Bored Students at Home? How about Some Fishing!

As you read this, chances are teachers are teaching, or at least trying to teach. A more accurate description might be, teachers are laying a little groundwork, and parents or even an older brother or sister may be helping the student learn. The COVID-19 pandemic has educators scrambling to reach and parents jostling to help teach. It's been a crazy ride for most. If you have young students AND happen to be working at home you might be reaching for some hair to pull out.

Last night I was out for a walk with the dogs. I noticed my neighbor Don backing his boat back into the garage. He and his wife had spent the day on the river near Chamberlain. I asked if there were many out fishing and he said;

It was a great day for fishing and we couldn't help but noticing out of the 35 or so boats we counted there were a lot of kids out fishing. Normally, this time of year, it's older folks exclusively, but not this time.

I can just about hear a frazzled mom saying, I don't care if you're going fishing, just take the kids. I don't care what you do, teach them something. You can go over division when you figure the mileage you're getting when you go to the river, you can break down measurements in inches and ounces IF you catch a fish. You can talk about the science of wind speed and wind direction. You can talk about barometric pressure and how it might affect fishing. I don't care if you go, here's $100 for gas. Buy some snacks and get them the heck out of here!

You can bet that, with the nice weather, there were some hall passes given. You might have also heard, load up, go with dad and go fishing, just put on a life jacket don't kill your sister or brother, and learn something while you're there.

How about you? Are you stuck at home trying to work, and teach at the same time? If so, drop me a line. I'd love to hear your story!

jdcollins@kikn.com