Emergency Homeschooling During a Pandemic

Our governor, Jay Inslee, announced today that all schools in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties will be closed. He set a tentative date to go back to school on the 26^th of April. A fast moving, mutating, infecting virus (COVID 19) has forced us to stay at home. Currently, all of the deaths from this virus have been in not only our state, but our county. We live in the epicenter of the outbreak in this country and we should be careful to keep it contained. We have not been up to this point because it didn’t look like a big deal – like SARS, Swine Flu, and Bird Flu, which didn’t have a big impact on our country.

Although they say the school closure will be for only 6 weeks – I am under no illusion that we will be going back to school before 2021. There is a possibility that the sunshine and Vitamin D that comes from it will help us fight it off, and cases will drop over the summer. However, as soon as cold and flu season comes around again – I believe we will get hit harder.

After the announcement, I ran to the store to stock up on snacks for my kids. Since they will be home all day, I will need to have something to keep them going. Costco was CRAZY! They have been out of toilet paper, water, and rice for 10 days! I waited in line for 56 minutes to pay for my groceries at WinCo. There were 2 lines that went form the registers to the back of the store! The elderly couple in front of me and behind me will both be watching kids who will be out of school after today – which puts them at greater risk.

Costco has replaced their toilet paper section with hats and plants to avoid looking empty.

WinCo's really long line on the East side of the store.

WinCo was out of most grains and beans. Who knew beans?

I see in communist countries they are locking people down. They are not allowing them to leave their homes. They can do that because the government takes care of them. They are delivering groceries and supplies. In our capitalist society, that will be almost impossible. So many people are living paycheck to paycheck. This will put them in a tough position. I don’t know how we are going to survive this financially as a country. This very will put us in a serious downturn as big as the Great Depression.

In these times of trouble, I am reminded of all the people I know who survived the outbreak of Polio in the 1940s and 1950s. They are still suffering emotional trauma from it. They remember how scared they were. I don’t want that for my kids. I want them to be cautious. However, I want them to learn new things and have new experiences through this. This is a time for our country coming together and growing from this – not developing anxiety that will debilitate them.

I am going to be watching for the good and sharing that with my family.

My kids are very excited to begin homeschooling. Carter is 10 and drew up our schedule. I am going to have to tweak it to accommodate Kindergarten and 1st grade learning. And we won't be going so late in the day.