Back to Class.

Big week this week! After our trip, I emailed our school principal about the odds of the kids coming back after spring break - I felt like that was a good transition point, and I wondered if, with the dropping COVID numbers and new regulations, the odds might be that the school was able to open fully. He dissuaded me, saying that after spring break there's only eight weeks left in the year, and that he doesn't have any word that the school will open full time (which may be the party line, may end up not being true if the schools get more funding and are allowed to put kids closer than six feet apart.) Anyways, between that and having a HORRIBLE week with the kids, I hit my breaking point. I can't be the mom I want to be if I'm also having to be their home school teacher. In fact, I could feel myself transitioning from classroom teacher to class pet - but the class pet of an overwhelmed female hamster who gives birth and then eats a couple of her babies, horrifying all the students. 

I emailed the principal back and said, okay, can we get them in ASAP instead of down the line, and thankfully the school was able to make room for both kids, albeit during different time slots. So Ellie is on campus 8:30-11 and Adam goes from 12-2:30. It's nice because we can all have lunch together, and I get to time to work with both of them as needed. Also, I'm glad Adam is the second slot, because he requires much more nagging in the morning (today he spent ten minutes staring at himself and dancing in the mirror before brushing his teeth, which is about average for him.) I'm getting a lot of steps in, walking to and from the school. 

Everyone had a great first day yesterday, and I am absolutely flooded with relief. I still have to coax Adam through about 90 minutes of school work at home, but it's more stuff that he can do independently. I don't have to sit there and watch him being a pain in the butt over Zoom. I also really like the teacher he got - we've never had her before, but only heard good things. Ellie's teacher is new to the school as a teacher, but actually attended when she was a kid, and get this - her fourth grade teacher was the woman who had been Ellie's distance learning instructor!

Adam's teacher sent me this yesterday, which makes me laugh. He looks like he's in prison, sitting behind the plexiglass wall, waiting to take a phone call from a visitor. That's what happens when you make your poor mom totally bonkers, kid! Several of his best friends from last year are in his class, which is a relief - even though the kids have only a fraction of the interactions they had before the pandemic. There's still a lot that we miss, but there's a lot good about this transition too.