GURL! *shakes head* We ended the spring semester in Daddy’s Academy of Gratitude so you would think me/Daddy is ready? I blogged all semester about it. I talked about it all summer. How much fun it was. How much the dem kids helped. The crib was cleaner than usual.
I wasn’t ready. Sure, dem kids and I were excited but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t do my personal, self-care routine and it affected my energy and movement. Did I learn my lesson by day 2 or 3? Nope. I woke up early, laid in bed till I heard the kids making breakfast, setting up laptops, arguing over seating… *eye rolls* They adjusted faster than me. Principal Mommy flipped back and forth between Principal and Mommy. Me? Da lil handicapped homie? Shhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiii… I was dragging the entire week but I’ll do better in week 2.
Schedule
My oldest, kid #2, is now high school, 9th grade. Kid #3 is middle school, 6th grade, and kid #4 is holding down elementary, 2nd grade. What that means is we have kids starting around 7:30AM and one at 8:30AM. *sighs* It’s real now folks. In the spring, it didn’t matter what time we started, they just did their stuff that day, week, whatever. The Fall 2020 semester is different. Students have to virtually “check in” with every period/class/teacher at the time of the class, there are more video meetings, it is just more serious. When the first class gets going, everything is rocking and rolling. Everybody is up, even my youngest (and she ain’t finna stop talking, dancing, moving, arguing, helping, questioning, eating, drinking, etc.). For me, that means, it is GO time, no breaks, no naps, no chill, just go till done. It wore me out.
Assignments, videos & teacher intro’s
Yes, we have a dress code here. There is some kind of dress code associated with the school district too but I’m making sure they, at least, put on sweats. *sticks out tongue* From there, everybody needs headphones now. There is just too much going on with multiple kids, doing videos, listening to videos, engaged in remote learning, etc. WOW! Yeah, headphones were a must. Once upon a time, we jammed the Chillhop instrumentals and joked throughout the day. Oh no, no, no. Not anymore. To complicate matters, everybody has down time between the videos and wants to sleep, play video games or just goof off during the down time. I fixed that quick with library books! We visit our public library 2x/month and grab books during July. They weren’t done reading those soooooo… Boom, problem solved.
The biggest issue with the remote schoolwork is the speed of the district laptops. Those mugs are SLOW. Slow like turtle slow. It killed the efficiency of our learning laboratory with those slow laptops. Videos were buffering forever. Responding to remote instruction was awkard. We got some relief by using the family computer for one student during the day. Usually, the high schooler called and protested to use it. *shrugs*
Can’t lie, the kids were excited about school lunches…
They really were. In the spring, Principal Mommy made a habit of taking those school lunches and remixing them into something GREAT. The kids were excited to start this process again and put their Mom to work. Day one was burgers and adding FRESH veggies from the porchgarden made ALL the difference. It also got them OUT the house for a few minutes. They still can’t physically go inside (GOOD NEWS) but out the house, riding in the car, making a few blocks is the highlight of their day. The kids are accustomed to making their own breakfast & lunch. On the days that we didn’t do school lunch, they took turns making lunch for each other and even acted out waiter roles, customer roles, cook roles. It was cute.
Athletics/Electives/(P.E.)
We missed the first day. That’s when I learned about the down time, playing around and made adjustments. P.E. was BIG. It gave dem kids an opportunity to get wore out like me. They didn’t request the opportunity to get wore out but they darn sure deserved it. We used the BullyJuice 20min workouts on YouTube. *nods heads* I got my Daddy Swag back with this stunt, addition, to the day’s schedule. Kid #3 has little stuff to do for Dance class but it’s just for her. My 2nd grader has nothing and my 9th hasn’t heard jack from a coach about anything. That workout was just was the Daddy ordered for some rest and relaxation during a busy day of managing others. I stop the video when they’re slacking to ensure they get full benefits! *duck face*
Final Activities? You already know!
CLEAN UP TIME! Come on now. *folds arms* The laptops, cords, notebooks and other school supplies must be put away properly. We have designated spaces, orders of stuff and I’m determined that they stick to the script. I don’t want anything hanging out, doors ajar from stuffed shelves, none of it. Put it away properly or no electronics later. The kitchen must be clean, dishes put up, cabinets wiped because when Mommy comes home, she ain’t cooking in a dirty kitchen. (I LOVE that eternal rule!) We do a final round of checking on school assignments as well. With the slow laptops, newness of the semester, there has been something that popped up late requiring immediate attention. We caught that ish BOTH times.
After clean up, we remix the living room into mycow – Managing Your Child’s Online Work. That means cameras arranged a certain way, TV facing a specific direction, particular inn tables moved. We’ll run a game of online jeopordy with the clients or by ourselves. When I’m done with tutorials, they help put things back into the original, starting positions for the next day.
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