Last updated on November 26, 2023
During the summers, we maintain “summer enrichment” activities for our daughters. With schooling forced online in March 2020, we’ve done all we can to simply remain steady and consistent throughout this summer. When the official school year ended, we maintained the daily routine of lessons, worksheets, reading, and activities. To transition to what was basically homeschooling, we had to set our expectations higher than that of the school system.
To be fair, the school system was rushed into an impossible situation. Now, despite a summer to prepare for a new school year starting online, it seems the public schools still are not ready. That’s why we have opted to officially become homeschooling parents.
Note: I am cross-posting on homeschooling to Poet Ponders. On this blog, I’ll post a bit more about the challenges or benefits of being an autistic parent to two children with their own special needs and challenges.
The coronavirus pandemic exposes how poorly prepared many schools are for emergencies. Places with hurricanes or blizzards need to be prepared. Most places don’t have plans for what happens when students cannot be on campus.
The school system seems to be treading water, struggling to implement online education for students and families unenthusiastic about the concept. It doesn’t help that nobody agreed on what online education was or should be. Is it distance learning? Remote instruction? Should courses be synchronous or asynchronous? How much self-guided work should there be?
For 2020–21, the local plan seems jumbled, at best.
It might or might not be my autistic traits, but I hate the lack of planning and the general sense of chaos surrounding education at this moment. I like order and plans, with clear schedules. Nobody knows how long schools will be online. What happens if students return to campuses and there are COVID-19 cases? Everyone would be rushing right back to online. What a potential mess. On campus, back to online, maybe back to campus. No thank you!
The local schools have decided to adopt asynchronous for grades K-2, meaning work will be posted online in Google Classroom. Students will work with parents and guardians at their own paces, with work due on Fridays. This was the approach from last year, and it wasn’t much fun for our youngest. Basically, it was worksheet style work and a lot of YouTube videos.
For the third through eighth grades, some instruction will be delivered as live, synchronous, class lectures. Three hours of lecture and Zoom-style interactions per day. I cannot even manage an hour of Zoom or Google Meet without feeling exhausted. I cannot imagine children staring at screens for three hours.
My wife works from home, telecommuting, so the girls cannot be in her office on Zoom or Meet for three hours. That’s not feasible for many other families, either.
I don’t understand colleges or K12 expecting students to attend any online video chat longer than 50 minutes. That should be the outer limit for synchronous video. Stop at 50 minutes and supplement with online discussion forums and additional content.
As an autistic teacher, I struggle enough to read non-verbal cues in a classroom. I do my best to learn signs, such as frowns and furrowed brows, to recognize when students have questions they won’t ask. Most teachers I know are gifted readers of their students. I’m not, but that’s okay since I have strategies to help me gauge student retention. I use a lot of games, via Quizlet and Kahoot.
Trying to read faces in a Zoom session? Trying to watch their brows? It’s also nearly impossible for me. The cameras are strange, even uncomfortable. Nothing about the images seems real to me.
I hate video chats. Let me work at my pace, via text.
Three hours of video is too much. In fact, the regular school day is too much, too.
School days start too early and end too late.
My exceptions are that our daughters will be “in school” for five hours per day. That’s it. They are only in first and third grades. They don’t need more than five hours of semi-formal school. Most days, I hope they complete lessons early and have time to play.
Locally, they were catching the bus at 7 a.m. to be at school. They started the formal school day by 7:40 a.m., following breakfast and free time. We are not starting until 9 a.m. because that’s when the girls are ready to start academic work.
We have been maintaining the schedule of English language arts, mathematics, and social studies in the mornings. After lunch at noon, the girls have free time and then physical education, science, and we end the day with art.
For the year, our primary expectation is grade-level performance. That’s it. We’re not trying to rush ahead, nor are we going to take it easy because of the situation. At the end of this year, our expectation is to have the girls ready for the second and fourth grades. Nothing more and nothing less.
Sticking to state and national standards matters.
The Texas Education Agency adopts the state standards, known as the “TEKS” (long E sound), the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for students. Though the state officially doesn’t embrace the Common Core standard, the TEKS magically align with the Common Core. Of course they do, since parents want their children prepared for college.
I’ve spent many evenings reading through the TEKS for K–5, making sure our daughters have learned what they should have (they have not) and are prepared for what comes next. The gaps in their knowledge and skills are mostly within science and history, two subjects my wife and I love.
With the TEKS converted to checklists, we’re taking the standards seriously. At the same time, we will supplement those minimum standards to meet the needs of our daughters.
We’ve made progress since March.
The youngest wasn’t able to read when we had to take over her lessons. She wasn’t able to write much more than her name, either. As we begin her first-grade work, she can read early readers well. She’s fond of reading Mo Willems’ books, too. Her math skills are solid and she loves counting money.
The elder daughter has always done well in school and seems to be right on track. She reads a lot, especially books about nature. We are confident she’ll be okay with a year of homeschooling. Right now, she’s learning the basic multiplication table and division. She’s not too bad with fractions and decimals.
We do yoga three days per week and strength work with weights for two days. The girls have each improved movement, coordination, and strength.
It won’t be an easy year, but we are as prepared as parents can be.