Getting ready for school

 How does school look for you this year? For us, all 3 of my kids are starting online. Which I, personally could not be happier about right now. I have been hearing so many reports of kids going back to school and being sent home the first day with civid. Or just in our school district, they haven't even started and there is a case of covid at one of my kid's schools. We are fortunate that our kids are able to do online school while I and my husband work from home. I am able to make my job flexible enough that I can help out all 3 kids and take an hour here or there to also do my work via zoom, or once or twice a month see a kid in their home. I understand not everyone has that ability. Nor does everyone have the patience for it. Many people have to work right now and are unable to be there while their kids do online schooling. Making it impossible for their kids to get any work done. It's a difficult situation all around. The teachers can only work so many hours in a day. But parents may not be home until 4-6 pm in order to help their children. And in the instances of younger children or children with executive functioning issues, that means school is not getting done. At lest not until the parents are home. And by then everyone is exhausted. It is a very difficult situation this year. I think the best we can do is concentrate on making sure everyone is healthy, both mentally and physically, and feels loved and appreciated (teachers, parents, and kids), and try to get a little leaning in there as well ,while respecting it may not look the same for all families. I've set up some cozy corners with what space we do have in our house. Admittedly we do have a lot more space that our old house, but not a ton to make a whole school room. But, this is just an idea of what we have done with some of our space with the items that we have. And I know that all the kids teachers will likely give is more stuff to include as well. I also have items to supplement learning as need be if the stuff they are learning is too hard and we need to take a step back to re-learn some things. Because lets be honest, last spring was hard! It was hard on teachers figuring everything out. It was hard on parents figuring everything out. And it was hard on the kids just trying to muddle their way through. We may need to review a few things. And that is perfect OK! 

Changes

How do you feel about changes? Do they make you excited? Or do they make you anxious? For me, change always makes me kind of anxious. Any change really, whether it's rearranging something in my room, or something big like my daughter starting high school next year, (not this year. Phew! The 2021/22 school year). So, needless to say, the changes in the past 5 months (has it really only been 5 months?? it feels like 5 years!) have brought about their own anxiety for me. We went from being in school in February, my middle daughter at Natures classroom at the beginning or March, to her coming home and full blown pandemic and all online school. We muddled through and made it. 2 of my kids did better than the other one. One is not great at online schooling due to executive function issues. But we made it to summer break. And we thought, "ok, we did it! We made it through. Now we will enjoy the summer, (even though we couldn't go much of anywhere due to still quarantining most of the time because of my son's heart transplant.) But we still went and did things like bike rides, walking in the forest preserves and thought, we would be going back to school in some form in the fall. 

That idea brought with it it's own set of anxiety. Do I send all 3 kids to school? Do I just send my girls to school? Do I keep all of them home and do remote learning? Would that even be an option. Needless to say, I overthought about this  lot during the summer before the school districts even came up with their options. I kept thinking I had the right answer and would see someone else online saying something that made me think I was making the wrong choicer, no matter which choice it was. 

Finally my oldest daughter's school came out with their option A/B schedule with online learning 3 days of the week. Which made it easier, sort of, to decide what to do with my younger two. I would put them in their private Montessori on the same days as their older sister, and this would minimize risk. But still, I kept overthinking should I even have my son go to school at all? Maybe I should have him stay at home? Again, I would see things online saying I was wrong either way I thought about it. 

Then, my oldest daughters school came out with their new schedule. All remote learning until at least October 30, and they would reassess then.  Well, this made it a lot easier for me. All 3 kids would stay at home. With the possibility of my middle daughter going to school at the end of September. So, I started getting things ready for my son, since I knew I would need to have some things for him to do during the day. His teacher is, after all, teaching 5 days a week. It's hardly fair to expect her to teach him during the evening as well too. Though he is going to be able to go in his class remotely some days to get the classroom experience. But, I am also going to substitute some of his learning as well so he can keep up. My middle daughter is going to have stuff that I will pick up to help her learn at home and she will go in to the class remotely some days as well. But I have stuff to substitute her learning as well just in case. 

Why do I mention any of this? Because we all have doubts. Everyone is out here trying to figure out what to do with their kids right now. Working parents, stay at home parents, part time working parents. We are all in this together trying to figure out what will be the best option for out kids. And whether that is remote learning, hybrid option or full day in class, what you pick is what is best for YOUR family. Let my overthinking be a lesson to you so you don't go through what I did. Pick what you think will be the best for your child, for the health ands well being, and go with that, and don't look at comments on facebook, twitter, instagram or whatever else that are talking about how this one is better than that one. You know what is best for your child. You are their best advocate. And even if they don't like the option you may pick for them, in the end, it's only one year.Yes, it may be senior year, or 8th grade year, or some other special year. But only you and your family can decide what is best and right for your family. 

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