Pandemic Home schooling

I am feeling it for those worried about school in this "shelter at home" time.  Working in a bookstore I have chatted daily with panicked parents grabbing workbooks by the dozen, and there is not time to really help them.  There was a women in today, filling a basket with workbooks for her preschoolers...I bit my tongue.

A month out of school will not destroy the trajectory of said student, unless it helps one family discover the perks of homeschooling and they then pull a student from a bad situation.  Mostly a month off will most likely give children a bit of breathing space.  I was a homeschooling parent for 24 years.  I was the product of a private school system, and never dreamed of becoming a homeschool parent, how that happened is a long story, visit the beginning of this blog for more info, but over those 24 years I did learn a thing or two.  The first and most important thing I learned, and for the sake of your "stay at home education" survival you need to consider, is that children are learning machines, and mostly you need to get out of the way.

This is not always an easy process and you only have days, I had years to recover from my personal  educational indoctrination, you need to trust me on this one.  It will all be okay, even if not a single worksheet is completed.  Learning does not always require quiet, a pencil, paper, and a teacher lording over the process.  Learning can take on an infinite number of shapes, you need to stop trying to shove it in a box.  This is hard I know, but oh so fun to watch. 

Homeschooling and school at home are two different things.  Trying to recreate the school day schedule at home, 40 minutes on this, 3 minute transfer time, 40 minutes on the next subject, 10 minute mid-morning break, another 40 minutes on that, then 24 minutes for lunch...  Please do not crucify your children with this.  The time to complete a day's worth of lessons for a child at home is just a couple of hours, if you want to cover the material they do in a public school day.  So if you feel obligated to fill out the work sheets relegate this task to before lunch hours, and then you can devote the rest of the day to some real learning.

How hands on you are as a parent is totally up to you, I encourage engaging with your kids, but if circumstances preclude this, that's okay, strew the path and learning will happen.  I happen to enjoy crafts and don't mind mess, this is the perfect time to try some new crafting with kids, and this counts as learning.  At home tasks are also ready made lessons, from laundry to preparing dinner to scrubbing the bathroom, each offers a life skill, or several, which kids need to learn, and if you have young ones they love to help.  If it takes longer, thats okay too, it's school, and your toilet is clean.  Games are learning, almost all of them, let them play board and card games, join in if you feel like it, or just take pictures, so you remember.

Let them be bored and let them create their own entertainment. Like self-soothing to sleep, this is another life skill your children need, how to appropriately amuse themselves.  The line on video gaming is up to you, bad day, let 'em go, but limiting video will help with the calm in the house and also help to build the creativity.  It is all okay.

Finally I strongly encourage read-alouds.  Pick a book, it doesn't have to a picture book even if they are young.  My mother used to read long chapter books to me and my siblings when we were quite young. She actually read aloud Moby Dick (I do not encourage this as an appropriate selection) when I was just 8 and my brother 9, the other 4 children listening were all younger. She also read Heidi, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Black Beauty, Peter Pan and more.  I know that my younger siblings at 2 and 3 don't remember all the stories but they remember being a part of that storytime.  And if you have a busy body that needs to move a bit during storytime, offer them some paper and crayons, or something to quietly play with while they listen, it will amaze you how much they listen and learn.  So pick something that interests you as well as something that might appeal to the kids, if you need ideas I can give you a list.  And just read.

This will all count as school, and read-alouds should include teenagers if they live at home.  If all you have is teenagers, you can even do an audio book together and work on a puzzle, cause everyone loves a good story.

Mostly you just need to breathe and enjoy the extra time with those that won't be small much longer.  It will all be back to a new normal shortly, and the kids will be okay.

Toilet Paper Math

I understand that some folks out there are hoarding toilet paper because they are panicked and need to have at least a modicum of control in their lives and they have chosen to control the roll.  I am hoping that this group is actually smaller than buying indicates, allow me the fantasy.  I want to assume that a major part of the problem is that an abundance of bathrooms and the only partial use of the home during the day has led to folks being unable to properly estimate their actual toilet tissue use.

Here I can help! You see I haven't lived in a house with more than one bathroom in over 40 years, with only one to restock the math becomes easy.  Keep in mind that additional bathrooms will not increase the actual daily usage, extra rooms do not equal extra bowel movements, just more places to clean. We have also homeschooled from the start and I have one college graduate, she moved away, a second almost college graduate (May!!) commuting to school, and a third in college, the two students are still at home.  So we have years of bathroom use, with all the bodies at home a lot of the time, and with a mostly female population, which does make a paper difference.

So my estimates may be a little high for an all male household, but it will not leave you empty handed. With four females and one male daily use is one full (double or triple) roll of 2-ply tissue. This increases only slightly one week per month, add 2 rolls to be sure.  Now you need only adjust for single ply if you opt to make that choice, your number of rolls will increase quite a bit.  Only two people in the house, cut those numbers by at least half.  You have 8 at home all day, then double everything.

If you want more accurate numbers for your house, you only need to have everyone use just one bathroom for a 24 hour period, put in a fresh roll at the beginning of the test period and see what is left at the end.  You should have a spare roll in the designated bathroom, just in case you are using single ply, or have a larger than average household. Now you are ready to shop.

You want stock for 30 days?  Here I would need about 32 rolls of tissue for the 30 days, 45 days? 47 rolls, 60 days? 64 rolls.  There is no way I would need a pallet full of toilet paper for this 2 month period, if would merely take up extra space in the basement. So do your math, and you will have on hand exactly what you need and more space for storage of bottled water.

If you do the math and find out you have overbought, feel free to take it back to Target, or share it with your neighbor who failed to estimate accurately, or was unable to purchase the proper amount because someone else followed some poorly thought out numbers.