For those of you who have been part of THESIS for years, and for those who are fairly new to both THESIS and homeschooling--certainly our kickoff to Fall 2020 will look different in every way for all of us! And while it will be different--we are thrilled to still be able to meet together in some capacity--support each other both in person and virtually, and to continue to meet the needs of our homeschool community!
This year is full of change but our mission remains the same.
While we realize that COVID precautions will prevent us from offering some of the activities and atmosphere we are used to, we believe we have come up with a plan that meets these three primary goals in a healthy way. This plan includes three components.
Component 1: MONTHLY THESIS CLASS DAYS
This component is intended to meet the first goal of THESIS, the provision of a supplemental classroom experience. There will be class days held in the Trinity Fellowship Hall on September 14, October 5, and November 2, from 12:30 – 2:30. The Fellowship Hall will be subdivided into six sections of tables and children will be divided into grade level groups. There will be assigned seats for each child. When your family arrives, you will enter into the Fellowship Hall, stop at our check-in desk where you will be asked some questions regarding health and exposure, and immediately your children will be taken to their assigned seats. Children will remain in these seats during the class time, except for a period that their group will have a “gym” time in one of our outdoor field areas.
Each month we will have a fun theme: September is “Community Helpers”; October is “Fall Fun”; November is “Elections & Civics”. Every age group will have an art lesson and another activity/lesson pertaining to that theme. We hope these themes will give us a sense of unity and some fun opportunities to be creative – maybe some special guests and festive clothing for the day – but the lessons will be tailored to each age level, as determined by our teachers. As mentioned earlier, each group will also have an outdoor “gym” time. If weather does not look conducive to outdoor activity, we will dismiss all classes at 1:50; we will make this decision each morning prior to the start of class, so you will know for sure when you arrive.
We expect the six groups will be K-1; 2-3; 3-4; 5-6; 7-8; HS. We expect to have a lot of students in our 2nd and 3rd grade classes, so the 3rd grade class will be spread among two groups. This decision will be finalized after processing all registrations.
Because we will be limited to the Fellowship Hall and because children will be required to remain seated to minimize physical contact, there will be no nursery or preschool offered this fall. If you have nursery or preschool-aged children and are not able to arrange childcare for them, you will be allowed to drop-off your school-aged children on class days. There will not be a place available for you to stay with your little ones at the church. If you are able to arrange childcare, then we do need you to stay at the church to teach or assist during class: we will need a minimum of 22 adults to staff our classes; as always, it takes all of us Co-Operating to make THESIS work!
Kindergarten will strictly be limited to children who are 5 by September 1. Even if your child meets this deadline, please consider whether he or she will realistically have the ability to remain seated for 2 of the 40-minute class periods. We are sorry to have to impose these restrictions, but it is necessary for the health and safety of our children.
There will be a number of other COVID safety precautions in place on class days:
Three adults will be with each group of students and will remain with those students for the entire two hours of class. One adult may act as the “lead” teacher of art while the other two assist, then those roles might change and one of the other adults take the lead for the next class, etc. It will always be the same adults with the same students; there will be no switching between groups for adults.
Adults and children over the age of 9 will be required to wear masks, according to the current order by the Governor. We will adjust this policy as government guidelines change.
There will be no sharing of supplies at the tables. All supplies will be sanitized before being returned to storage at the end of the day. Sharing of gym equipment may be necessary for games, but that equipment will be sanitized between classes.
Hand-sanitizer will be readily available.
Students will be seated 6 per table (at round tables that would normally seat 8-10 adults) to increase social distancing.
We will assign substitute-teachers for every group. We do not want you to feel pressure to be at class if you think any member of your household is ill or has been exposed to COVID. We hope that having a substitute in place will free teachers to keep their families at home if there is a concern about illness.
A limited number of people will be allowed in the restrooms at the same time. Adult volunteer bathroom monitors will regulate this and will periodically sanitize knobs and faucets.
We will stay alert to changes in federal and state guidelines and adjust our plans accordingly. We’ll keep you informed of any changes.
When class time is over, children will remain in their seats. We will dismiss by family. When your family is called, we kindly ask that you take your children immediately out to the parking area. While we all love the mingling time with our friends before and after class, during this season we must minimize those large group interactions.
Component 2: MONTHLY SMALL-GROUP FELLOWSHIP TIME
Because we must minimize our large-group interactions and keep our class day tightly structured, we designed this component of our fall plan to meet the second goal of THESIS, fellowship and social interaction for our homeschool families. Families who would like to participate will be assigned a small-group, which we nicknamed “pods” during our administrative planning session. Each pod will consist of about 4 families and will have a volunteer coordinator who will plan one time during the month for the group to meet, preferably someplace outdoors. The purpose of pod time is fellowship, conversation, and play! It might be as simple as a picnic and play date at a park, or it could involve a little more structure, such as a scavenger hunt. It really depends on the interests of the families in each pod! We hope this will be a fun way to make closer connections within the THESIS community.
Component 3: MONTHLY MOM TIME
Moms are the heart of the homeschool! So supporting you has always been an important goal of THESIS. This fall, we offer our support to you in several ways. First, we will be continuing our monthly Moms’ Book Club, hosted by Lorrie Young. Second, we will continue to announce occasional Moms’ Night Outs hosted by Albani St. Martin Brown. Finally, depending on interest, we might host a more information-centered event for moms. This might be a panel-discussion or special topic event hosted in person or virtually. Let us know your interests and look for more details later on…
A final note: There is not yet a plan for the Spring 2021 semester. Our Admin Team will meet in December to formulate a plan based on the most current information at that time. We have decided that the earliest we would reconvene in the spring would be sometime in February; there will be no in-person meetings of THESIS planned for December or January.)
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