10 New Things We Learned in Virtual School Week 2

Where do I even begin to describe what managing virtual school is like at the House of Many Young Men?

Since all people and family situations are unique, all of our virtual school experiences are also somewhat different. This is how it goes down at our house. If I did not constantly check on, like borderline harass, my fourth and second graders, one would only get a fraction of his work done, one would not even watch his classes, and I would get phone calls from teachers. Oh wait. I tried my best to stay on top of them, and I still get emails and phone calls.

It can be quite hilarious. For funny stories from week one, click here.

10 Things We Learned in Virtual School this Week:

#1. Did you know you aren’t supposed to have swords or Nerf guns in virtual classes?

Obviously. I promise we told him that, but he did it anyway when we weren’t in the room. He could not understand why he could not hop around the living room with his weapons while the teacher was talking…. We had to move the entire “toy weapons bin” to the basement. I replaced said weapons with a box of super hero action figures, which he has played with all day long.

Friends, actually, be SUPER careful about this. An innocent kid in Colorado was basically arrested for doing this same thing John David did. That is one of those news stories that is so ridiculous it is maddening.

#2. My younger two could use a parent sitting by them all day long.

We need to help them make it to all the links they are sent to, keep them on track, and explain to them what they are supposed to be doing. The older two boys are mostly fine, though they occasionally need technical or algebra support.

I cannot actually be in three places at once, so we just have to let things fall where they may. Sometimes, a kid misses a deadline honestly. We fix that as it comes to our attention. All of the time, I have to walk around the house cringing over how bad it needs to be swept and dusted, but there’s no time. I mean sure, I can find time to sit down and look at my phone at night, but time to clean is just gone…

#3. If you think class is boring, you can just wrap up Creeper in a blanket, put your shorts on his head, and stick him in your seat, while you go chill on the sofa.

This way your teacher will think you are still listening! Brilliant!

#4. It turns out that even after going all the way through Calculus in high school and in college, I am useless as an algebra helper.

Scratch that. I do know how to reference a textbook or Google to help with classwork, but it will take me a solid few minutes to dig up what a function, range, and domain are exactly. I remember precious little.

#5. At least three of us now know how to take a webcam photo with the new non-Apple computers.

Eventually, we will also figure that out for the Chromebooks.

#6. What you actually need to survive second grade online is a ginormous stuffed Creeper.

You can buy them at Target stores. Some of you may not know Creeper. He is a type of being in Minecraft. Creepers can explode. This particular one poops explosives I am told.

Our Creeper can be a wrestling opponent, pillow, and your twin! He is so multi-functional!

#7. You have to scroll down to find and check the “Agree to terms” box in order for that big green sign-up button to work.

No, I surely did not spend 10 minutes trying every single different way to sign up before finally listening to the teacher answer a student’s questions before figuring this out. Her box was larger and did not seem to require scrolling. This all happened over the course of two days. Yeah. Two days we worked on this.

And there are some other things I still won’t sign in to because a person can only figure out so many usernames and passwords. Y’all, there is a limit!!

#8. Tennis has very specific postures that you use when you play, not just ways you hold your racket but also how you are supposed to stand.

File this under “things I learned while watching my son’s tennis lessons when my internet wasn’t working.”

#9. Storyboardthat.com is a really cool site for building illustrated stories!

I could spend a good amount of time on there! It looks fun. Daniel did the one above. It was the second board of his story on Pacific Northwest Native Americans.

#10. There is no ideal method for educating four children, all different ages.

….But dropping them off at school came pretty close to ideal for me!! Haaaa!!! Go away, Rona.