I hate the world!!!

[Sk8te]

My husband works from home. I still have to work outside of the house. Both high stress jobs. My kinder child is suppose to be homeschooled. I had to stick him back into his old preschool (because we work) I cannot for the life of me get him to do any work that’s being required. For the first 2 weeks we were ok and these past two weeks we have been struggling to say the least. We are now so far behind in everything I don’t even know how to function. He hates everything from reading words, laptop exercises, worksheets, “fun” learning games. I’ve tried it all. He won’t sit, listen or even want to try. He might as well repeat kinder again. My very competitive emotional sensitive child will just die if his peers are in the first grade next year and he is not. He’s into who is “bigger” “the winner” kinda stuff. I’ve even used that to make him do work. It worked in the beginning- now he could care less. How is everyone managing this??? His meds that he takes everyday allows for him to go to kinder and even back to preschool with good behavior reports. At home (no matter the environment) he’s a whining disruptive mess. The stress to try to keep him on track is killing us all. Help!!!!!! 😔😔😔 What do you do??

[Hidden]

I have a preschooler that I am homeschooling. I have established a token reward system to help keep him motivated. I bought poker chips and I give him a poker chip often throughout the day for completing very small tasks and having good behavior. I printed a homemade chart that shows him how many tokens it takes to get certain rewards (suckers, extra computer time, $1 for piggy bank, etc.)

Every evening he cashes in his tokens for his reward. It’s been working well!

[Mamasun]

I know it’s difficult when you’re in the midst of things, but as the mom to a high schooler, middle schooler, and a 5 year old, I can honestly look back on kindergarten and say — don’t sweat it. If you were talking about an older child there may be more cause for concern. But this is just kindergarten. I’ll bet that even many of his neurotypical friends are acting the same way at home, falling apart, and falling behind. They are all in the same boat.

The school year is mostly over anyway, and it’s awash (at least in our district). Is your kindergarten so strict and academically rigorous that the kids are actually going to receive grades for their work right now, and the teacher is going to fail kids for what they are or are not doing right now? Probably not. Talk to your son’s teacher privately about the situation and see if she has some alternative activities and solutions. Find other ways to teach your son the materials and let go a bit with the required school assignments. Have him burn out his energy physically with lots of play. When summer comes and this will hopefully be over, enroll him in summer school and enriching camps. It’s better to maintain as much peace as possible at home right now, than to live miserably and hate each other.

[Mamasun in reply to Mamasun]

Btw here is a message we received today from my middle schooler’s teacher. I am so thankful for this type of message. I think that whether it’s communicated or not, most teachers have similar sentiments right now. I hope your kindergarten teacher does as well.

“Hi Everyone! I hope you had a relatively device-free Spring Break, and got a chance to do some fun things, despite being cooped up. Remember, things will get back to normal! If you’re feeling overwhelmed or need help, please be sure to let me know, either through Teams or you can email me at xxxx.

***I HAVE NOTICED THAT SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE NOT TURNED IN ALL OF THE ASSIGNMENTS FROM BEFORE SPRING BREAK YET (THE QUIZZES). There was one quiz for the 1st week we were not in school, and three for the 2nd week.

*****If you are behind and need more time to finish your work, have questions, or are confused, that is OK, BUT YOU MUST LET ME KNOW, EITHER BY EMAIL OR THROUGH TEAMS, so that I am aware of your situation. Otherwise it looks like you just aren’t doing your work. We can work something out together if you need extra time or less work- I’m Flexible. It’s important to stay healthy and happy, especially at times like this, and I absolutely don’t want to be adding stress to your life, but again, YOU MUST LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP/EXTRA TIME. “

[reg2018]

I was freaking out the first week of this virus because my son's school was sending home the same amount of work that he would've done if he were attending school. And I'm a stay-home mom. I immediately contacted the school and told them this wasn't okay. And they wondered what the problem was.

Now at week 3 they're realizing what I was telling them as soooo many families are stressing about families overburdened with trying to do LIFE that homeschool is literally on the back burner.

So, you do what you can, your kindergartner does what he can and you call it good. Know that we're all just doing our very best to get through this.

I read an article the other day about students in LA where thousands of them haven't even gone online ONCE to do their homeschooling. That's how overwhelmed some families are.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to reg2018]

Yes. We are not doing the same day as in school. We are homeschooling. Two very different pressures.

Do what we can and try not to pile on extra stress.

[Janice_H]

What state do you reside in? I am in Maryland and all schools are closed. The parents are expected to be the teachers now. I am a single mom of a 12 y.o. with ADHD. I also started working from home 3 weeks ago. So I am trying to juggle 8 hours of work and being 4 different subject teachers. Along with daily chores, cooking, laundry, etc. There is no time for myself or fun activities for the 2 of us.

What has helped is that I allow him to play video games. He takes three or four 30 minute breaks to do his chores, exercise, go outdoors and play cards with me. He does not argue about completing all the piles of work his teachers post online, but I feel completely exhausted having to do all of this. Try giving your child breaks in between the school work and offer a reward for completing it (TV time, video games, tablet, outdoor activity, etc.)

Remember that your child is experiencing a lot of change too and I'm sure the child senses the tension between his 2 parents. Everyone in the world is undergoing tremendous change and under alot of stress. You are not alone. Hugs!

[anirush]

I have contacted the teachers and told them we are doing the best we can. A lot of schools are just using grades before this happened as final grades.

[Grnmtnmama]

In our case, repeating kindergarten would have been a wonderful blessing (which I inquired about, but was informed that the school had a "strong retention policy" and wouldn't allow it... back when I was too naive to advocate strong enough for my kiddo). Now he is in 5th, and is emotionally 2-3 years behind his peers. His classmates don't play with him or include him. He's got strong emotional reactions to things, so they tend to ignore him. Just food for thought!