Phew. What a crazy, crazy school year. It seems like forever ago that it started, to be honest. And so much has happened.
Eloise started out the year fully remote. I was 37 weeks pregnant (with Fitz), we decided to keep Daphne home from preschool and Aaron was working from home. First grade took over our living room each week day morning, and while it was great for it to be a family affair (we all made appearances during those school meetings), it was really tough. Eloise had SO much asynchronous work (i.e., independent work) that was available to her, but not as much “face time” as we had hoped with her teachers. And once Fitz was born, it was nearly impossible for me to keep up or help Eloise with any of her schooling. So Aaron stepped in in such a huge way and really took charge on any school stuff. He even became the “class dad” to help with technology issues since the school district used Microsoft Teams (rather than Zoom) for class sessions.
The school district started talking about the switch to hybrid learning (50 percent remote and 50 percent in person) in December, but it was before teachers were being prioritized for the vaccine. At first we were a firm NO on in person since local cases were even higher than they were in the spring when school was shut down. But by the time the school district and the teacher’s union got their bargaining agreement in place MONTHS later, teachers were prioritized for vaccines and local rates were coming way down.
So in early April we transitioned to the hybrid model and Eloise FINALLY got to meet her teacher and see her classmates! While it was touted as a “half day” in person program, the truth was it was 2 hours and 45 minutes. With a 20 minute recess. So Aaron dropped her off at 8 am (then he came home and did Daph’s drop off at 9) and then one of us would pick Eloise up at 10:45 (but Daph’s school didn’t end until 1 pm). If the socialization for Eloise wasn’t of the utmost importance, it wouldn’t have been worth the back-and-forth and back-and-forth (and twice more) in the car. Her “remote learning” in the afternoon wasn’t much (that was provided) so I tried to make sure she was reading at least 20 minutes (which is not difficult to get this girl to do!) and doing a bit of math as well.
But here we are at the end of her first grade year and we made it! And she did so wonderfully, we are immensely proud of her. The things that these little ones were asked to endure this year are beyond that of what most adults could handle.
And here is Eloise’s first day of school!
Happy SUMMER, Eloise!
M