Broken Computers Are The Worst

My computer broke.  It's actually been broken, but I could cobble up some ways to make it work, but even those stopped working.  My son thought he fixed it, but I think it's an inherent problem with the type of HP computer that I bought (several years ago) because when I Googled how to fix it, it seemed like a common problem with this particular model.  So I've been MIA all summer long.  But my son did fix an old computer that we found in our home office, so I'm back.  The next time I invest in a computer, I think it's going to be an Apple (sorry HP, but I've been burned enough).

So what has been going on?:

1.  The 7 year old played baseball this summer (social distancing baseball).  He loved it and had a blast.  He tries out next week for next years team, so we'll see if he makes it.

2.  We went on vacation!  We went on our usual summer vacation (I booked it in January before the pandemic).  We rented a condo, went to the beach, didn't eat out, didn't go to the pools, and social distanced while wearing masks anywhere inside.  It was just so nice to get away.  

3.  School starts soon.  The little goes back August 17, the middle goes back August 27, and the oldest was supposed to go to college August 10 but it got pushed to September 14 but classes begin August 17.  I am not sure how this is all going to go or even if anyone will actually return to a classroom setting.  I hope so because these kids really need it.  But on the other hand, I'd like to keep them home in a bubble.  I'm so torn.  I don't think there are too many good decisions here.  No matter what happens, it will be less than ideal.

4.  Other than that we are staying in, social distancing and doing the best that we can. 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this broken computer doesn't break again.  I had to buy the college student a new laptop for school, and I just can't afford another one right now.  But I can't update here from my phone and I miss updating.  No one but me reads this (according to the analytics) but this is kind of like my diary.  And I especially wanted to keep it updated during these unprecedented times.

It's the Last Day of Distance Learning

It's the last day of distance learning and I have mixed emotions about this.  I'm sad that my son missed out on the end of the year with this class and teacher.  But I'm kind of glad that this distance learning is over.  Although the school did their best with a bad situation, I'm just not sure how effective this has been.  It's hard to learn via iPad.  Most of the worksheets should have been printed out, but I could not do that because of the app the school used.  Doing the worksheets on the iPad was cumbersome.  And he got frustrated very easily.

Due to some of the CDC's guidelines for schools, I'm not really sure how this is going to go in the fall.  Going through an entire school year with partial in school/partial distance learning is going to be disruptive/ineffective in my opinion.  I have to seriously think about how we are going to handle this.  But I don't know if homeschooling is the answer either.  These are troubling times for sure.

I do plan on keeping up with his studies over the summer.  I already told him that we will be doing extra studying and reading.  And he already told me that he's not going to do it.  This should be fun.  The strong willed child vs. the no patience mother.  Good times.