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springv 01:35 PM 07-03-2020
For those of you that work in a daycare center or home in Alabama and have school agers, what will you do when the kids the kids go back to school and they decide to do it online. Will you help them or will they be on their own or will you tell the parents that you cannot help them and they will have to figure it out on their own???
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284878 04:43 AM 07-04-2020
I have my own DD that would be doing online work and personally it would have been helpful to me to have DCB do some kind of school work at the same time.

I am not sure if I would be willing to do online stuff with him but over seeing his reading or writing or basic math would be great. Then DD would not felt so rushed and DCB would had something else to do besides bothering her while she worked (during nap/quite time) (For the record he did have other things he could do, he just choose to bother DD)

Now if I didn't have DD doing school work too then I may feel differently. However my policy for SA kids is for them to read for at least 20 minutes either way during quite time.
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happymom 11:34 AM 07-06-2020
As a parent, if my child is unable to do his school work (for distance learning) in a daycare setting, I would be forced to find a new arrangement. There are simply not enough hours in the day for him to be in daycare 8 hours and then come home and do homework for 4-5 hours.

read: no wifi available, not allowed to bring a computer, etc.
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Cat Herder 11:52 AM 07-06-2020
Parents are responsible for their children's education. Online education is four hours per day. I homeschooled mine (online public school) AND ran my daycare 10 hours per day for a few years. Not at the same time. It can be done.

Daycare providers already have their hands full with their daily responsibilities.

It is going to be tough, no doubt, but I have no intention of carrying someone else's load.
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happymom 12:41 PM 07-06-2020
I don't believe for a minute your school aged children were not able to do some of their work independently while you ran your daycare. What about their class meetings on zoom? Any scheduled reading groups, etc?

I get home from work after picking up my children at 5:45pm. If they start their work at that time they would go to bed at 9:45? If they eat dinner while working? They would literally miss all of their teacher meetings during daycare hours.

Of course it is your choice as a provider to not to help, but I would need to quit my job, hire a nanny, or leave my child home alone before I could send to your daycare.
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Cat Herder 12:54 PM 07-06-2020
Originally Posted by happymom:
I don't believe for a minute your school aged children were not able to do some of their work independently while you ran your daycare. What about their class meetings on zoom? Any scheduled reading groups, etc?

I get home from work after picking up my children at 5:45pm. If they start their work at that time they would go to bed at 9:45? If they eat dinner while working? They would literally miss all of their teacher meetings during daycare hours.

Of course it is your choice as a provider to not to help, but I would need to quit my job, hire a nanny, or leave my child home alone before I could send to your daycare.
I would be perfectly OK with choosing a nanny as that falls into the realm of nanny care. I don't know any group childcare provider than can add that heavy load without neglecting actual care and supervision of other children.

My kids had two parents doing their part. We worked in the mornings, nights, days off and weekends to complete their work. They did not have access to the internet unsupervised, they did their book reading, art and handwriting practice on their own.
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Cat Herder 01:23 PM 07-06-2020
The plain truth is this is the parents and public school systems problem to solve. Not daycare's.

If daycare can be open so can schools. This expectation that we take up all the slack for a fraction of the income is flipping ridiculous.
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Cat Herder 01:58 PM 07-06-2020
I don't mean to take it out on you, Happy Mom, I am just so tired of everything always falling to us. Why does society think we are more capable than any other human yet are not willing to pay us what we are worth? Why should we be responsible for anything other than child care while the parent is at work?
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happymom 02:02 PM 07-06-2020
I absolutely agree.

I hope that they open schools in the fall. I think our kids are missing out on a lot.
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Cat Herder 02:02 PM 07-06-2020
Originally Posted by happymom:
I absolutely agree.

I hope that they open schools in the fall. I think our kids are missing out on a lot.
So much. It isn't even possible to duplicate it.
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happymom 02:07 PM 07-06-2020
I'm not taking it out on you, either. Just simply stating that it wouldn't work for my family to have a provider that wasn't able to adapt.

I know many of you guys do not take SA children anyway. My daycare center has already gone out of their way to adjust to keep SA children all day while schools are closed (once they reopened late spring, anyway). If they chose to be open all day to school agers in the fall, and IF schools are closed....I would ONLY keep my 3rd grader in daycare if he is given some time to work on his work. If not, I would have to figure something else out.

Since March, he worked on his work from home (while my husband was in his office working) and if he needed help and my husband was unavailable I could help him remotely. I am lucky because he was a very responsible 7/8 year old and took his school work very seriously.

I also have many friends of 2nd/3rd graders that simply threw in the towel and quit online school. I worry about children being left behind if schools remain closed.
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Cat Herder 02:13 PM 07-06-2020
Oh, I get it. I just don't see it as adapting. I see it as a separate service that should be charged heavily for. It is not our job.

Maybe the public school funding that my taxes go to should be paying for this service to be outsourced.
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happymom 02:25 PM 07-06-2020
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
Oh, I get it. I just don't see it as adapting. I see it as a separate service that should be charged heavily for. It is not our job.

Maybe the public school funding that my taxes go to should be paying for this service to be outsourced.
Definitely
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Cat Herder 02:36 PM 07-06-2020
My client's prayers have been answered, here. School will start on time in my county.

"We will have temp checks before entering the bus and school for everyone. We will allow masks but not mandatory. Lunch will be in the classrooms and a few other things. I’m sure it will be different but better than the alternative."

Whoop!!
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happymom 02:52 PM 07-06-2020
Sounds like a dream!
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Blackcat31 06:40 AM 07-07-2020
I do not accept school aged kids ‘normally‘
However since nothing is normal right now I have 2 previous daycare kids that were in school (one kindy/one first grade) and I have 3 that should go off to kindy this fall.

If our schools do not open I am willing to provide time and ‘moderate’ supervision (wi-fi too) but will be charging a fee on top of my regular rate for this additional responsibility.

There is NO way I’d do it without additional monetary compensation. I’d also probably follow the school calendar and having ‘off’ school days with no school work/time required.

I wouldn’t do this for anyone other than my current SA kids.
I wouldn’t enroll new SA for any amount of $
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Jo123ABC 12:22 AM 10-05-2020
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
The plain truth is this is the parents and public school systems problem to solve. Not daycare's.

If daycare can be open so can schools. This expectation that we take up all the slack for a fraction of the income is flipping ridiculous.
OMG yes!! What is up with this!? Apparently, we are essential yet not valuable
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Jo123ABC 12:38 AM 10-05-2020
I honestly do not think I could swing it. I can't care for my group while doing homework help. Maybe if a kid was independently studying but I wouldn't want their education to be my responsibility. I'm already a caretaker, janitor, cook, and nurse for less income than any one of those professions make. Daycare is so random too. I was thinking about this last Friday when I was cleaning up from lunch and dealing with a kid's behavior issues. I have 3 infants right now mind you along with 1 potty training toddler, 1 potty training preschooler, 2 potty trained preschoolers and 2 6year old school kids. As I'm working my ass off to get to nap time a 4 year old pooped his pants and got a bloody nose at the same time it was chaos!! There I was, trying to stem bleeding while cleaning up poop pants and getting blood off the floor before an infant got into it. Why do parents think we have time to do random stuff for them? We are so flipping busy!!!
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Unregistered 07:57 AM 10-05-2020
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
The plain truth is this is the parents and public school systems problem to solve. Not daycare's.

If daycare can be open so can schools. This expectation that we take up all the slack for a fraction of the income is flipping ridiculous.
THIS
A small at home daycare who has a couple of school-age children and the rest preschoolers, can not sit there online with your kid during school hours. Who's going to supervise the preschoolers? I would honestly be 100% shocked, if a daycare offered this without charging you a lot of money for it.
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Sunshine69 08:39 AM 10-05-2020
I do have school-aged kids doing virtual learning from daycare at least part of the week. They do go to school 2-4 days per week depending on their grade, when they aren’t doing all virtual because of positive cases in school.

The school-aged kids I have, have either been with me since they were infants or their siblings have.

It just so happens, the group of kids I have are responsible enough to do their online learning with minimal supervision, and the younger ones are pretty well behaved and predictable. It works out so the older kids can learn while the younger ones nap. With a different group of kids, I don’t think I could accommodate. The ones that refuse to nap, make too much noise, have to be the center of attention or are habitually ill-behaved don’t have a place in my daycare at this time.

It isn’t ideal and I’m really getting tired of hearing how someone forgot to charge their Chromebook so we need to charge it here. I have raised my rates a bit, not because of electricity consumption, but because the of the increase in the cost of required PPE and cleaning supplies and the number of hours I have to spend disinfecting after closing.

DCPs are aware and seem to understand that it is only minimal supervision I will provide, such as the quiet time and space to log on to their classes. I do not provide instruction, I am not responsible for the kids getting their work done on time. If they are playing computer games instead of attending on-line classes, the child’s grades will suffer and it is up to the parents to manage the consequences.

Teachers are not changing diapers or preparing meals in their classrooms and school is still closed on Fridays to allow time for disinfecting while I am open. I am only one person with my own kids to care for. I am not a tireless robot.
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nannyde 05:10 AM 10-06-2020
Originally Posted by happymom:
Of course it is your choice as a provider to not to help, but I would need to quit my job, hire a nanny, or leave my child home alone before I could send to your daycare.
It's not "help". It's work.

The concept of "helping" is something women get ingrained in their brains from babies on up. I've heard thousands of times women saying "my husband is so great. He "helps" with the kids." That's not "help" when it's his job to parent in the first place. It's his job.

We really need to make sure providers put money on their work and know they have the ability to decide when they truly want to "help" without compensation.

I'm not targeting you friend. I just wanted to clarify that "help" is like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder. What one sees as an obvious entitlement because a need arises, another would see simply as work. Child care is wrought with "needs" presented to them that truly aren't realistic to provide in care or is so costly that the parent can't pay for the service on top of the daycare fee.

This is a pivotal time in parenting, child care, and education and there's little in the past to steer parents and providers into a fair and workable solution. What we do know from the past is that providers have a long history of being expected to do whatever a parent deems a child "needs" while they are on the providers clock. That's when the provider should define what services they provide within their base fees, what services require extra fees, and what services they won't provide regardless of compensation. A successful business ... ANY BUSINESS... does this. McDonald's doesn't offer sushi for a reason.
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littlefriends 08:16 AM 10-07-2020
THIS! Yaaaaaaaas!

Originally Posted by nannyde:
It's not "help". It's work.

The concept of "helping" is something women get ingrained in their brains from babies on up. I've heard thousands of times women saying "my husband is so great. He "helps" with the kids." That's not "help" when it's his job to parent in the first place. It's his job.

We really need to make sure providers put money on their work and know they have the ability to decide when they truly want to "help" without compensation.

I'm not targeting you friend. I just wanted to clarify that "help" is like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder. What one sees as an obvious entitlement because a need arises, another would see simply as work. Child care is wrought with "needs" presented to them that truly aren't realistic to provide in care or is so costly that the parent can't pay for the service on top of the daycare fee.

This is a pivotal time in parenting, child care, and education and there's little in the past to steer parents and providers into a fair and workable solution. What we do know from the past is that providers have a long history of being expected to do whatever a parent deems a child "needs" while they are on the providers clock. That's when the provider should define what services they provide within their base fees, what services require extra fees, and what services they won't provide regardless of compensation. A successful business ... ANY BUSINESS... does this. McDonald's doesn't offer sushi for a reason.

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Tags:alabama, homework - helping, homework - no more, homework - too much, nanny, online, online classes, online courses, parent - its a verb, school age daycare kids, school age policies, school work
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