The Official Parenting Thread

Our local district makes a practice to put twins together in K but then separate after that. But when they went all online to start this upcoming year, they paired the twins back up to avoid just what you're dealing with. Honestly, you should really think about pairing them up. The year just started and it's Kindergarten and online, so the hassle for the school is minimal at this point and the benefits to your family are immense. It'll be so much less work.

But if that's not happening, is there some way you can get grandma or a neighbor or someone to help out a little? Gonna be a long ass year otherwise.

Out of curiosity does the district ask parents of twins what they want, or do they just automatically choose to separate twins unless parents ask?

I find the thought process for that choice so fascinating, as there’s some great ideas for both sides, but obviously it’s individual cases by case type of decisions being made. I can’t recall our district, I want to say they assume together unless otherwise stated, more along the lines of what you described.
 
Out of curiosity does the district ask parents of twins what they want, or do they just automatically choose to separate twins unless parents ask?

I find the thought process for that choice so fascinating, as there’s some great ideas for both sides, but obviously it’s individual cases by case type of decisions being made. I can’t recall our district, I want to say they assume together unless otherwise stated, more along the lines of what you described.
They ask. And if parents request togetherness in 1st and 2nd it's accomodated. After that, I'm unsure.

Roughly 90 kids in the 2nd grade at our local. 5 sets of twins.
 
They ask. And if parents request togetherness in 1st and 2nd it's accomodated. After that, I'm unsure.

Roughly 90 kids in the 2nd grade at our local. 5 sets of twins.

Wow. Lots of twins, that’s pretty neat. Gonna ask what the district does later down the road.

we’d honestly let the boys decide and figure how their advancement takes place before splitting up. One is crazy independent, the other reserved. They both look out and empower each other in great ways and keeping together seems great, especially this day in age.
 
Daughter started going to preschool this week. We've restricted our bubble to just us and now are not seeing the my wife's family.

But this isn't about preschool in the time of pandemic.

We have been trying to be straightforward about our private parts, using the proper names and not giggling or anything. Daughter comes back from first day of preschool and I guess they have group potty sessions because she came home telling us that "Charlie (not your Charlie, stupac2 ) has a small penis." Now I refer to this three year old as "the one with the small penis." Then, my daughter won me over eternally by telling my wife randomly this morning, "daddy has a big penis." My wife had to not react, but I was out of my daughter's eyesight grinning beyond belief.

And yes, I realize this just means I have a bigger penis than a 3 year old, but I'll take my victories when I can get hem.
 
Daughter started going to preschool this week. We've restricted our bubble to just us and now are not seeing the my wife's family.

But this isn't about preschool in the time of pandemic.

We have been trying to be straightforward about our private parts, using the proper names and not giggling or anything. Daughter comes back from first day of preschool and I guess they have group potty sessions because she came home telling us that "Charlie (not your Charlie, stupac2 ) has a small penis." Now I refer to this three year old as "the one with the small penis." Then, my daughter won me over eternally by telling my wife randomly this morning, "daddy has a big penis." My wife had to not react, but I was out of my daughter's eyesight grinning beyond belief.

And yes, I realize this just means I have a bigger penis than a 3 year old, but I'll take my victories when I can get hem.
Don't worry, she'd never see my Charlie's penis because he'd have too much underwear on. Today he forgot to take the old pair off before putting the new one on, we didn't notice until we were on a hike and he was complaining about his pants not fitting. Small kids, man...
 
Daughter started going to preschool this week. We've restricted our bubble to just us and now are not seeing the my wife's family.

But this isn't about preschool in the time of pandemic.

We have been trying to be straightforward about our private parts, using the proper names and not giggling or anything. Daughter comes back from first day of preschool and I guess they have group potty sessions because she came home telling us that "Charlie (not your Charlie, stupac2 ) has a small penis." Now I refer to this three year old as "the one with the small penis." Then, my daughter won me over eternally by telling my wife randomly this morning, "daddy has a big penis." My wife had to not react, but I was out of my daughter's eyesight grinning beyond belief.

And yes, I realize this just means I have a bigger penis than a 3 year old, but I'll take my victories when I can get hem.
A few years ago my niece came home from daycare saying she “wants to pee like Henry.” Pretty sure she went for it too.

The same niece, out of nowhere, said “my daddy has a big penis” when we were apple picking one year. Most of us burst out laughing so hard that it must have completely startled her. Cried uncontrollably for a long time.

Kids are weird.
 
Don't worry, she'd never see my Charlie's penis because he'd have too much underwear on. Today he forgot to take the old pair off before putting the new one on, we didn't notice until we were on a hike and he was complaining about his pants not fitting. Small kids, man...
I thought he broke his dick off
 
we're under 3 weeks out from school and the most the district has communicated to us is their plan of either "full time in-person" or "full-time remote (on a trimester basis)".

if kids want to opt out of in-person they can, and then they can tap back in, but remote kids can not flip flop. that was not communicated until AFTER decisions were made regarding in-person or remote.

and the district is allegedly meeting on Monday again to make another "final" determination.

we have no idea beyond that what schedules look like, sanitation, social distance in school, etc. nothing.


we chose remote because.... what the fuck.
 
we're under 3 weeks out from school and the most the district has communicated to us is their plan of either "full time in-person" or "full-time remote (on a trimester basis)".

if kids want to opt out of in-person they can, and then they can tap back in, but remote kids can not flip flop. that was not communicated until AFTER decisions were made regarding in-person or remote.

and the district is allegedly meeting on Monday again to make another "final" determination.

we have no idea beyond that what schedules look like, sanitation, social distance in school, etc. nothing.


we chose remote because.... what the fuck.
From talking with other people around the country, lack of communication and very late notice from public school districts is pretty common. It's all the shit that people always say is bad about public education and the schools aren't doing much of anything to change the perception.
 
From talking with other people around the country, lack of communication and very late notice from public school districts is pretty common. It's all the shit that people always say is bad about public education and the schools aren't doing much of anything to change the perception.
I thought Chicago Public Schools' communication was last-minute, but based on what I've been hearing from people all around the country, it sounds like CPS (and our kids' K-8 school in particular) is kickin' ass and takin' names compared to a lot of other schools, both public and private. We got our finalized, fully-remote plan and reassessment timelines in place two weeks ago (a month ahead of school starting), and over the past couple weeks we've been given a fairly decent idea of what the coursework tech stack is going to look like, what the coursework expectations will be, and approximately how each school day will be structured.
 
My 7th grader started remotely yesterday. 8-2 on the screen. School has been great with communication over the last few months. We get emails almost every day about it. So far the entire school is remote until the end of next month. From there we will have the choice every quarter whether to send her in person or not. In person will be splitting the school into 2 groups and alternating in person attendance between A and B days. Off days are remote. This will go on until at least the end of 2020 and if the covid situation improves (lol) they will reevaluate in person. Remote will still be an option until the end of the school year regardless.
 
My 7th grader started remotely yesterday. 8-2 on the screen. School has been great with communication over the last few months. We get emails almost every day about it. So far the entire school is remote until the end of next month. From there we will have the choice every quarter whether to send her in person or not. In person will be splitting the school into 2 groups and alternating in person attendance between A and B days. Off days are remote. This will go on until at least the end of 2020 and if the covid situation improves (lol) they will reevaluate in person. Remote will still be an option until the end of the school year regardless.

Nearly identical plan for my 6th grader coming up - remote until 9/29. If somehow it's better on 9/29, in-person will be allowed - I really don't see that happening though.

Meanwhile, my wife's district backpedaled and decided the kids would be remote until October also - BUT, they also mandated that teachers have to come into the building to teach remotely. She works in the kind of burb where the FB pages (and school board meetings, no dobut) are filled with questioning teacher pay, what are we getting for that money, are you SURE they're working from home, and if the facilities aren't being used, where's my property tax refund? Literally the only way it makes sense is from a tech-support perspective. All teachers share rooms (one teaches solid in the morning/plans and has meetings in the afternoon, and vice-versa). But where does the other teacher go while one is teaching (all rooms occupied)? If the other teacher stays in the room - can they wear masks (won't make for great on-camera or audio)? Upon entry, they have to check in, (no temp check), write down where they plan to go in the building, only go those places, and confirm any changes in writing on the way out at the end of the day. My perception is it's pure appeasement of the folks who question, rather than support, teachers.
 
Ordered Chromebooks from the Google Store on Friday. Expected delivery date was August 28, but they landed on our porch yesterday, which I thought was amazing. The girls aren’t quite as thrilled, because I’m putting their asses to work on Khan Academy starting tomorrow so they can shake off the dust for a couple weeks before school starts.
 
Day 1 of "official" remote schooling is a massive fucking disaster.

Connection issues statewide all morning to start. Then after we finally got up and running, while my wife was running back and forth between three separate rooms of the house trying to keep things going as smoothly as possible, one of our boys swiped everything on the screen closed before she could stop him. Then she walked into the other hiding under his desk and crying because he didn't want to do some brain dance break or something.

Thankfully my daughter is doing okay...and she will be fine. But this shit is definitely not going to work for 5 year olds. I feel horrible for everyone involved - teachers, parents and kids.
 
We just had our first day of school this year. One in 4th grade and one in 7th. It went pretty well all things considered.

My sympathies to those trying to do this with younger children. I would have withdrawn my kids from public school entirely if my kids were in 1st grade or younger (I probably would have just read with them for an hour instead of trying to slog through hours of Zoom with a class full of kids way too young get anything from it).
 
Back
Top