Anyone getting worried about March Break Travel

[Jaimetropmickey]

Landmark cinemas in Ottawa remain opened with reduced capacity!

 

[quandrea]

Ah time's tables... you know he's in grade 5 and they don't even try to get them to memorize them? Drives me nuts! We may work on that if I can convince him to do it. I had planned for swimming and a movie this coming week. Oh well, we'll save that for summer I guess! I really wanted to see Mulan. Guess we'll wait for it to be on Disney+

I was an elementary and high school teacher before becoming a stay at home mom and homeschooler. I never met one student who knew their times tables. Not their fault. They are so powerful in making your child a strong math student. Addition, subtraction and division too. If you do anything with this time that could be truly powerful, it would be basic facts. Just drill them. Have them write them down, say them out loud. Not in order, but randomised. Over and over and over.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

DH just happens to be on vacation next week for March Break. Weather has been good here, between 0 and -3. As long as it isn't raining DD and DH will likely head down the street and shoot some hoops now that all of her sports are done for the season.

 

[damo]

I was an elementary and high school teacher before becoming a stay at home mom and homeschooler. I never met one student who knew their times tables. Not their fault. They are so powerful in making your child a strong math student. Addition, subtraction and division too. If you do anything with this time that could be truly powerful, it would be basic facts. Just drill them. Have them write them down, say them out loud. Not in order, but randomised. Over and over and over.

As a math teacher I found that the best way to solidify those multiplication (or any operation) facts is by using a math fact sheet where the questions are in the same order all the time. Not that the facts are in order ... 1+1, 1+2, 1+3 but that you use the same sheet of randomized questions each time. Give a time limit and have the child compete against themselves as to how many they can get done in that time. It is important to make sure that you use the exact same sheet each time. They may only get 3 right for the first couple of tries, but it will improve consistently.

This time off would be a great time to use activities like that to work on those skills and have fun at the same time. Self competition is a great motivator.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I have fond memories of being my grade 3 class's Traveling Man champion for timetable flash cards LOL Every Friday we did either Multiplication or Division and no one could beat me. Every once in a while I would let the other person win. For being the winner you got Hubba Bubba gum and could chew it all day in class. THAT was a big deal "back then" LOL

 

[mshanson3121]

Here's a great list of ideas for your kids to do while off:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o6kEgCKLn3cyIm2hehhhSTIk7yRTd0C3zx49JS4wwCI/mobilebasic

 

[mshanson3121]

I was an elementary and high school teacher before becoming a stay at home mom and homeschooler. I never met one student who knew their times tables. Not their fault. They are so powerful in making your child a strong math student. Addition, subtraction and division too. If you do anything with this time that could be truly powerful, it would be basic facts. Just drill them. Have them write them down, say them out loud. Not in order, but randomised. Over and over and over.

Reflex Math and Xtra Math (free) are both good websites for helping with math facts (fellow homescooler)

 

[mshanson3121]

And here is a great example of why we are trying to flatten the curve:

A local child was scheduled for open heart surgery next week. It's been post-poned. Is it life threatening today? No. Could it become so? Yes.

They're post-poning all surgeries, procedures etc... they can, in an effort to free up potential necessary resources. Not just surgeries for adults - but children and babies, too.

THESE are just some of the people you're affecting when you make the decision to break the social-distancing requests. The more people that don't comply, the higher the curve will be. The more things like this are going to happen. The more people and innocent children will be affected. Don't you dare tell me that Covid isn't affecting children.

(Not directed at anyone specifically here, just ranting at the hoardes of people I see online who are disregarding the social distancing requests, who keep yapping that none of this affects kids, who don't have one sweet clue how to see past themselves).

 

[Etch]

Cancelled our Florida trip to visit my Dad yesterday afternoon last minute. We were supposed to fly out at 9:00pm last night on Westjet into Orlando. My Dad is in New Port Richey (Tampa area). I just wanted to post about the various companies I dealt with yesterday in cancelling in case any of you need to cancel your trip in the near future.

Westjet flight to Orlando booked through Air Miles: Allowed a free flight change to Orlando for any date and time until Dec. 31/2020. These are banked and I do not have to choose travels dates until i'm ready.

One Week Budget Rental car booked through Air Miles: Complete refund of all air miles used minus an $11 booking fee

WDW CBR Resort 3 days (Mar. 13-16): Able to cancel online with no cancellation fee. WDW enabled the online cancelling after their phone lines were overwhelmed.

WDW Single day HS ticket x3: Automatically changed to an anytime ticket to be used by Dec.15/2020

Renaissance Orlando Hotel Sea World (Marriott) 1 night: Able to cancel online for a full refund. Marriott waived the cancellation fee.

Pearson Parking Authority: Able to cancel 9 days of parking for full refund and they waived the cancellation fee.


I'm very happy with the how these companies have handled this and the fact that at the end of the day i'm only out $11. Now I just have to find some time to visit later on in the year. Hopefully this helps.

 

[ottawamom]

Did you cancel your car reservation through Airmiles or the car rental company. I have AM flight reservations I am hoping to be able to cancel soon.

 

[Etch]

Did you cancel your car reservation through Airmiles or the car rental company.

Cancelled through Airmiles. Was on hold for about 5 hours. Once I got through they had a travel specialist call me back about an hour later. I'm Onyx level but they were not accepting calls on the Onyx line yesterday. I got an e-mail today that they have set up a special phone number for members to call if their travel plans are in the next two weeks.

 

[2Bnºoºt2B]

Experts have stated there is still much to learn about COVID-19 as it is a novel (new) coronavirus. No immunity, no vaccine, no complete and definitive clinical picture. With the rapid announcements of theme park cancellations, travel restrictions, border closings, world-wide suspension of cruising and so forth, it is hard to keep up. Even if there is significant success in flattening the curve (mitigation of the spread of the coronavirus) to a certain degree doesn't mean that risk management should be relaxed. Am realistic that with our 11-day cruise and WDW trip booked near the end of this year, that we will likely have to reschedule/cancel. This is the latest from Disney … https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/travel-information/

Am hoping that the responses taken by the Canadian government and the provinces will slow the spread within Canada more effectively than what was done across the border. But it may be months and longer before things can return to normal. Hoping that everyone who are currently abroad return safely back home.

 

[Starwind]

The government of Canada has increased their warning for Canadians.

From the twitter of Canada's Minister of Global Affairs:

QUOTE

OFFICIAL ADVICE TO CANADIANS ABROAD:
We recommend that Canadian travellers return to Canada via commercial means while they remain available.

END QUOTE

See https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories



From https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

 

[DGsAtBLT]

The government of Canada has increased their warning for Canadians.

From the twitter of Canada's Minister of Global Affairs:

QUOTE

OFFICIAL ADVICE TO CANADIANS ABROAD:
We recommend that Canadian travellers return to Canada via commercial means while they remain available.

END QUOTE

See https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

View attachment 480926

From https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

View attachment 480927

I am so grateful to our government for doing this, both for our safety as Canadians and for selfish purposes, my insurance claim.

But that’s so chilling. Still so surreal.

 

[snowangel72]

I am a teacher and I sent out an email to the parents in my class today. I set them up on some websites. I will share them here as it might help some of you. A lot of sites that are usually paid are free right now. If any of these sites are asking for a teacher login, message me (on instagram @mapleleafmom, I don't check PM's here) and I will add your child to my class lists online. I teach Grade 1.

- IXL -- language and math - you need a login
- Prodigy math - you need a login
- getepic! online books - you need a login
- hoodamath - good logic games that are challenging but fun
- storylineonline - a famous person reads a book to the child
- www.teachyourmonstertoread.com Great for beginning readers! - you need a login
- starfall - again for beginning readers

We are practising social distancing here and it's going to be a long haul. I am so happy Canada is taking strict measures. Thank you for the updates on this thread. I like checking in with my Canadian friends on here every day now

 

[pigletto]

Has anyone tried to move Canadian Resident tickets to new dates yet? Did you end up losing the discount ?

 

[quandrea]

Experts have stated there is still much to learn about COVID-19 as it is a novel (new) coronavirus. No immunity, no vaccine, no complete and definitive clinical picture. With the rapid announcements of theme park cancellations, travel restrictions, border closings, world-wide suspension of cruising and so forth, it is hard to keep up. Even if there is significant success in flattening the curve (mitigation of the spread of the coronavirus) to a certain degree doesn't mean that risk management should be relaxed. Am realistic that with our 11-day cruise and WDW trip booked near the end of this year, that we will likely have to reschedule/cancel. This is the latest from Disney … https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/travel-information/

Am hoping that the responses taken by the Canadian government and the provinces will slow the spread within Canada more effectively than what was done across the border. But it may be months and longer before things can return to normal. Hoping that everyone who are currently abroad return safely back home.

I think we are in this mess for the long haul. As this week has progressed, I’ve come to believe that travel will not return to “normal “ until the new year at best. Even then we will be into a new flu season so who knows what that will bring. I figure we are in social distancing mode until the vaccine hopefully arrives in late 2021.

 

[elaine amj]

This is all so surreal and feels like everything is changing by the hour. We were supposed to leave for Disney on Monday. But obviously canceled that. So disappointed. We just booked a nice cottage locally so at least we get to go somewhere. Will stay away from crowds and stick to outdoor activities like showshoeing, hiking, etc.

We were discussing where to eat on the way up and talked briefly about grabbing a quick meal at Ikea until I pointed out the buffet setup is not ideal. So we will just grab something to eat in the car from Subway or something like that. So sad when we end up with lengthy discussions on whether we feel safe going to a restaurant. I think we plan to cook for most of the week.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Just got an email. Tuckers Marketplace (Ontario buffet) is closing for this time period. That's got to be a hit, but maybe their reservations have gone down, too.

A lot of companies are emailing that they're open for business and expecting best practices from their staff.

 

[MoreTravels]

A lot of companies are emailing that they're open for business and expecting best practices from their staff.

My family and I have come back safely from WDW. Oh boy, it was quite an adventure. Here is what I can tell you.

1. All companies make reassurance and are super nice at this time. However, there is very little they can do to alter the outcome of this infection. For example, I spent a good 10 minutes wiping the seats and seat-belt buckets. Let me tell you, the wipes were black after I used them. This tells me that they have not wiped the chairs thoroughly for a long time. With 200 seats, they simply don't have 200 minutes (one minute per seat) to just wipe seats because that would take almost 4 hours to turnaround each plane.

2. There will be people coughing, probably not from COVID-19. Only about 10 out of 200 passengers wore masks. In my flight, I could hear at least 3-5 different passengers coughing from time to time. You will go crazy if you assume the worst.

3. Everyone is trying to come back to Canada at this time. There will be a long line at the airport custom. The officers are very friendly and efficient. But you may need to prepare to face over 500 people all squeezed in one waiting hall, lining up over 30 minutes to get your turn. And yes, there will be people coughing there so you need to get your masks ready if you have them.