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Options for Educated Your Kids This Fall

fuggled

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fuggled

fuggled 576

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Maybe this belongs in with the AISD thread, if so, feel free to merge.  But I wanted to keep this less focused on what policies the districts are about and more focused on what individual options/choice parents are finding.

My kids will be going into 1st and 4th grades.  Our district (Richardson) is offering the option of in-person or remote.  We've already decided we're not sending them in-person this fall, but we haven't figured out what the best at home experience will be.  Here's what we're thinking about so far.

Supplement the district's remote learning: This could be with online tutors or maybe even an in-person private tutor, but I think that would be harder to source. Initial research online found a couple possibilities.  

  • Care.com - They mostly focus on nanny type roles, but you can find tutors.  Presumably you could find a remote or in-person tutor.  Looks like there are a lot of people in my area.
  • Wyzant.com - Exclusively focused on online tutoring.  Seems to be really easy to see tutors and their rates and contact them directly.
  • etutorworld.com - Much cheaper options with pre-paid bundles of lessons ($20 or less per hour).  Looks like most of their tutors are in India, which explains the low cost.  That could present lots of challenges.  It also seems going this route would make it hard to keep one consistent tutor.

Switch to an online public school: I didn't realize this was a thing but there are apparently at least 2 online public elementary schools for Texas.  Both seem open to all Texas residents.  What's not clear to me is how much teaching these schools do, as opposed to just providing content and relying on the parents to really be the teachers.  But, even if they require a lot of parent involvement, is that really so different from what will happen with our district anyway?  I am wondering if going with one of these would at least offer a) some better content and b) an established process they've used before.

  • Texas Virtual Academy - tvah.k12.com (According to their site, parents need to be involved 70-80% of the school day)
  • Texas Online Preparatory School - tops.k12.com

Switch to an online private school:  Similar questions to the online public options.  How much will they be teaching vs relying on parents.  Tuition on these options look to be around $3-5K, so much lower than in person private school (which I don't think would be an option for us).

  • www.k12privateacademy.com
  • www.keystoneschoolonline.com

I'd love to hear if anyone has experience with any of these services or if anyone is coming up with other options I haven't thought of.  

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washparkhorn

washparkhorn 9939

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If you can afford it:

intellectual development - testing and tutor 

social/emotional - ?

physical - the sky is the limit with kids your age. Whatever you as a parent love.  Hiking, camping, biking, swimming, family soccer, baseball, tennis, golf, . . . ; proprioception - mini-tramp/full trampoline. 

If you are planning on returning them to homeschools, track what the school/teachers want to accomplish with 1st and 4th graders. 

Good luck. 

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HornOnTheBayou

HornOnTheBayou 8935

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I will say this: you might want to wait and see how online learning goes at your school before looking into other options. I can't speak for every school and every district, but all of them were completely caught off guard in the spring. Add that to the fact that the school year was nearly finished and that's why you saw half-assed online schooling. Districts now realize this is a long-term situation and are going to put some resources behind it. I'm finally seeing some real measures and protocols put into place that are going to turn distance learning into real learning. Again, it won't work in every district, but it's worth at least checking out before doing anything too drastic.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89735

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1 hour ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I'm finally seeing some real measures and protocols put into place that are going to turn distance learning into real learning.

Speaking of distance/online, since ACC is apparently almost all online now, at least for the stuff I'm interested in, I'm going to take several classes this fall.  So I can report back what it's like to attend aggy I guess.  

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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I hope they buy another half million square feet this year with their property tax revenues because our society will be so flush with cash.  

Sarcasm aside, that's great you're continuing your education.  I should probably get off my ass and finish my law degree online somewhere.  This'll be the only time I could do it justifiably.  

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Redpuma

Redpuma 146

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I have friends that are pooling resources to have a teacher come tutor their kids together (max of 5 kids). If I was in this situation with kids, I’d just supplement with joint tutoring and then plan to make up during summers for the next two years. 

Blah blah kids lose their summers but F having my theoretical kid fall behind up to 2 yrs because of this shit. 

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4thgenhorn

4thgenhorn 38

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Doing the homeschool for 4th grader via normal public school. Spring was terrible but they say they’re going to try this Fall vs all optional work past Spring. 
 

we hired a Math tutor that’s starting next week. Might add more tutors with 1-2 friends so it adds a touch of social. Seems the tutors will get booked fast so we are starting now. 
 

Also spent today rearranging some furniture in guest room to provide a school office for 4th grader independent of family. Hopefully make it a place easier to study and zoom from. 
 

also need to buy another PC for home so no sharing. Probably a chrome book, but maybe a MacBook. 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89735

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1 hour ago, Redpuma said:

Blah blah kids lose their summers but F having my theoretical kid fall behind up to 2 yrs because of this shit. 

Being that wife was a teacher for many years, she stocked up on educational materials for the kids this summer, and everyday they are doing basic schoolwork.  Both kids will hit the ground running, academically ahead of their classmates.  Doesn't make up for the lack of socialization the kids need, but at least if any the online stuff tanks, we are not starting out in a hole.

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atomheartbevo

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2 hours ago, Lobo said:

I hope they buy another half million square feet this year with their property tax revenues because our society will be so flush with cash.  

Sarcasm aside, that's great you're continuing your education.  I should probably get off my ass and finish my law degree online somewhere.  This'll be the only time I could do it justifiably.  

What I studied when I was young, and what I did in the Army, had absolutely no bearing on the kinds of jobs I later worked at, and I want to pad out the resume with something that actually applies to what I want to do/enjoy doing, and I want to get it done before I hit 50, which is not too far off.  With the chances of the kids being home from school being pretty high this fall, and ACC having everything online and easy to register for, it's a natural fit.   It probably matters more to me than future employers since I've got most of the experience I need, but my plan opens up a few doors, and I can even make a run at another bachelor's if I choose to do so.

But holeee fuck, ACC's website can be a hot mess - I stumbled across a class that was specifically about working with Windows XP.   If they had a few classes covering OS/2, I could skip the studying and just take the tests.

My wife is wondering if I'm wanting to live out the Community TV show.  I am not old enough to be Pierce.  I wasn't a disbarred lawyer like Jeff, but I am a parent like Shirley, and I'm kind of like a combination of all three.  I already have a D&D game going a few nights a week with friends, so I can skip that part.

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Jerry Callo

Jerry Callo 8704

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My high school aged girls, one entering her senior year, really want to go back to school.  That's the plan at this point.  Of course things change week-to-week in this apocalypse. 

I can't imagine trying to juggle life and school with two elementary aged kids.

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Js1

Js1 85428

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9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

What I studied when I was young, and what I did in the Army, had absolutely no bearing on the kinds of jobs I later worked at, and I want to pad out the resume with something that actually applies to what I want to do/enjoy doing, and I want to get it done before I hit 50, which is not too far off.  With the chances of the kids being home from school being pretty high this fall, and ACC having everything online and easy to register for, it's a natural fit.   It probably matters more to me than future employers since I've got most of the experience I need, but my plan opens up a few doors, and I can even make a run at another bachelor's if I choose to do so.

But holeee fuck, ACC's website can be a hot mess - I stumbled across a class that was specifically about working with Windows XP.   If they had a few classes covering OS/2, I could skip the studying and just take the tests.

My wife is wondering if I'm wanting to live out the Community TV show.  I am not old enough to be Pierce.  I wasn't a disbarred lawyer like Jeff, but I am a parent like Shirley, and I'm kind of like a combination of all three.  I already have a D&D game going a few nights a week with friends, so I can skip that part.

You're a fucking Britta and you know it. 

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fuggled

fuggled 576

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One other thing I didn't mention before, but I'm really not stressing too much about my 1st grader from a purely educational perspective.  I think a lot of people worry about kids getting a solid head start on learning when they're 4 or 5 years old, but I don't think it matters that much in the long run.  If you're reading to your kid, talking to them and helping them explore the world around them, they'll be ok.  A number of countries (Sweden, Singapore, Finland) don't even have compulsory education until kids are 7, and they do just fine.  Obviously the calculus is different for parents who can't afford to to spend that time with their 4/5/6 year olds, so I don't want to paint with too broad a brush.  Point is, it's easy to worry as a parent, but the chances of screwing up your kid's education in the first year or two of school seem pretty low.

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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19425

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29 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

We are going with the flow of Fort Bend ISD. As long as the district says home school, my company will let me be remote. My son and school do not get along, so being home is awesome for us.

Mrs Rojo and I have been having a running argument about what to do for a few weeks now. She really wants to send them back to school, I really want to keep them home. My daughter is a high achiever and a pleaser, so she would have no problems with home school. Last spring she was up by 7:00 every morning and had most of her work done before she even came down for breakfast. Totally owned it, and never gave us any problems. Our son on the other hand really needs the structure of the classroom. He's a smart kid, but if he isn't interested, or doesn't want to do something it's like pulling teeth to keep him focused. I work from home and probably won't be traveling much if any the rest of this year, but I'm on zoom meetings from 7A to7PM just about every day, so I'm not sure how much I'd be able to keep him on track. 

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8067

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6 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Mrs Rojo and I have been having a running argument about what to do for a few weeks now. She really wants to send them back to school, I really want to keep them home. My daughter is a high achiever and a pleaser, so she would have no problems with home school. Last spring she was up by 7:00 every morning and had most of her work done before she even came down for breakfast. Totally owned it, and never gave us any problems. Our son on the other hand really needs the structure of the classroom. He's a smart kid, but if he isn't interested, or doesn't want to do something it's like pulling teeth to keep him focused. I work from home and probably won't be traveling much if any the rest of this year, but I'm on zoom meetings from 7A to7PM just about every day, so I'm not sure how much I'd be able to keep him on track. 

Same dynamics but 3 at home.

8th is high achiever.  She does her work most of the time without being checked.  She will fall behind if she doen't think anyone is checking though

6th will miss on the social aspects of 6th grade that I think are important and she does not read unless she is made to

1st grader boy is a struggle and will not read.  Just fights it, getting him tested for dyslexia.  He is super bright and makes all kids of complex board and card games up but will not read.

My wife is at her wits end and I'm in the office all day on calls.

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Samson's Wig

Samson's Wig 3193

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One option not listed in the OP is to disenroll them entirely and do true homeschooling for the year.  You would have complete control (so no BS zoom meetings and lame assignments that benefit no one to keep track of), and it's easy to find the Texas Teks and even the STAAR test prep information if you want to keep them in line with public school for a return next year. 

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fuggled

fuggled 576

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2 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

One option not listed in the OP is to disenroll them entirely and do true homeschooling for the year.  You would have complete control (so no BS zoom meetings and lame assignments that benefit no one to keep track of), and it's easy to find the Texas Teks and even the STAAR test prep information if you want to keep them in line with public school for a return next year. 

Yeah, we're looking at that as an option for our 1st grader.

Also, just heard a rumor from a principal up here that Richardson is planning to announce that the first 3 weeks of school will be 100% online.

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