Lexi made a narwhal!

+++

Summer School

Here in BoCo, the academic year ends May 21st.

Summer camps are shut into June, at least. So my initial plan is five weeks of supplemental home school => that will take us through to the end of June.

Our school district is keeping the online resources rolling across the summer, things like Raz-Kids, iReady and Brain Pop.

I’m reaching out to teaching contacts for tutoring across the summer. We will keep using our neighborhood black belt for PE.

Two things I want to handle myself: (a) teaching the kids math; and (b) having them do their iReady lessons with me, so I can hear what’s really happening. All three have a slight weakness with spoken reading and vocabulary. It’s an area where 1-on-1 instruction is impactful.

The kids are already asking about their summer reading “bonus”. Each kid, who reads every day across the summer, gets a gift. It’s been a very successful program that spills into the normal school year by having them start every single day by reading to themselves.

Social Network Consolidation

I’ve been spending too much time on social media.

I’m going to drop Facebook and Instagram for a bit.

Going forward, you can find me on Twitter, Strava or subscribe to this blog in the upper right hand corner.

+++

What Is Obvious?

I’ve been asking myself this question over and over.

You know when it starts. Never when it ends… https://t.co/2NecxUaaNR

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) May 8, 2020

1/.  There will be a second wave of exponential infection => we are opening during a time of continued community spread. We have forgotten the nature of the virus => the virus arrived in Colorado via a single person on 2/29 => lockdown started 15 days later.

2/.  Fear will persist beyond the time horizons of our best-case scenarios.

3/.  Luxury, and aspirational, spending will plummet.

4/.  When you furlough staff and cancel capex plans, it is impossible to restart quickly, even if you want to.

5/.  There is a pressing need for tax increases => the nature of these tax increases is not obvious.

6/.  There will be continued feelings of blame and anger => this will manifest everywhere, regardless of personal/political affiliation.

7/.  This crisis has a psychological end-point (vaccine deployment) => wars, recessions and depressions don’t have this sort of endpoint, so close to the beginning.