Homeschooling

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26188

I should say, I think a lot of these reports and stories that cherry pick cases are politically motivated. There was a huge drive to get kids back to school to remobilise the workforce, to make money for the guys that already had enough. Much like keeping schools open way past the point it could even reasonably be lied about them being ‘safe’, the decisions haven’t been made to ensure that kids have access to school education (I believe, based on the fact that the people in government are a bunch of inhumane ****s) but rather that it keeps the proles at their jobs. There has been a lot of talk about the low risk to young kids, some talk of the safety of teachers, but o have seen absolutely nothing about the safety of the parents, grandparents and other family members that the kids go home to each day. My brother is a teacher, and has unfortunately seen the very real side of the hidden stories behind that, and it scares the everything out of me.

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

yes Katies teacher got covid, most likely not at school
but they have him 5 days a week so basically the day they informed us started a 14 day limbo of waiting for symptoms
Katie was distraught, crying her eyes out saying she might have taken it home and I would die, she was worried he would die etc
such an awful position to put the kids in
The teacher, a 25yo sporty guy, was home for 7 weeks and bragged in week 8 that he had had a walk of 10 mins ...
we were lucky, a few other teachers had to quarantine a little while waiting for test results but he was the only staff member so far who actually got it

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26188

miki wrote:

Katie was distraught, crying her eyes out saying she might have taken it home and I would die, she was worried he would die etc
such an awful position to put the kids in.

Warning: Covid and death discussed in spoiler

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

This has been a big mental hurdle for me. My brother works as the SEN contact for his school and has been dealing with a lot of bereavement. Trying to get bereaved kids, especially older ones, to believe that it is not their fault that they took the virus home from school (in the cases where that has been the source) is almost impossible. His best friend’s dad passed away the other day, and the source was a younger teenage sibling of his friend. How do you deal with that misplaced guilt? The lack of choice given to families has been something else here. It’s basically ‘send your kids to school or be fined.’ and it’s a lottery whether your school and council area press those fines, or get further authorities involved, and (of course) whether you can afford the fines if they are issued.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38697

Who's fining parents for not sending kids to school?

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26188

DavPaz wrote:

Who's fining parents for not sending kids to school?

Pre-lockdown.

I think Grim... said his school/council were, but it is dependant on where you live. I think it’s £120, reduced to £60 if paid within 28 days, and it seems each council have it in their discretion to do their own thing. We’ve never been able to find out what period that fine is for. A day? Per week, per period of absence?

Edit, this is not the best link, but I got fatigued at looking at about forty of them when Russell and I were attempting to work out what we should or could do. I looked at a lot of government and school pages, DfE documents, etc and a more thorough Google than what I can mentally stand at the moment should bring you some better info. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... l-19555633

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

It's so hard, you are right I will spoiler because it is raw

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

We couldn't tell her that it wouldn't happen, that would be a lie and she is old enough to know what's going on
So as best we could be smothered her with "not your fault, going to school is not optional, also not your fault if you didn't wash your hands once, also not your fault if you hugged someone, not your fault, all adults struggle to keep to all the rules and still go about our business etc lets just call it good/bad luck and the chances for good luck are still much higher then bad luck, you all have done such an amazing job at school with all the new rules etc"
Then I tried to reassure her that it's not said I would die, doctors know much more then in march, there are options and treatments and some people have very little trouble from it
End then I felt I had to also address the elephant in the room and said "and even if all the bad luck stacks on top of eachother and I die - you will still be OK"
we were both crying at that point but I thought it needed to be brought into the open as it was clearly on her mind anyway, so I said she would obviously be super sad and miss me loads but she has lots and lots of people around her who love her and named a load of people and repeated that as ultimately suck as it would be she would be ok and go on to have a happy and cool life.
Not something I wanted to say, definitely something Steve didn't want to discuss, but it really helped calm her down to say it out loud instead of keeping it in her mind.
She was also worried that if she got covid we would have her stay in her room and not touch her and hug her etc
so many things going on in young minds, airing it out helped her for that period, though if we hadn't lucked out I'm sure all our words would be hollow like your brother has found. Poor poor kids.

And then even in that limbo of 14 days with all those emotions we still let her go to school, because keeping them home is just absolutely not a thing here and I felt like absolute crap for letting her go
and on top of it all she (and her classmates) dealt with a different teacher virtually every day for 7 weeks
but yeah, tell me how kids are failing :roll:

they're bloody marvels of resilience

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

yeah enough of that, so Katie and I are learning crochet together

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26188

Miki, that must have been heart wrenching. It does sound like sounding out and giving credence and legitimacy to her fears really helped. We’ve had gentle conversations with Darwin, both to impart the importance of washing hands and standing his grounds in this at school, but also because he had so many questions about why life suddenly changed so drastically, and why we can no longer go to the places we loved to go.

This is super important, though: “but yeah, tell me how kids are failing :roll:

they're bloody marvels of resilience”. Right?! So much :this:

And good news on the crocheting. When armageddon starts you’ll be warm and look great! I love a bit of crafting. Obviously.

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

aaaand there was the drama
checking katies work from this week I got suspicious about one topic because she had so many wrong answers and I was grumpy for many reasons so the thought entered my brain "it's like she hasn't even read the story just filled out the multiple choice randomly"
a little tricky because she genuinely has dyslexia and goes to weekly sessions for that, but still this was too dire
so I called her out and turns out I was right so I had to do a whole speech and talk thing, and that turns into crying and needing reassurance so when all that had calmed down and we were hugging and chatting I said that I was really happy she had owned up to this and well done for being honest about it
and I saw she teared up again and I thought waaaait a minute, and said if she had any other things on her chest that were making her sad she should tell us because otherwise she would feel rotten and we couldn't fix it, after more tears and lip wobbles: there were a few pages in her maths book she had used a calculator for ...
so yeah, that's how we're doing :roll:

Mimi · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 26188

Oh darling, what a tough day for you both. I have no advice but I’m sending some love and hope that it’s a better day tomorrow/Monday x x

miki · **Joined:** 30th Apr, 2011 **Posts:** 1458 **Location:** NL

thank you

Findus Fop · **Joined:** 14th May, 2009 **Posts:** 4365

Handy home school resources:

From here.

And they also sell a tear sticker for the Henry hoover, which I'm planning on grabbing myself:

Be Excellent To Each Other

Homeschooling
The discussion of schooling

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Be Excellent To Each Other

Homeschooling The discussion of schooling

Who is online

Homeschooling
The discussion of schooling