5AF Parenting Thread

Postby **Beveridge** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:15 am

I'm in the terrible "5 months before I turn 2" twos.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:20 am

First day is almost over (half days this week), and overall it went well. Her Chromebook is underpowered for videoconferencing (like most, really), and it stuttered a few times. It actually completely froze up, forcing me to reboot it. I’m going to let her use my Surface Pro 4 tomorrow to see if the experience is better, which I expect it to be.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:40 am

...and the teacher got booted out, and has yet to return. Oof.

Postby **Morkle** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:49 am

I'm in the terrible "5 months before I turn 2" twos.

Oh yea, we're livin' it.

Postby **mac5155** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:58 am

Yes and yes. Eucrisa worked for us, but eczema is usually allergy based. My eldest had a horrendous dust mite allergy, and once we got rid of stuffed animals and carpet where he slept and played (he was a toddler), it got 90% better. He still gets some during the winter due to dry skin.

We do see an allergist regularly, though our next appt is months out thanks to covid.

I keep telling my wife it's the dreft detergent she's using but she doesn't believe me.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:22 pm

My teacher’s internet went down 15 minutes befor me the end of class. Comcast took the neighborhood down on purpose “for maintenance”, but didn’t notify anyone. What a bunch of **** clowns.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:43 pm

My teacher’s internet went down 15 minutes befor me the end of class. Comcast took the neighborhood down on purpose “for maintenance”, but didn’t notify anyone. What a bunch of **** clowns.

I think I posted in here that last Friday half the people in our area were without internet on Friday. This is going to be common with so many kids learning online.

My guess is they were close to capping out with so many people working from home but decided not to upgrade their infrastructure. For some reason, the dolts haven't realized that 10's of thousands of students will be streaming school online for the next 9 months.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:02 pm

They claim they don't have the money for infrastructure improvements, or expanding into rural areas. That's what Spectrum says down here.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:19 pm

They claim they don't have the money for infrastructure improvements, or expanding into rural areas. That's what Spectrum says down here.

We were told here it costs $40k per mile to Comcast or Comporium or ATT, etc... to put in new line, let alone fiber optic.

Postby **King Colby** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 5:22 pm

Prince will be 3 next week. He has his moments but I think he went through the A hole phase about 6 or 8 months ago.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Sep 08, 2020 5:40 pm

My teacher’s internet went down 15 minutes befor me the end of class. Comcast took the neighborhood down on purpose “for maintenance”, but didn’t notify anyone. What a bunch of **** clowns.
I think I posted in here that last Friday half the people in our area were without internet on Friday. This is going to be common with so many kids learning online.

My guess is they were close to capping out with so many people working from home but decided not to upgrade their infrastructure. For some reason, the dolts haven't realized that 10's of thousands of students will be streaming school online for the next 9 months.

I assume you live in the boonies? What are your internet speeds on DSL? You should still be able to get decent download speeds, though the infrastructure is aging as it’s an old technology.

As for videoconferencing, Zoom, Cisco, etc have all been adding capacity and infrastructure since March to handle the additional traffic. My only gripe is that the Zoom client is a bit of a CPU hog compared, which is why Chromebooks aren’t as smooth as they could be. I wish our district went with Google Meet since it’s probably a better overall experience. My guess is that it came down to cost.

Postby **mac5155** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:16 am

So ever since lil Mac moved daycare classes last Tuesday, drop-off has been a disaster. He bawls uncontrollably every time. I thought the last few times it was becausei dropped my wife off at work first then took him (as my cars in the shop) but today she came and still he cried.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:44 am

My teacher’s internet went down 15 minutes befor me the end of class. Comcast took the neighborhood down on purpose “for maintenance”, but didn’t notify anyone. What a bunch of **** clowns.
I think I posted in here that last Friday half the people in our area were without internet on Friday. This is going to be common with so many kids learning online.

My guess is they were close to capping out with so many people working from home but decided not to upgrade their infrastructure. For some reason, the dolts haven't realized that 10's of thousands of students will be streaming school online for the next 9 months.
I assume you live in the boonies? What are your internet speeds on DSL? You should still be able to get decent download speeds, though the infrastructure is aging as it’s an old technology.

As for videoconferencing, Zoom, Cisco, etc have all been adding capacity and infrastructure since March to handle the additional traffic. My only gripe is that the Zoom client is a bit of a CPU hog compared, which is why Chromebooks aren’t as smooth as they could be. I wish our district went with Google Meet since it’s probably a better overall experience. My guess is that it came down to cost.

I'm at the edge of Allegheny county, so not quite the boonies but suburban boonies maybe? I get 16-20 Mbps download speed, so not crazy fast but also not snail slow. We have no issues streaming Netflix, but our TV is hard lined from the modem. There are two options for internet where I live - Armstrong Cable or Consolidated Communications. Verizon has not run fiber optics in our area yet, but the township next to us has it.

Our district uses Google Meet, but they did issue Chromebooks. I had no clue that Chromebooks would have issues handling the amount of data, but I don't think that's our problem.

I installed the booster that Gabe suggested. We'll see if it's any better. I still get "medium" strength connection upstairs but when browsing it seemed to be very smooth. Hopefully it works, as having to share a room with my son will probably not go smoothly at times when he's talking and I'm on a call.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:50 am

Ideally, the clients should adjust the audio and video to provide the best experience based on your bandwidth, which is more than enough.

Postby **Beveridge** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:09 am

So ever since lil Mac moved daycare classes last Tuesday, drop-off has been a disaster. He bawls uncontrollably every time. I thought the last few times it was becausei dropped my wife off at work first then took him (as my cars in the shop) but today she came and still he cried.

New teachers and kids I'm guessing?

Postby **mac5155** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:13 am

So ever since lil Mac moved daycare classes last Tuesday, drop-off has been a disaster. He bawls uncontrollably every time. I thought the last few times it was becausei dropped my wife off at work first then took him (as my cars in the shop) but today she came and still he cried.
New teachers and kids I'm guessing?

New teachers yes. There are now two classes of his age group, so I'm not sure if he has completely new kids or what. Breaks my heart as he used to run in no problem. I'm sure he will get used to it but it's taking longer than I expected.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 11:38 am

On the opposite spectrum of mac's little one, my 4 year old's best friend returned to daycare yesterday. While he hasn't had issues going while most of his old friends are gone, he did tell me he gave him a big hug and they played all day.

Covid needs to make like Jeremy Piven and gtfo

Postby **NTP66** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:41 am

One of the neighborhood moms went on a rant last night about how they should just cancel school this year until it's safe to return, and that we should all get our real estate taxes refunded. Yeah.

In other news, I go downstairs to check on my kid, and she's reclining on the sofa with the Surface Pro 4 on her lap while watching the teacher.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:01 pm

I see my son slouched all the way down in his chair, spinning in his chair (I've since taken that chair away), fidgeting (and breaking) his headphones...etc.

But he's not the only one in his class when I look at the screen of other 1st graders. I have to imagine in normal times, the teacher needs to spend the first 2-3 weeks teaching the kids to sit still and pay attention.

Postby **pens9192** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:50 pm

My one daughter is in third grade and the other day I looked on her Google Meet class and this one kid was spamming the chat with gibberish and other kids were telling him to stop. The teacher was too but then in his video tile you see him throw stuff on the floor of his room and then gets up and starts to dance. Its hard for some kids to concentrate during these virtual classes. My kids classes are 2.5 hours long each day..all subjects condensed into that time frame. It would be hard for me to do so.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:01 pm

My son has class from 9:20-3:30 every day, but they are given a 2 hour break from 12-2 and snack/bathroom breaks. Still a lot of time to be spending in front of a screen for a kid that age.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:03 pm

My one daughter is in third grade and the other day I looked on her Google Meet class and this one kid was spamming the chat with gibberish and other kids were telling him to stop. The teacher was too but then in his video tile you see him throw stuff on the floor of his room and then gets up and starts to dance. Its hard for some kids to concentrate during these virtual classes. My kids classes are 2.5 hours long each day..all subjects condensed into that time frame. It would be hard for me to do so.

Yeah, some of this stuff is on the parents. Get your effing kid under control.

Postby **NTP66** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:03 pm

So far, her class is being well behaved. The teacher takes "breaks" every so often to have the kids get out of their chair and do something like stretching, or maybe dancing in place for 15 seconds. The kids seem to enjoy it.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 2:00 pm

High school is different. They basically meet during their four "blocks" with their actual teachers for the actual duration of the class, as if they were meeting face to face. We ordered a new desk and chair for him, so he's enjoying the eLearning for now. He seems to have enough time between classes to do homework, which is nice.

Postby **mac5155** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 3:12 pm

My one daughter is in third grade and the other day I looked on her Google Meet class and this one kid was spamming the chat with gibberish and other kids were telling him to stop. The teacher was too but then in his video tile you see him throw stuff on the floor of his room and then gets up and starts to dance. Its hard for some kids to concentrate during these virtual classes. My kids classes are 2.5 hours long each day..all subjects condensed into that time frame. It would be hard for me to do so.
Yeah, some of this stuff is on the parents. Get your effing kid under control.

who's to say parents are even around?