Parenting month 111: Online school during COVID-19

So, everyone in the world is dealing with COVID-19. One universal experience are the kids experiencing shelter in place.  Schools around the world closed or moved to remote learning.

So our kids have both moved to online learning.  Just as both of us academic parents moved to online teaching.  They have gone through many rounds as everyone; kids, parents, teachers, administrators; have been figuring things out as we go, trying new things, discarding things that were too hard, trying for what works while minimizing the pain over the perfect.

We do have the advantage that our kids generally like being around us.  So the first few weeks they were very happy to have both of us around all of the time.  Of course, DS9 eventually started to realize that mommy and daddy school is considerably more demanding than regular school (the cost of having picked two academics to be parents.  From the day he was born we joked that he clearly was not thinking things through when he picked his parents, probably was thinking about food)

Our schedules have settled into a pattern.  In the morning both kids have to check their schools communication channels.  Both schools at one point had several information channels to check, which definitely caused problems, but they have settled into one location for DD6, and two places for DS9.    Both kids generally finish their school work before lunch (with minimum help from parents).  Then comes mommy and daddy school, which generally includes piano, chinese, math, and extra curriculars.

Most enrichment programs closed down due to COVID-19 at the same times the schools did.  Although a large number of asian parents in the area were talking about pulling kids out of school for a couple weeks before PA schools actually closed down (we were only one day ahead of the PA announcement).  Eventually, many enrichment activities went online, using Zoom (just like all of our work places).  TKD started up online fairly quickly, and our kids joined in once a whole cycle started as online.  Ballet started online with the Pittsburgh Ballet using online kids classes as an outreach to maintain contact, and now the closer in schools are starting up online classes starting with the summer camps.  The LEGO robotics school DS9 is in is going online for camps, they have procedures of how to do in person (limited numbers, distancing) but we'll see if they actually carry them out (if WPA remains in yellow, I expect that they would definitely do so if WPA goes to green status).

For math, we are somewhat putting it on hold while they still go through school.  It is a little easier now that our university work is done, but as their school winds down we will add that back in.  DS9 will go back to Beast Academy to finish off level 5 (which will reach the end of the Art of Problem Solving Beast Academy series for the younger students).  We will be exploring the main AoPS at some point. DD6 is still not ready for Beast Academy, so she will do a couple of books from the Life of Fred series.  Like Beast Academy, it is a math series that promotes learning to think about math instead of drill and kill (the way most American learn math, and learn to hate it).  She is doing it online with a friend, which seems to be cause for much laughter in the room.

My contribution to teaching kids during COVID-19 has been teaching a programming with micro:bit to kids we have met from a few sources, mostly the LEGO robotics (their online program had not started yet) and chinese families.  In addition to the materials at microbit.org and micromag, we used a book "microbit in Wonderland", which had a craft feel to it for relating computing to the physical world.  Most (but not all) of the kids had exposure to Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), but generally the act of connecting physical items like lights, speakers, and conductive surfaces (aluminum foil) was new (outside of packages systems like LEGO robotics).  I suspect most electrical engineering professors would tell me that my experience of everything getting much smoother after we go to the point of controlling light bulbs is a known fact of life.  The whole "teaching pre-teens programming online" experience has gone off much better than expected, with the parents telling me that the kids show off the weekly homework projects.  And having 7 out of 9 effectively make it to the end is probably a good record :-)

So, the end of the online school year is in sight, and I sense that teachers and kids are going for survival to the finish line (my university reminded faculty from the beginning of the online teaching period that the goal was survival, not perfection) So the next phase will be replacing the usual summer camps with either online versions or us working at home (or parent run groups, coop style)