schools early. It’s not that they didn’t agree closing schools would be necessary or desireable — just that they have no experience having their kids 24–7. Just as many people have no experience doing all their own cooking. It is a fact of our culture; we may not be that way ourselves, but most parents really don’t know what to do with their kids home all day every day.
So as a pure act of kindness it would be helpful to give them some clues, I think.
Game: lay pen on its side and roll it. It points to a flower vase. Uses of a flower vase. Try and get to 10 uses. Everybody laughs and wins.
Use pen twice: flower vase, then shoe. Ideas or stories using both.
Also: look at good points in something you hate. Bad points in something you love. Ways out.
Maybe “thinking” is not second nature, but first?
For example, to look at what people did during long winters, stuck at home for hours on end — told stories (this is a learned skill and you get better at it with thim) — did things to fill the time (knitted, sewed samplers, and patchwork quilts, mended fishing nets, whitled, memorized Bible verses and poetry) — they did things that did not require higher order thinking skills — rote, repetitive activities, because quite frankly, depression had likely set it, and rote, low-level activities are just about right for whiling away the hours.
100 uses for a dead cat? Grusomely enough my kids would probably think that was amusing.
I do home school and we just pulled a four day no outside contact stint. Whew! I sincerly hope the grid does NOT go down!
Puzzlebooks are a life saver for us. We have subscriptions to Games and World of Puzzles, plus we pick up crossword/suduku books. Its amazing how much you can learn working crossword puzzles-esp the New York Times/Games crosswords. Plus the puzzles help with all kinds of logic/reasoning skills-sharpens the mind, plus they take time so it gives the kids something to do-and helps the adults get their minds of things.
We also love mags like National Geo. Smithsonian, Scientific American, al kinds of mags.
Kids and I do a lot of self-reliant stuff-gardening, canning, basic electronics etc. My kids can run a house-they do the laundry, dishes, cleaning, They can both cook, though I generally do the main meals. They both hate textbooks-though we have them and use them as a guide. We have been picking up as many of the GreatBooks/Harvard reading list/ classics as possible-mostly through used book stores-my fifteen year old is reading them pretty much unabridged, my 12 year old is reading abridged and “jr.” classics.
We have a small area set aside in our basement with some exersise matts, Nordic track, weight bench and hula hoops that we use for rainy/cold days, but we get a lot of exercise just doing stuff like gardening. Our mail box is a quarter-mile away thats a good mid-day walk.
Olymom- I’d LOVE to see some of your 7th grade geography lesson plans!
Green Mom — I’d be interested to hear more about your 4 day no-contact stint — and especially what went through your mind as you contemplate that 4-day x say 20 (3 months of SIP, say). What would it be like for you — as an experienced homeschool family? — in terms of phsychological effects? What would you need to do (differently than you already do or the same as) to ge through the day?
I’m asking this because over the summer, I (as a stay at home mom of 2 little ones) was stuck at home with no outside contact for about 6 days and I realized that this was what SIP would be like and I realized we are all in for some serious psychological problems if and when it happens without some serious forethought.
I’m really wondering if anyone else has realized this, no one seems to talk about it much on the forum and I am thinking it is because most people here do not have small children on a daily basis, I don’t know. At least teenagers and school aged kids can read, so they can be occupied by themselves a good bit of the time. Little ones can’t do that.
ACM - we need hard data on that.