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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