Today Kate goes back to school, in person.
She was so happy this morning, ready to see her friends and get out of the house, even if it means wearing a uniform and a mask.
Her school has done everything in its power to create a safe, clean environment for the kids and teachers. There are multiple new hand-washing stations; mandatory masks; extra furniture was moved out of classrooms to create more space for desks to be further apart; Kate's homeroom is actually in the cafeteria because her grade is one of the bigger ones; no one's using lockers because they're too close together; they're going to spend plenty of time outside; no food is being brought in, every kid brings his/her own; and on and on.
It's going to be so good for the kids to be back in a school environment, with structured days. Wow, does Kate need that. She has been very bored lately. Doing her best, I mean -- she tries to keep busy with crafting (friendship bracelets, tie dye, painting) and practicing piano and playing games online with her friends, but, um... those things do not a full life make. Confession, I've not done the best job alleviating her boredom. It's hard to do when I'm trying to keep my job. Working from home full-time has been amazing and I hope I get to do it forever, but I've not been that good at creating summertime balance. I've tried to start my days early (7 or 7:30), but inevitably I keep working until about 4:30 -- instead of planning ahead to finish up after dinner, for example, so that we can go do something fun in the afternoons. I've spent the last few days feeling really guilty/sad about that.
But on the other hand, we have done what we could. Lots of swimming when we had the chance. Our lunchtimes together, every day. "Big" outings to Target or Publix or WalMart. Watching some movies in the dark living room when it's been stupid-hot outside.
In a way, I'm pretty sad that this time of ease, as far as not having obligations or places to be, has to come to an end. I know it's what we all want - back to normal - but being homebound has been nice, too. Now we'll be waking up on time, and I'll be driving carpool every afternoon. We opted not to use after-care this year, in an effort to save the money since I'm at home most days, anyway. I could say it's also safer than spending MORE time with a wider variety of kids, but mostly it was just that I'm available for the first time in my life, to pickup every day at 3:15.
It's a weird day, at any rate. I'm for sure not going to be very work-productive.
2 comments:
Good Luck to Kate for the upcoming school year! I hope everything goes smoothly.
No aftercare sounds like the right decision. We are fortunate here in PA because the public districts are required by law to provide busing for the private schools, but I'm not sure about COVID safety on the bus anyway. I had to pick up Peter daily for 3-4 months at the beginning of 6th grade when he had a broken leg. I found the biggest hit to my productivity was not the time to get him but rather the need to be ready to get him on time. Hopefully, you are more organized than I was.
We had to choose last week whether Peter would be in school 5 days a week or all remote through Oct 30. We chose all remote. The decision was not entirely based on COVID. He had a lot of dread about returning to school because of some of the social dynamics in his grade/ class and preferred remote. Dan and I had concerns about cohort/ class size and poor ventilation in the school. Like Alex, Sophie doesn't have a choice. Pittsburgh Public School will be all remote for the first 9 weeks.
I hope school is going great! We are also preparing for in-person school and I am really nervous about it -- but excited, too, for my daughter to get back into her normal schedule and to get to see friends regularly.
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