We’ve been into online learning for roughly a month now, and it’s been an interesting experience. Their teachers are working so hard, and when I’ve overheard the sessions, they sound like regular school. “Bobby, we’re not using chat now. Bobby, we’re not using chat now. Bobby, we’re not using chat now. Lisa, how did you make yourself the presenter? Can you fix that? Can anyone fix that?” You may think this is time that would be well spent in a live classroom, but when I’m teaching live I spend much of day saying “I don’t care that he’s looking at your pencil” or “Your socks are in the bathroom? Why are your socks in the bathroom?” So it sounds normal to me.
M (middle school) is doing well. She’s getting a cash course in life at college, where you have to get to class on time, take care of your own assignments, and realize that half your group for a project never showed up because they were playing Fortnite. She’s doing very well overall, and enjoys her classes. She’s created an independent art study for herself and has been making sculptures from upcycled materials and is making a graphic novel.
A is not so happy. She misses being with her peers and the interactions that second grade would bring. Her tech often doesn’t work correctly, but we work around it. Meetings cause much carrying on and sighing, but sometimes I don’t think she realizes she does it. One day, she got off a meeting and huffed, “Finally! Ugh!” I asked her what they’d done, and she replied, “We played a game. It was fun!” O…kay. I think much of A’s anger is aimed more at the overall situation and not the school itself.
We’ve been doing a lot of outside play, cooking, and every Friday we do Nihon Kinyoubi, or Japan Friday. The girls are working hard at speaking, reading and writing in Japanese, and studying culture in the hopes of visiting Grandma in Japan next year. They can yell “Your butt smells!” and “No, YOUR butt smells!” in fluent Japanese so our time hasn’t been totally wasted.
But what have we really learned?
We’ve learned more patience. Patience with others, with technology, and with ourselves. We’re all learning together.
We learned to be more creative. We’ve been creating art from junk around the house, cooking new world cuisine recipes every week, baking together, and inventing ways to socialize. At the park yesterday, the girls encountered a group of kids, and they all wanted to play together but wanted to be safe. M invented “social distance tag,” where the kids tagged the item nearest the kids rather than the kids themselves. It worked very well and they had a blast.
We’ve learned how much we love the people in our lives. This is probably the biggest one. We’ve been writing more letters, making more phone calls, and working hard to find ways to safely socialize. We can have dinners on the deck and outdoor or virtual playdates. I’ve been playing D&D online and working on projects with friends. Seeing them and working with them is such a joy, and revitalizes us in ways we couldn’t appreciate before. I never thought of myself as very social, but apparently I was because I miss everyone so much.
I admit I’ve spent way too much time on Pinterest, collecting interesting recipes. When we’re able to really be together safely again, I’m going to throw such a party. We’ll get there!
Edge Pieces 