Home School
By Melanie Lewis
This is somewhat of a continuation of my last Mommy Moments. In that article, we were preparing furniture for the at-home version of hybrid learning. COVID, unfortunately, came back with the Labor Day gathering fall-out and the in-school portion of “hybrid” is still on hold. This is not a good scenario for a Vocational/Technical schooler where the point is hands-on training. In other words he will have seen pliers used, but not really used them. Parents in our do-something-about-this mode came across an answer when my computer, now 14 plus years old, has a few issues including, dum-dum-dum, in dramatic fashion, The Blue Screen of Death! Since my son is interested in computer technology I set him on the task to, in the immortal words of The Six Million Dollar Man, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology”. The plan was to build a new machine for my son and I would get his old machine, complete with light-up gaming headphones. There’s an image.
Computers in this socially-distanced situation are critical lines of education. The first step was to inventory the current machine. What kind of RAM, memory, video cards, etc. With great fortune, my Dear Husband is knowledgeable about this stuff, so that is the juncture where I go outside and paint the window trim or mow. They ordered lots of components including a cool new case that has a clear panel. You can see everything inside as lights change color like a lava lamp. The components from another old machine combined with new parts comprise the computer. The father/son team spent a good part of the day discussing the different parts and assembly. There were good discussions and careful considerations that in the end produced a new, bigger and better computer. The best teacher is experience. I know my son has gained more confidence and knowledge.
So as it turns out, there is some valuable learning going on at home.