Starting Online School

Clara doing some online school work.  She usually set up at at the dining room table, but had decided to use the coffee table in this instance.

Ethan, Erica and Clara went on Spring Break last year and then never return to the classroom.  All schools in India were shut.  We were fortunate that our school was able to quickly switch to online learning, and we had the needed technology in our home (and everywhere else we ended up prior to the school year ending).   While a disruption for sure, and sad for Ethan, Erica and Clara who weren't able to say goodbye properly to their friends and teachers, they are definitely amongst the fortunate who won't feel too much impact of this change to their education.

For many Indian students it has meant an abrupt halt to their education, which sadly may not resume - 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-coronavirus-school-closures/2020/12/23/7e80f628-3efc-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html

https://en.unesco.org/news/secretary-general-warns-education-catastrophe-pointing-unesco-estimate-24-million-learners-risk

Once the lockdowns began in India, many of the embassies started organising flights to help repatriate their citizens who needed to leave India (a lot of tourists ended up stuck in the country).  Whole companies were sending all of their expat employees home and many people now faced with school and work occurring from home decided it would be preferable to do this from their home countries.  

In our case, it took longer for the Australian government to get flights organised.  From my understanding our airlines didn't have existing arrangements with India, so this made the process a lot slower.  David's company had asked everybody to remain where they were for the time being, as this was felt to be the safer option than flying around.  We were ok to ride out the lockdowns in our circumstance, as the personal risk to us of covid is not high, and we had been in the city long enough to know Doctors and how to get help if needed (we also had a driver who was good at getting past police check points, and a hefty supply of food storage).   We were enjoying the quiet environment.  The expats in our building were flying out, leaving less than half remaining by the time we went.

However, things were shut down so severely that we could no longer continue with the process of organising our visas for Korea, or packing up our belongings or doing anything we needed to do to move, with no end in sight.  The lockdown just kept getting extended over and over.  So, once an option to fly to Australia arose, we were on it.  

The kids ended up continuing their online learning with AISC from quarantine in Adelaide, from a holiday rental in Sydney and then quarantine in Korea.  They finished the school year right before we left quarantine in Seoul.  Their classmates were logging in from all over the world.  Some of their teachers were also teaching from their home countries.  

I'm not a huge fan of online school.  In my mind it's a lesser option to in-person school.  This experience has also convinced me that I would not be a good home school parent.  I could barely get my own tasks done after supervising Clara's school time, let alone if I was also doing all of the planning.  However, I did enjoy seeing her work and getting to witness academic gems such as this ode to Justin 'Beaver' and the plans for a book about Australia (note the content of chapter 10).

We made use of the rooftop for before, during and after school play.  The kids did a lot of skateboarding, because their other exercise options became a little limited.  Our pool was shut due to Indian government direction and they weren't allowed to leave the building.

Collecting frangipanis.  Also on our rooftop.

Clara having a mindful moment for school.  Her class did this each day (both online and offline).