Some actually good things

Ranging from quite extraordinary to kinda cool

Illinois’s shelter in place order takes effect Saturday.

We’ve all seen the daily news conferences from the White House that border on, or actually are, self parody.

Headlines pile up like the imagined bodies in my mind. I’m buried alive under words.

So. A few items for you today, in the face of all this, that are actually good.

Biggest education news of the day. No, week. No, year. No, maybe decade. The federal government is waiving the requirements for testing this year. And so are most states. Ladies and gentlemen, let us now bid a joyful farewell to these colossal time and resource wasters for 2019/2020. Let us observe how truly unnecessary they are. And let us be prepared, whenever we go back to regular school, to stand up against ever again having to be subjected to this racist profiteering child-sorting time-wasting garbage-curriculum driving trash.

Good deeds

Donors Choose, that sadly necessary public education teacher helper, is all about helping kids who need it right now. Check it out here.

Loving to see factories shift it up a bit to help out where they uniquely can. Here’s a distillery making hand sanitizer, especially for use in hospitals and senior homes.

As in many neighborhoods, Hyde Parkers are creating a network to help meet needs. This and the story above are reported by Block Club Chicago, which I wish to commend to you again to support with your membership because it’s delivering the best local news available in Chicago.

Free stuff, fun stuff

Audible has released hundreds of children’s books for free. You could do worse than listening to a good story for an hour a day with your kids.

Chicago literary star and stand-up citizen Rebecca Makkai is offering a “strangely specific” writing prompt per day on twitter. They are well worth following, and now many of us have time on our hands to finally get started on that novel.

Chicagoans are planning what is sure to be a quite ridiculous event (on the north side), a singalong out windows on Saturday night “like the Italians”…..but…..Bon Jovi? Really Chicago? Look here for more information if you want to join in.

This is without a doubt the strangest, creepiest, most challenging time I’ve ever experienced in my life. It’s like a weird mashup of “Groundhog Day,” every 70s disaster movie ever, and YA dystopian fiction I would never choose to read. Challenging for kids, parents, marriages, and friendships; challenging for those out of jobs and for those still working. But this is what we have right now, and there is no way out of it but through. I trust you are all going to stay inside and chill out for a couple of weeks now, as best you can.

Finally, if you need some help figuring out how to do any type of school at all at home, let me know in the comments and I can work with you on a plan. We homeschooled for various reasons for a few years, and I have many more ideas than you will ever need. Thanks, as always, for reading.