Another week down. This makes 2.5 weeks for me and my family. And we are still here. Brains in tact. Kids heads still on their shoulders. Remember back in the day when our parents used to threaten to knock our heads clear off of our shoulders? Some of you may remember that saying. Well I haven’t had to utter any threats to my kids yet. Well maybe just one. Just a little one. LOL.

I wanted to talk about virtual schooling for just a second. Just a brief description of both sides. There are those of us surviving that are here for the long haul (end of the 1st QTR, end of the 1st semester, or even the end of the first full year). And the rest of us that as soon as those doors open, off the kids go! And just so you know, there isn’t anything wrong with either one of us. 

For those that are watching whose kids are grown and out of their houses, looking at us feeling pity. For those that don’t have kids that oh so love to say what they’d do in this particular situation. Let me save you. You have no opinion in the matter! You have no kids. Leave this conversation for the real decision makers, the moms and the dads. Because one thing is for sure…

Just like when you get married, the same applies here. Before marriage and kids, you’d like to think some things you wouldn’t do. Until you ARE, you never really know what you will do. Hell earlier this summer, my kids were going to school too. But as time went on, our decisions on the matter changed. So much has changed and so much will continue to change. 

As of right this moment, my family is going back on lock-down mid-Oct. Well that is the plan for now. It’s to prepare for the onset of flu season. All year we’ve been warned the effects of these two waves colliding. No way I’m going to ignore it. To be honest, we’ve been taking some precautions: no large gatherings, limiting visitors to our home, not visiting others’ homes, washing hands, wearing masks, sanitizing common areas occasionally, etc. But for the most part, we’ve been a little relaxed. Our kids have continued some (limited) extra curriculum activities. My son had a full (but late) baseball season and my daughter takes her regular gymnastic classes. She even learned to swim this summer. 

But anywho, now that school has started, we are ‘homeschooling.’ I guess you can use that term even though it’s sort of not correct. For my kids, I like to call myself the teacher’s assistant. My son (9 years old) is in 4th grade and my daughter (7 years old) is in 2nd grade. Their teachers are great, I must add…so far. They both have a lot of meaningful work and they hold LIVE (teaching sessions) every day at a prescribed time. They have weekly schedules, recorded lessons to further enhance the teachers, interactive worksheets to complete online, etc. 

Most importantly, they have expectations that they have to meet with their teachers and now us, the teacher assistants (dad and I). We are learning our kids true characters that with the traditional school setting, we’d often miss. I’ve always known my daughter was a perfectionist, but now, I really get to see her in full costume. She gets a lot of that from her mom. LOL. And it’s just hilarious seeing me in her like a full length mirror in front of me. And my son, I’m learning slowly but surely that he is just trying to get by. He loves to complete everything, likes the challenge but not too hard, and he likes the praise. But he wants his input to be minimal. So it’s a challenge for me to correct him and send him back to the drawing board until full effort is expended. This new teacher assistant will be fired soon. LOL

Is it a challenge? Yes, because I have to work as well. I have deadlines to meet, teleconferences to attend and host, and many ideas/concepts to manage. You know how kids are. If they have a question, they want to ask right then and they want a response immediately. They can’t wait for an answer. Managing these interruptions, well there is no way of managing them, means making the conscious effort of figuring out a routine that works for you and the kids. We are just 2.5 weeks in so I have to not only give myself the time and grace to get this right, but also the kids AND the teachers the time and grace to get things together. 

I know you are frustrated! But it takes time to learn each teacher’s preferred methods, their schedules, their assignment flows, their teaching habits, etc. And bless you all with multiple kids and single parents. My heart goes out to you all! The babies with physical and emotional disabilities, learning disabilities, etc. I don’t know of all of the situations that may be faced by parents, so I can only imagine the struggle they are having.

Many parents are choosing the traditional school setting for various of reasons. Many face challenges with the kids like the ones I just mentioned, varying job situations, social economic status may be the driving force, etc. Hell, it could even be the mental state of the parents. None of us really knows how close to the edge some people are right now due to this Coronavirus pandemic. Nor do we know the breaking point some may have been at well before the pandemic even hit. Adding on to this, the unpredictable extended isolation period; many people are struggling right now. Just maybe putting the kids in school is actually saving them. 

I don’t know every situation. All I know is, for me and my house, we are doing fine. Yes, a few hiccups in the road but nothing we can’t handle. Our kids are happy and healthy and that’s all that matter. We aren’t caregivers for any other family member. We have life in our limbs. Both my husband and I are working from home so we have each other’s support and help with the kids. It’s a combined effort. Our bills are paid. Food in the house. Roof over our heads. Computers for the kids to work on. A desk for them to sit in to mimic the traditional classroom setting. They have their favorite snacks. They eat pizza at least twice a week (their favorite food and mommy’s favorite too). 

There is a family right now that I’ve been following all year. This beautiful little girl was diagnosed with cancer in January, right before her 9th birthday. I’ve stalked her parent’s Facebook page all year praying for her and trying to keep up with her. Watching them fight this cancer and I mean they’ve been fighting hard. This is their only child. She didn’t get to start 4th grade as my son did. Her days have been in and out of the hospital. Thursday of this week, I watched a prayer her dad hosted on Facebook Live to pray over the scans she would have the next morning. I prayed and cried and cried and prayed. And just yesterday read a post from her mom saying the doctors have done all they can do for her. Doctors say her time is now limited. 

Many, many families suffering right now. Some suffering from diseases like cancer or other health issues, others grieving from losing family members due to this virus or other ailments/situations, depression, etc. Going through so much and have to do it in isolation or without the help of others like we are accustomed to. So, I’m sorry if I can’t complain often about the pandemic, masks or not, virtual or tradition, about what teachers aren’t doing, about the lack of conformity in the schools, the lack of guidance, lack of teaching or LIVE sessions being held, etc. I just can’t forgot the realness of our current predicament. We are in a whole pandemic. None of us have been here before. Once it is over, chances are in our favor we’ll never see one again. 

So much bad is going on in the world right now. I’d rather focus on the good. No, I’m not choosing to be naive or blind. But I am choosing to survive this thing: emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Virtual schooling isn’t the hardest battle I’ve faced, it is just the current one. A whole pandemic going on right now, so many people are dying…virtual school…has to be the easy part. Even though it doesn’t feel like it at the moment, we will survive this school year. Hang in there.

#DestinyStrong

Thanks for your attention. Remember you are your own competition. 

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