Homeschooling our kids was never on our list of things to try. Remote learning for 15 weeks gave us the closest experience, and we didn’t even need to create the curriculum.
The first few weeks were a bit of a disaster – lots of frustration and upset to go around among the adults and children. Things slowly got better in April after “Spring Break.” By the time we got to early May, we had started to get the hang of it.
The post-it wall of assignments was a key part of our success. All four of us could clearly see each assignment that was due for each kid. We also had the satisfaction of moving the post-its to our “DONE” area as each was completed. And, we eventually used blue post-its for any video calls so those weren’t forgotten.
Are we ready to do this all over again? More ready than we were in mid-March, I suppose. But, it has been far more fun and far less stressful being the kids’ camp counselor for the past eight weeks compared to being a member of their teaching team. That said, I enjoyed seeing my kids' learning in action and spending more time with them, so hopefully we can bring that “glass half-full” lens to the new school year.