Looking for homeschooling activities on the internet, I came across the suggestion children should start a journal of current events.
As we’ve all felt, things are changing day to day, sometimes hour by hour. For example, Friday at noon, our county supervisor declared on live TV that schools would remain open. After pick up at 3, classes were abruptly cancelled until at least Mid-April.
Anonymous internet homeschool advisor remarked Future Us would find it valuable to have anecdotal stories of this strange time in history. Especially through the eyes of children.
I was on board, because that’s kind of a cool keepsake, especially as events are unfolding so quickly they already seem like a blur. Cool to see perspective change, the little details that get lost in big happenings, etc.
They then suggested diaries should be written longhand, and all the hair on the back of my neck started paying attention. But the suggester was all, “No, it’s cool, longhand changes the way your brain processes, so they’ll write slower, more detailed memories.”
…OK.
“…and who knows if their memories will be retrievable by future historians on an antiquated computer? Way better to have a physical copy.”
Sure? I mean, I guess. That seems a bit bulky to store at the house for the next twenty years or so until the kids get old enough to reminisce. But then they hit me with this:
“Think! Anne Frank’s diary was saved because it was in notebook form!”
And it totally hit me the macabre bullshit they are gearing up for. Anyway, everything this week is like that: Starts out helpful, slowly spirals into some grim certainty we’re all gonna end up postmortem required reading for sixth graders. Including this post, I guess? Sorry.
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As mentioned, my kids are all out of school until mid-April, although everyone on the internet seems to think this is just optimism, and they’ll never go back to school, so start learning how to cobble your own shoes, Endtimer. My dad’s memorial is likewise canceled. It’s raining here, so it’s dark and moody and strangely quiet.
My oldest kid (and I get it, teenagers are programmed to puppy pile all over each other. Also, contractually prohibited from believing death is real) is taking it very personally we won’t let her do all her regular teen gathering things. GUESS HOW MUCH FUN IT IS TO BE TRAPPED IN THE HOUSE WITH A PISSED OFF TEEN? SO MUCH. SOOOOO MUCH FUN.
Anyway, I was kind of thinking I’d keep it short and try to update daily to give myself a regular dose of human interaction. So wheeeeee! See you tomorrow, maybe.
Please do see us tomorrow! I used to teach college English in person, then online, then I had kids and they learned in person and online. Then I went to work in the library in person and now, in a dizzying full circle spin, I am working online and teaching my own kids in person but online. And drinking alot of good scotch because hey, eat dessert first.
I am adult enough to have perspective and I am still pissed off that my minor-in-the-big-scheme-of-things events have been cancelled through at least April. I am trying very hard to be upbeat but may allow myself some time tonight to cry about it all.
<3 <3 Last night, I could feel my shock wearing off enough to think, "Yeah I'm probably about three days from a sobbing event." Weird, can't rush it, also can't avoid it. I'd say, "Hugs" because an internet hug shouldn't feel contagious, but somehow even the word freaks me out a little these days. So.... smugs? Super disinfectanted pure thoughts of goodness? Something good your way.
I will send you all the resources I found while looking this weekend.
And, wow, the homeschoolers might just have to unite with the other apocalypse people, it might be a good story. I am thinking it will end up looking a lot like Lord of the Flies…
I hope your teenager has a door… and, if so, you could just let her close it. She can brood all she likes.
A 21-year-old has already died in Spain – no one is immune.
Heh! As a homeschool mom to three…. THREE teenage girls (and an eleven year old boy). I’m here to tell you that what follows is nothing like homeschool for just about anyone who homeschools. I mean…. we aren’t usually, actually HOME alla time!! Certainly not in this kind of isolation. All our
outside classes and lessons and even church is out and done with for at least three weeks. But suggesting that the internet and computers might not last the corona virus? Whatevs! You gonna be fiiiiine! Blog away, sweet Anne, blog away!!
Yeah, I can remember taking a cab home from the airport in late 1999, and the driver asking me what I thought was going to happen with Y2K. He didn’t believe me when I said it was going to be fine, because my bank’s computers went down all the time and they still managed to get by.
On the other hand, I am now stuck at home for 5 weeks with a 5 yo who needs to learn how to read and write, but doesn’t like doing either, and I get to be his teacher for the time. I always said I would never, ever homeschool. Ha ha fate!
LOL, I drove to Joshua Tree with a bottle of whisky, a battery powered radio (to listen to society crumble) and $200 in case the world was gonna end. LOL, hungover in the desert the next day was no way to start the new year.
Old-school blogging is a good idea! (Ponders reviving mostly-dead blog instead of making a Word document/journal, because I’m with you — paper journaling sounds pleasingly old-fashioned until you realize it’s a very morbid reaction to the pandemic.) I’m looking forward to seeing your posts (daily… or not. I always look forward to them regardless).
I’m stuck at home with an 18yo and a 14yo, both of whom are whizzy-whizzes who built their own computers from scratch and are thus happily preoccupied (and the school district is still figuring out online classes). The 18yo is best friends with a dude who streams daily on Twitch, so sometimes I pop over there to watch my child play video games in almost-real time (there’s a delay between the whoops I can hear from his room and the whoops coming through my headphones). No one has yet said, Mom, it’s weird that a 44yo lady is watching Twitch, so I guess they are ok with it. The 4yo, in the meantime, loves having his big brothers home all.the.time.
The teens and I are all natural introverts, so while they are disappointed that they aren’t doing their normal teen hangouts (the 14yo *also* plays DnD, which entertains me every time I remember Somber Church Warnings not to play that game when I was, myself, a child), we are none of us quite yet in meltdown mode. I mean, sometimes I get pretty close. I’ve got no emotional reserves left for Major Events (we had a pretty major scare over the weekend, as the 14yo caught the flu just as the corona virus hit our home state hard), so I might be spending some time social isolating myself from my family by sitting in my car. Even if I don’t leave the driveway. Mommy has left the building, see you all in half an hour.