Most of us have been home with our kids for at least a month. My kids have been home since March 6 (but who’s counting?), and although we are happy to keep our distance as long as necessary, I desperately long for the days when I could drop my girls off with their patient and qualified professional educators instead of facilitating Zoom calls and digital learning platforms all day.

Parents are watching the calendar tick by in slow motion, trying to catch up with emerging expectations for digital learning and lamenting not having the time or energy to create our own at-home education complex.

We were only a week into quarantine school when I saw this post on Facebook from child psychologist Dr. Emily W. King:

On the verge of tears and ready to throw the iPad out the window, I finally felt seen. Can we keep this up (full-time parenting, working and teaching) until June? Can we do this again in the fall if things don’t go back to normal? Maybe, like me, you’ve fantasized about throwing in the towel on structured education in 2020… turning your kids out in the backyard, and letting them come back inside only once they’ve stumbled upon a PhD-level understanding of roly-poly bugs or something.

My fantasies led me to investigate a term I’d heard before—unschooling—and whether an unconventional approach to education could ease some of the pressure we reluctant parent-teachers are feeling right now.

What is unschooling?

The term unschooling was introduced in 1977 by educator John Holt, an advocate for alternatives to the public school system. Holt believed instead of sitting in classrooms and following a prescribed curriculum and testing schedule, children could be educated through their own curiosity, with parents providing resources and support.

Can I just pause here to say how much I appreciate teachers and schools and everything they do? Especially now? That said, lots of families choose an unschooling approach, and their children thrive, too.

A 2017 review of literature estimates 1 million U.S. children are engaged in unschooling. It’s a type of homeschooling that does not follow any curriculum or try to recreate the classroom experience. You may have heard it called free-range learning, worldschooling, or roadschooling. So what does it look like in the real world?

Sorry, there’s no guidebook—that’s kind of the point.

“The beauty of unschooling is in the search for the answers,” writes Leo Babauta on The Beginner’s Guide to Unschooling website. “If anyone had all the answers, there would be no search. And so what I’d love to teach unschooling parents and kids is that the search is the joy of it all.”

If you are still toying with the idea—as a way to wrap up this weird school year, maximize learning in the summer, or as a family experiment for next school year—here are the basics of unschooling.

Kid’s choice

What your kid is interested in will completely drive the direction of unschooling. There is no outside requirement to meet any reading or math milestones. Unschooled kids learn to read and do math because those are tools they need for pursuing their interests.

You may already know your child is obsessed with robots or LEGO, and that’s your starting point. But if you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. The next element will help reveal and nurture her areas of interest.

A rich learning environment

It’s tough to define, but odds are you already have a rich learning environment at home. Do you have access to books? Safe internet content? Outdoor space? Friends and family (even if it’s virtual for now)? Materials that can be repurposed creatively? None of these elements are required, but a few of them together can help a child get started on a path of discovery.

No assignments or tests

Deep down I’m a rule-following, standardized test-loving, report card-waving girl. If you don’t give me A’s, how will I know I’m doing well? Well, unschooling devotees might say that system gives children an unnatural need to be evaluated and ranked.

However, since goals are defined by the individual child in unschooling, they don’t need a grade to measure success. (Unschooling is legal in all 50 states, although each state may have individual laws for how you approach or report their progress.)

Even if your family is not ready to give up on traditional school and all its benefits, you can be empowered by the idea of unschooling to ease up on the structure and expectations that feel so suffocating right now. Kids and parents have been flooded with digital resources and learning opportunities since schools closed. Think of them less as a mountain of assignments and more as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” menu. Your home is a library of unconventional texts and a cache of creative materials just waiting for a child’s idea to pull them together.

Questions are the cornerstone of self-directed learning. When your child asks a question, follow that lead! When your child hits a roadblock, guide him with a question! Tap into your intuition and honor your child’s intuitive style of learning.

If your mind wanders back to phonics and new math, give yourself permission to worry about those things again in September. Odds are, if your children are being raised by a parent who would dive into pedagogical research to determine the best, most holistic method of education that works for the whole family in a time of global crisis, they will probably turn out fine no matter what the next school year looks like.

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Google on Friday said it’s working on an update to its Duo video calling service that will let you make group video calls over the web. The search giant said Duo group video chats for the web would come as a preview in its Chrome browser in the coming weeks.

Google also added a “Family Mode” feature to Duo for Android and iOS that lets you doodle on calls and add effects and masks like cats and astronauts to keep calls entertaining. The Duo app already lets you make group and one-to-one calls. Currently, the web version of Duo handles just one-to-one voice and video calls.

Video chatting has become an increasingly popular way for friends and family to stay in touch during the coronavirus pandemic, and Google is retooling some of its chat apps so more people can use them. The company just made its Meet business and education video chat service available for free to everyone. Facebook, Skype, Microsoft and of course Zoom have free group video chat services.

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For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website.

On Sunday afternoon, Jenessa Schwartz and Trevor Davis will get married in their Northern California backyard. It will be a small affair — just the two of them, Schwartz’s dad and her two young children. And 50-plus guests dialing in via Zoom. 

Schwartz and Davis won’t be the first couple to hold a Zoom wedding during these bizarre, locked-down times — there are even online tutorials for planning a virtual wedding, including how to ensure “Zoombombers” can’t crash the fun. But a particular urgency drove their decision to exchange virtual vows rather than postpone their nuptials, as many others are doing. The bride is simultaneously battling terminal colorectal cancer and navigating the coronavirus crisis as someone with a compromised immune system.   

“It’s going to sound trite and a little cliche, but I’ve cultivated this seize-the-day attitude,” Schwartz says. “We decided we can’t put off joy.” 

It’s an outlook best summed up by the title of a post on the blog where Schwartz, 37, chronicles her three-year cancer journey: “Let’s carpe this MF diem.”  

If the Zoom wedding attendees lean in to their screens, they’ll see garlands twisting around a trellis in the couple’s San Jose yard. And they’ll notice a distinctive color theme for the occasion — blue, for colon cancer awareness. 

The bride will wear bright blue boots. The groom will sport a blue blazer. A blue dress covered with stars will offset 9-year-old Ramona’s bright red hair, and the equally flame-haired Solly, 7, will look dapper in a blue button-down shirt. Even Rocky the pitbull mix will wear a blue bowtie, homemade by Ramona.    

“While it certainly isn’t going to look the way we expected it to, I’m thrilled that it’s going to happen,” Davis says. “All I can hope for is that it really does.”

Schwartz and Davis, 32, met when they were teaching at the same school — she in language arts, he in physics. They started as close friends. Their friendship turned into romantic love shortly after Schwartz got shattering news in March 2017: She had stage four colon cancer, meaning it had metastasized beyond its original site. Doctors gave her a prognosis of one to two years, a projection she’s thankfully outlived. 

The physical and emotional vagaries of life with cancer have been difficult for both of them. But falling more deeply in love has been easy. 

“I’ve never been a very outgoing or chatty person, but with Ness it’s always been easy for me to share myself,” Davis says. “When I talk to her, she listens. Even more importantly than that, she gets me in a way that no one else ever has. People sometimes talk about finding their person. Jenessa has been mine since the moment I met her.”  

Colon cancer typically affects older adults, though it can strike at any age. Schwartz consulted a doctor after spotting blood in her stool. She had long experienced irregular bowel habits, fatigue, nausea and anemia, but attributed the symptoms to her pregnancies — in addition to her two kids, she carried twins as a surrogate for a gay couple. She figured she also might just be tired from the rigors of motherhood. 

Then, the diagnosis that changed everything: incurable cancer.  

Her disease is, however, treatable. Treatments have involved an eight-hour surgery to remove part of her colon and liver, plus her appendix, gallbladder, uterus, ovaries and even more of her insides. She has gone through dozens of rounds of grueling chemotherapy and endured lengthy hospitalizations. She shares all aspects of the experience on her blog, titled My Colon Cancer: Semicolon Not Full Stop. “When life gives you cancer, make a punctuation pun,” she jokes. 

Her posts are searingly honest, frequently funny and full of determination and gratitude. Often, even in her darkest moments, she’ll include a “silver lining roll call.” 

“My belly now looks like I’ve been in a wicked knife fight, which is kickass,” she wrote after her surgery. And, of her teaching: “Middle school students are so well-behaved after you tell them you have cancer.”

Through it all, Davis has stood by her side. He’s stayed with her every night she’s been in the hospital and accompanied her to almost every chemotherapy treatment. After chemo infusions, he tucks her into bed and brings her whatever she needs. 

“His support has been nothing short of Herculean,” Schwartz says. 

In June 2018, Schwartz got the remarkable news that her scans showed no signs of cancer. A year later, it returned. Cancer treatment is never easy, but cancer treatment amid the COVID-19 pandemic is even more complex. 

Hospitals have enacted restrictions on visitors, meaning less in-person support during chemo appointments. Some cancer surgeries are being postponed or canceled, as are scans. Schwartz was scheduled for a routine PET scan next week to gauge the efficiency of her current round of chemo, but it’s been delayed until next month.

“That may not sound like a big deal, but if my disease has progressed, that means I will have endured unnecessary and ineffectual chemotherapy and I’ll be weeks behind a new treatment plan,” she says. 

COVID-19 is its own threat — to the healthy, yes, but especially to those considered high-risk, including the elderly and people with underlying problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer. The rate of death for cancer patients in China who tested positive for coronavirus was 7.6%, compared with the overall death rate of 3.8% for those infected, according to a report from the World Health Organization-China joint mission. 

While Schwartz and Davis’ upcoming wedding stands as a symbol of defiance in the face of a life drastically altered, there are also realistic considerations. 

“The darker side of it is that now, more than ever, it’s important to have our affairs in order,” Schwartz says. “We wanted to make sure we had a legal marriage and all of the benefits that come with that.”  

But for now, the couple is looking forward to their special Sunday, a day they set for the celebration before coronavirus upended the world. A day that had already rooted itself in their minds as their future anniversary — whatever that future may look like. 

“When you have a wedding date, the day feels important somehow,” Schwartz says. “We decided that that’s our wedding date,  that it’s going to remain our wedding date.”

That day, May 3, 2020, will be a day of love, hope, family and friends. And bright blue. 

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In the wake of coronavirus outbreak quarantines, lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders, use of video chats apps and services has surged. Many people are now working from home, and in-person visits have gone digital. 

While there are many options available, whether you’re looking for a way to spend a virtual happy hour or host a brainstorming session with coworkers, two popular choices are Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Here’s how the two video-chat and conferencing apps compare — especially in light of Zoom’s recent security and privacy issues. 

Read more:  Best cheap VPN: 3 options for working from home in quarantine  

Microsoft

If your workplace uses Office 365, you already have access to Microsoft Teams — a platform for chat, video conferencing and audio calls. The workplace communication hub integrates with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office apps for seamless presenting and file sharing. The app has a similar feel to Slack — you can talk to team members privately or in specific channels, and you can call attention to the whole group or just an individual with the mention feature. 

You can video chat with up to 250 people at once with Teams, or present live to up to 10,000 people. Share meeting agendas prior to a conference, invite external guests to join a meeting, and access past meeting recordings and notes. Meetings can be scheduled in the Teams app or through Outlook.

Read more: How to get Microsoft Office 365 for free

As more people began to rely on video conferencing amid the pandemic, Microsoft posted a blog about its security practices, and the company regularly posts in a Transparency Hub. Microsoft said it doesn’t use your Teams data to provide ads, it doesn’t track participant attention, and it deletes all your data after your subscription ends — making a pretty clear effort to differentiate itself from Zoom and its many privacy and security concerns.

Teams is included with your Office 365 subscription, but you can also download a free version. In March, Microsoft lifted limitations on the free version so businesses and schools can use it even without a traditional subscription. The company is also offering a six-month free trial of Office 365 E1, Microsoft’s enterprise software suite, for businesses that aren’t already licensed for Teams. Office 365 business plans that include Teams start at $5/user/month. 

Read more: Zoom, Skype, FaceTime: 11 tips for your video chat apps

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Zoom video conference app works for Android, iOS, PC and Mac. The app offers a basic free plan that hosts up to 100 participants. There are also options for small and medium business teams ($15-$20 a month per host) and large enterprises for $20 a month per host with a 50-host minimum. You can adjust meeting times, and select multiple hosts. Up to 1,000 users can participate in a single Zoom video call, and 49 videos can appear on the screen at once.

The app has HD video and audio capabilities, collaboration tools like simultaneous screen-sharing and co-annotation, and the ability to record meetings and generate transcripts. Outlook, Gmail and iCal support scheduling and starting meetings. In Gmail, for example, just click the calendar icon, then click the time of your meeting, then click the link under Join Zoom Meeting. If the host scheduled it, there might also be call-in options. 

Read more: 13 Zoom video chat tips, tricks and hidden features

If your mic and camera are off, Zoom has the option to communicate via chat (the interface looks a bit like Slack). This feature can also be helpful if it’s a massive all-hands meeting and the opportunity for questions is available. 

It’s free to sign up with Zoom — you can either manually create an account with an email or sign in with Google or Facebook. 

If you use Zoom, it’s important to take into consideration the security issues that have come to light since its rapid rise in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. Privacy experts have expressed concerns over the video-conferencing software’s privacy risks and hacking vulnerabilities, as well as zoombombing (where uninvited attendees break into and disrupt meetings). The New York City Department of Education recently told teachers to stop using Zoom in favor of Microsoft Teams while security threats are addressed by the company. 

However, if you’re still using the platform, there are some steps you can take to protect your meetings, like using a per-meeting ID and enabling the “Waiting Room” feature so you can see who is attempting to join a meeting before allowing access.

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For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website.

On Sunday afternoon, Jenessa Schwartz and Trevor Davis will get married in their Northern California backyard. It will be a small affair — just the two of them, Schwartz’s dad and her two young children. And 50-plus guests dialing in via Zoom. 

Schwartz and Davis won’t be the first couple to hold a Zoom wedding during these bizarre, locked-down times — there are even online tutorials for planning a virtual wedding, including how to ensure “Zoombombers” can’t crash the fun. But a particular urgency drove their decision to exchange virtual vows rather than postpone their nuptials, as many others are doing. The bride is simultaneously battling terminal colorectal cancer and navigating the coronavirus crisis as someone with a compromised immune system.   

“It’s going to sound trite and a little cliche, but I’ve cultivated this seize-the-day attitude,” Schwartz says. “We decided we can’t put off joy.” 

It’s an outlook best summed up by the title of a post on the blog where Schwartz, 37, chronicles her three-year cancer journey: “Let’s carpe this MF diem.”  

If the Zoom wedding attendees lean in to their screens, they’ll see garlands twisting around a trellis in the couple’s San Jose yard. And they’ll notice a distinctive color theme for the occasion — blue, for colon cancer awareness. 

The bride will wear bright blue boots. The groom will sport a blue blazer. A blue dress covered with stars will offset 9-year-old Ramona’s bright red hair, and the equally flame-haired Solly, 7, will look dapper in a blue button-down shirt. Even Rocky the pitbull mix will wear a blue bowtie, homemade by Ramona.    

“While it certainly isn’t going to look the way we expected it to, I’m thrilled that it’s going to happen,” Davis says. “All I can hope for is that it really does.”

Schwartz and Davis, 32, met when they were teaching at the same school — she in language arts, he in physics. They started as close friends. Their friendship turned into romantic love shortly after Schwartz got shattering news in March 2017: She had stage four colon cancer, meaning it had metastasized beyond its original site. Doctors gave her a prognosis of one to two years, a projection she’s thankfully outlived. 

The physical and emotional vagaries of life with cancer have been difficult for both of them. But falling more deeply in love has been easy. 

“I’ve never been a very outgoing or chatty person, but with Ness it’s always been easy for me to share myself,” Davis says. “When I talk to her, she listens. Even more importantly than that, she gets me in a way that no one else ever has. People sometimes talk about finding their person. Jenessa has been mine since the moment I met her.”  

Colon cancer typically affects older adults, though it can strike at any age. Schwartz consulted a doctor after spotting blood in her stool. She had long experienced irregular bowel habits, fatigue, nausea and anemia, but attributed the symptoms to her pregnancies — in addition to her two kids, she carried twins as a surrogate for a gay couple. She figured she also might just be tired from the rigors of motherhood. 

Then, the diagnosis that changed everything: incurable cancer.  

Her disease is, however, treatable. Treatments have involved an eight-hour surgery to remove part of her colon and liver, plus her appendix, gallbladder, uterus, ovaries and even more of her insides. She has gone through dozens of rounds of grueling chemotherapy and endured lengthy hospitalizations. She shares all aspects of the experience on her blog, titled My Colon Cancer: Semicolon Not Full Stop. “When life gives you cancer, make a punctuation pun,” she jokes. 

Her posts are searingly honest, frequently funny and full of determination and gratitude. Often, even in her darkest moments, she’ll include a “silver lining roll call.” 

“My belly now looks like I’ve been in a wicked knife fight, which is kickass,” she wrote after her surgery. And, of her teaching: “Middle school students are so well-behaved after you tell them you have cancer.”

Through it all, Davis has stood by her side. He’s stayed with her every night she’s been in the hospital and accompanied her to almost every chemotherapy treatment. After chemo infusions, he tucks her into bed and brings her whatever she needs. 

“His support has been nothing short of Herculean,” Schwartz says. 

In June 2018, Schwartz got the remarkable news that her scans showed no signs of cancer. A year later, it returned. Cancer treatment is never easy, but cancer treatment amid the COVID-19 pandemic is even more complex. 

Hospitals have enacted restrictions on visitors, meaning less in-person support during chemo appointments. Some cancer surgeries are being postponed or canceled, as are scans. Schwartz was scheduled for a routine PET scan next week to gauge the efficiency of her current round of chemo, but it’s been delayed until next month.

“That may not sound like a big deal, but if my disease has progressed, that means I will have endured unnecessary and ineffectual chemotherapy and I’ll be weeks behind a new treatment plan,” she says. 

COVID-19 is its own threat — to the healthy, yes, but especially to those considered high-risk, including the elderly and people with underlying problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer. The rate of death for cancer patients in China who tested positive for coronavirus was 7.6%, compared with the overall death rate of 3.8% for those infected, according to a report from the World Health Organization-China joint mission. 

While Schwartz and Davis’ upcoming wedding stands as a symbol of defiance in the face of a life drastically altered, there are also realistic considerations. 

“The darker side of it is that now, more than ever, it’s important to have our affairs in order,” Schwartz says. “We wanted to make sure we had a legal marriage and all of the benefits that come with that.”  

But for now, the couple is looking forward to their special Sunday, a day they set for the celebration before coronavirus upended the world. A day that had already rooted itself in their minds as their future anniversary — whatever that future may look like. 

“When you have a wedding date, the day feels important somehow,” Schwartz says. “We decided that that’s our wedding date,  that it’s going to remain our wedding date.”

That day, May 3, 2020, will be a day of love, hope, family and friends. And bright blue. 

Now playing:
Watch this:

Coronavirus lockdown: Why social distancing saves lives

5: 41

For the most updated news and info about the coronavirus pandemic, go to the WHO site

The coronavirus pandemic has actually imparted lots of unfortunate and downright weird things upon our world: Organisations have actually shuttered, people have lost their tasks, events have actually been canceled, almost the entire workforce(and everyone’s social lives) browsed the web and welcoming donkeys to Zoom conferences is appropriate now

However the coronavirus pandemic has likewise led to lots of positive modifications as well More than ever (or at least in what seems like an extremely, long time), people are investing more time outdoors in the sunlight. Nearly everyone I know has got a new workout routine Individuals are investing more time with their households and less time fulfilling commitment after responsibility.

Long-forgotten family tasks, like pressure washing the driveway and re-mulching the front garden, have been checked off of order of business. Activities that brought us delight during childhood– four-square, puzzles, coloring books and climbing up trees– have made their way back into our lives.

I, for one, have reconnected with old buddies and “socialized” ( practically, of course) with them more than I have in the last a number of years. I have actually discovered more time to practice gentle movement, such as yoga, rather than trying to stuff every workout understood to man into the 60 valuable minutes I normally had for exercising pre-coronavirus.

And– gasp– I have actually check out some books for satisfaction, something I haven’t handled in the last 2 years. I’ve kicked around a soccer ball with my more youthful sis, embarked on countless walks my community and even played a few games of Scrabble and Hearts.

The coronavirus pandemic has made that very clear.

Once the world shifts once again, as it inevitably will, we must hold onto some of our newly found routines, extensive realizations and rediscovered pastimes.

Listening to and honoring your body

I truly enjoy exercising: I like pressing my mental and physical limitations, breaking a great sweat and feeling the muscle burn as I approach physical limits.

For the last numerous weeks, I have actually been prioritizing rest days and gentle movement. I still get in a good sweat practically every day, but I also make sure to move more gradually— I go on strolls, take breaks from work to stretch for 10 minutes and attempt to end a lot of nights with a mild yoga flow.
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images.
When shelter-in-place orders went into effect, I was with my mommy, my stepdad and my younger sibling.

Staying linked to old buddies

I’m quite introverted, so in the beginning, the stay-at-home order didn’t trouble me much in terms of the absence of socializing Some of my very first thoughts were, “Hey, this means I will not have to say no to events I do not desire to go to.” Which made me truly delighted.

But a number of weeks in, I realized that even as an introvert, I needed at least some social interaction. I hopped on several FaceTime and Zoom calls with friends I had not talked to in months or even years, and it was fantastic. A glass of red wine and some old stories can apparently keep me inhabited for hours!

I’ve enjoyed overtaking old friends, even in a completely virtual manner. I truly intend to carry this routine over into the post-coronavirus world, and I hope all of my good friends do, too.

Setting work boundaries

As a long-lasting overachiever and perfectionist, setting work boundaries has actually constantly been challenging for me.

I worked a lot throughout college, too, and still do in my early their adult years.

James Martin/CNET.

I’ve constantly loved spending time outdoors and exercising outside There’s simply something about fresh air and sunshine that makes me feel so delighted (and it’s not placebo). Not just is the sunshine vitamin (vitamin D) helpful for your mood, it’s helpful for your body immune system, too

Throughout the coronavirus stay-at-home orders, I have actually taken nearly all of my exercises outside, except for when it’s raining– before, I spent those 60 to 90 minutes in a fitness center. That additional hour or so alone has actually enhanced my state of mind and overall well-being immensely, however to compound the advantages (and beat dullness), I’ve also been including more time outdoors with everyday walks.

As much as I enjoy the community at CrossFit gyms and having a space full of fitness devices at my disposal, I may be among the converts who switches to at-home workouts even when gyms and fitness studios reopen, solely for the benefits of sunlight and fresh air.

Worrying less over what you can’t manage

If the coronavirus pandemic taught me one thing, it’s that I directly can not manage everything in my life. As much as I want to– I’m really “type A”– I can not.

When the coronavirus scenario first began magnifying in the United States, I worried over every little detail. I was really scared about how this scenario would impact my life, and in my head I spent hours dissecting the minutia about how I could perhaps exercise control in any combination of scenarios.

Eventually, I understood that level of control simply can’t exist because the coronavirus pandemic has left so much unknown at all times. I can’t make plans for “when everything ends” due to the fact that nobody understands when it will all end. I can’t plan my workweeks like usual due to the fact that the news cycle is ever-changing. I can’t even prepare my workouts beforehand due to the fact that, working out at home, I need to account for weather, and if I planned an outside exercise and after that it drizzled, well, I ‘d have to pivot.

Ultimately, I discovered to (somewhat) accept this absence of control, and it actually feels great. Although my inner type A personality keeps pleading to make lists, spreadsheets and strategies of all sorts, I know that stressing over what I can’t manage does no good for my brain or body.

I intend to bring this frame of mind into the post-coronavirus world and release things I can’t manage. I understand this will be a hard practice for me, but currently I’ve seen and felt the benefits. Less stressed, more blessed, right?

The info consisted of in this article is for instructional and educational functions just and is not meant as health or medical advice. Constantly seek advice from a physician or other competent health service provider relating to any questions you might have about a medical condition or health goals.