He is an avid reader. During his zoom meetings, he's got a book on his lap that he reads during class. I think he's into the Warrior Cats books now. I look at him and just shake my head. As long as his grades are fine, I'm just like, whatever.
And he does it all while balancing sports (mostly hockey) and household chores. So it's all good. The last time he got a B, I asked what happened, and he explained that he forgot about the project. So he learned from it and always double checks every night. Last marking period, he did get straight As.
My younger one, Dusty, is in Kindergarten. He sits with me in our den. Our desks are next to each other. I'm training him to be independent as well - as much as a five year old can be, anyway.
The thing is, he doesn't always ask for help. Sometimes I'm deep in my work or a meeting, and I'll look over to him, and he's sniffing with tears in his eyes. Then I ask him what's wrong and help him.
Usually the issue is with Technology class. You would expect the Technology teacher to know technology, but no. The first session, she shared her screen, showed a link, and then asked the kids to click on it. She couldn't understand why it wasn't working. It was working for her! I would guess she eventually figured it out because she stopped doing it. (Actually, she may have just stopped without figuring it out.)
What usually frustrates Dusty is that the class is done through Google Meet. The school issued Chromebook is over managed and is filtering out so many websites and apps that new tabs are very slow to open. The Technology teacher always shares a link - through chat this time - which also takes long to show up. When you click it, the website then takes long to load. And when it finally does load, we get kicked off the Google Meet meeting. When you actually pay attention to the notifications, you can see that kids are leaving and coming back in all the time, so you can assume they are experiencing the same problems. The Technology teacher's response when you bring it up? "Yes, the internet is so slow today. Please just keep trying." So yeah, Dusty gets frustrated and cries. Now I just make sure he is there for roll call and the first time he gets kicked off, I just say, "Okay, class is done. Go play." So he would go. Or sometimes he would stay to play the game on the link that was shared.
Dusty mostly knows how to use Zoom and start his meetings and even submit his work. He knows how to unmute when called upon. He always says "Hmmm" after he answers. For example, he'll say, "The letter C! Hmmm..." Also, he shouts his responses. His big brother can hear him upstairs. Or, he'll say, "The number two! Hmmm..." "The blue one! Hmmm..."
But anyways, let's go back to last year when remote learning first started. I was happy about it. Rusty's school starts early at 7:40am and he would have to be at the bus stop at 7am. I usually would walk him there, not that he needs me but I like to be present. Which means we would have to be up by 6:30am at the latest to get ready. So the extra time at home was welcomed. And it was good for him to get more sleep as well.
The only thing was, the very first week of remote learning was when the Health teacher decided the fifth graders should learn about sex education. When I received the email about how studying at home would work, this was kinda added in there somewhere, like, oh by the way, now that the kids are home with you, we're teaching them about sex, okay? I was like, uh...
Things got busy for me those first few weeks, and with Rusty being independent, I largely forgot about it. Later on when I remembered - I think we were watching a nature show - I asked what he learned from Health about sex education, and he said they just watched a video and that was it. Either that or he's embarrassed to talk about it.
Argh, I do have to talk to him about it soon. When I was younger I thought I would be able to tackle this easily. We already had the drugs talk, and that wasn't too difficult at all. I was able to explain that in simple terms even when he was younger. But I have not really been able to talk to him about, you know, the sex thingy.
I have two older brothers so I kinda knew about this stuff already at such a young age. I really like how innocent Rusty is. We have a neighbor about nine months older than him who also has two older brothers. He says stuff like, "That's what she said" sometimes. Or some other jokes, and I would say to him, "Rusty doesn't get that." Sometimes when we are watching a show or movie and my wife and I would laugh, he would ask, "What's funny about that?" I kind of like that. But I know I have to change that for his own good. I just have to figure out how.
Hmmm....
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