I had been planning on writing a lovely warm snuggly post, laden with motivational quotes on getting through the first week of home learning. But this is how week one of home learning ACTUALLY went down *unedited.
Days leading up to week one
Alpha parent: I’m going to be extra organised and check purple mash (the home learning software that school uses) to make sure we are ALL prepared for Tuesday when home learning starts. The letter said all the information will be there. *Logs in to look for a schedule and further information in a calm fashion.
Beta parent: ?
Alpha parent: ?
Alpha parent: I’ll just quickly check on the school website in case I’m looking in the wrong place. *Frantically flicks through the school website, the newsletter, the letter, the twitter page, email and text messages, and purple mash again. Just. In. Case.
Beta parent: ?
Alpha parent: *Looks at Beta parent. Sh*t.
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Alpha parent continues to check 1 million times before reluctantly giving up.
The day before
Beta parent to Alpha parent: Do you know what’s happening?
Alpha parent: Do I look like I know what’s happening? Why is school doing this to us?!!
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*Checks some more, just in case. Decides it can’t be that different to last year.. Surely?
The night before
Beta parent to Alpha parent: They will put everything up tomorrow morning. It will be fine.
Alpha parent: Yes, I expect so. *Rolls eyes.
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*Checks parent whatsapp page at midnight. Thank blooming goodness for parent power. Parents whatsapp says: 8am start!!!!!!! ON TEAMS!!!!!!!
Alpha parent: Huh? Teams??!
The morning of the first day of home learning
We have Teams but no log in.
We have Teams and a log in but it doesn’t LOG IN.
We have Teams and a new log! That doesn’t LOG IN either.
It’s registration on Teams and we are not on Teams!!
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Phew. No one is on Teams as no one has the right log in details to LOG IN.
Parents whatsapp group says: Try adding a random ‘1’ in the username!!!!!!
We have a random ‘1’, it works!!! We are in, we are in.
*We all cheer! And silently curse school.
Beta parent: Is school actually live?? As in LIVE?? *Peers at screen.
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Ok, so there is Teams, we are logged in. School IS LIVE!
Beta parent: I’ll leave you to it then…. *sneaks off.
Alpha parent: Great! *Wonders can it get any worse than this?!
Alpha parent: Is that me? Is the teacher looking directly at me? *Looks closely at Little Buttons ‘Team meeting ’ on her screen.
There is Teams, we are logged in. School IS LIVE! And I am attending class with Little Button (also live) as my work desk gets caught in her camera feed. Perfect.
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Alpha parent: *Spends all night trying to figure out how NOT to attend school online with Little Button and cursing school for not being BETTER at all this. Or at the very least, warning parents that it was all going to be LIVE so we could at least brush our hair first.
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The next day
There is school. It is LIVE. It is LIVE ALL DAY!!!! With cameras ON and mics ON!!!
Little Button:
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Alpha parent: *Wonders what school is thinking. Surely LIVE school all day long is a crazy idea.
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The day after that
School is LIVE. But no one is on TEAMS. Where the hell is everyone???
There is the teacher. The teacher says EVERYONE is moving to Zoom. Go-go-go!!!
Alpha parent: What kind of sorcery is this??!!
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Little Button: I hate Zoom.
Alpha parent: *Cries.
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Friday at last
School is LIVE. It’s on Zoom. Attendance is compulsory ALL DAY LONG. With cameras AND mics ON.
Beta parent: *Whispers… is everything ok?
Alpha parent: *Whispers out of the camera shot… yes!
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School is LIVE. It’s on Zoom. ALL DAY LONG. Little Button is listening. She is learning. She looks like she loves it. She doesn’t even realise we are here any more.
She does it. She does LIVE online school all day long and doesn’t complain once.
School is LIVE. Learning happened. Alpha parent could work all day long! *OMG. Beta parent could work all day long!
Beta parent: It’s a miracle.
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Alpha parent: I LOVE her school and her teachers.
Beta parent: I LOVE her school and her teachers too.
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Little Button: I LOVE my school and my teachers.
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WILD is now out in Spanish!
WILD – Our debut children’s picture book
Dad blogger Ross Good from The Stented Papa is the official storyteller for WILD!
Happy book birthday WILD!
Your use of gifs hits the nail on the head for me! Good luck with week two… #mischiefandmemories
hahaha! This is hilarious. My older girls don’t start until tomorrow…8.45am when they haven’t got up before midday for weeks…yup. The Little Man however, asked me for the password the school had sent to my e-mail. Set up his laptop and did his lessons all week. The school sent him a box of supplies and he’s been writing, drawing and filling in the books. Everything was completed..despite the fact that I was in hospital and his Dad had to leave him in the charge of his teen sister (who probably didn’t even notice he was there!) I’m unbelievably proud of him. 🙂
Oh…
I haven’t had to navigate thus with young kidd, but our first weeks of virtual college were pretty similar. UGH!
Oh so true! Our first week was OK ish! But trying to juggle 3 children’s home learning, plus work and everyday chores, cooking etc is not an easy task for all of us parents.
Pahahaaaa this is so relatable – it went down pretty much the same over here too! By Friday afternoon I was rocking in the corner dreaming of wine 😉 #mischiefandmemories
It was a bit of a learning curve last week, trying to use zoom at the same time as purple mash. I was hoping this week would be easier, but they have decided to do one live lesson a day meaning I have to try and motivate the kids to do purple mash on their own – its not going well
Oh, this is great! My week involved me using plausible deniability that nothing was wrong, I was fine, we were good… None of that was true of course.
Oh my word – it sounds like a nightmare! My daughter is not at school yet, but if this pandemic goes on for much longer then she will be starting school with home schooling – argh! Good luck x #MischiefAndMemories
Ha! This made me laugh. Working in a school I have seen both ends of this! I have taken a thousand calls from parent not being able to login, and then as a parent not been able to login! I must say that the move to Microsoft teams has saved my family’s bacon and sanity. We were drowning in a sea of worksheets in March and one child had started to feel constantly sick as they could not deal the the 15 emails a day from teachers. But now it is like the teachers are in the room with them and I no longer have to split myself in half to work and home tutor simultaneously. Happy days (its all relative!) #MischiefAndMemories
I was cursing google classrooms at the start. getting to grips with it now. My head is spinning with the amount of work my two have, and zoom calls. #mischiefandmayhem
This cracked me up although I was seriously stressing out for you all when I read the LIVE ALL DAY! Don’t know how that would go down in our house with the 4 year old and a grumpy random 17yr old in toe, lol. Glad it all worked out for you and little button in the end. Sending love xx #MischiefAndMemories
Ha ha! Not great if I’m honest although I world dread being live in zoom all day at least work is being done. My eldest just moans about Google classroom all day!! But eventually he gets on with it… I don’t know why he fights it so much!
I actually love this and so wish my kids school would do more live school. My eldest will now get 1hr per day live, but the littler ones just get about 20 mins and that is just registration. #MischiefandMemories
Fun post. To be honest having home-educated for 6 years I am relaxed about it all. Children always learn whatever the circumstances – they can’t help it lol! Let them find their passions and emerge as the individuals we need to get this world back on track. #MischiefandMemories
At least you have the input of school unlike me for the last few years.
OMG what a nightmare and so stressful – I agree Zoom is not my favourite thing and constant logins and not being able to find the right info is so frustrating
Laura x