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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

I’m not sure how other parents are feeling, but this distance learning stuff has taught our family quite a bit already in the one week it has been in operation.

When we picked up the box and bag of assignments and other items the school had prepared for our son for the next few weeks, I’ll admit I was initially a little overwhelmed.

Getting used to the assignments and what was expected was a little bit of an undertaking, but now things are going smoothly, and as I write this, we’re ready to begin our second week.

My son is in first grade and is in a functional skills classroom at Halverson Elementary School. While his workload may be a little lighter in some areas, there are some added elements in a few other areas, such as with speech and occupational therapy.

My husband and I split up the assignments to help Landon with them on the days he is off of work, and then our friend, who is Landon’s day care provider, helps him complete the tasks on the other days.

Though it is undoubtedly different than physically being at the school, it has been helpful for Landon to be able to use many of the same parts of the routine he would have at school here at home.

For example, each morning, his classroom has a morning greeting, where they greet each other, talk about what day of the week it is, sing a few songs and read a story.

While in school, this would happen in person with his teacher and classmates, but his teacher is now making videos to share that we can watch.

His teacher and paras in his classroom are also posting other fun videos throughout the day to let the children know what they’re still up to and remind the students that they miss them.

His teacher and speech and occupational therapists are sending us Facebok and text messages checking in and seeing how things are going.

I can’t say enough good about the teachers I have encountered both for my son and for others at this time.

We are blessed to have these dedicated people be a part of our children’s lives, and their dedication has become ever more apparent in the last few weeks.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.