First Day of School, or Nah?

So...Carter started Kindergarten on August 13th. Since we were out-of-town, his first day of the virtual class was in a hotel, along with his cousins, his parents, his aunt, and grandparents, ALL IN THE SAME ROOM 😩...When I tell you it was a cluster of organized chaos, I’m not exaggerating 😑. It was as non-traditional as any first day of school could be. Thanks to Covid-19, hardly anything is traditional or like it used to be. The start of the school year has been challenging for everyone, parents, teachers, and most importantly the kids.

The current preschool/camp he is attending is partnering with his real elementary school to help facilitate his E-Learning. The first day last week was a wash, as he was not able to log in to his zoom meetings. Allegedly, I gave them the wrong zoom meeting code 😐. We ended up helping him finish his work at home. The next day, they told us that Carter was not willing to do his schoolwork and that he was pretty upset. The next day after that, they told us that he was not able to hear the teacher speaking on his iPad. At this point, we as his parents were getting pretty frustrated.

When we got him home, we spoke to him to try to get to the root of the issue he was having. It was important to see how his day was from his perspective. After a few questions, my baby boy broke down crying. He told us that he is so tired because now that he is in Kindergarten, they don't take naps and it makes him so sleepy during the day. I felt for him at that moment and began to think about how frustrated he must be. School the way he knew it was changed for him overnight.

I went to pick him up the next day. I wanted to see the set up of the classroom they use for e-learning. The director showed me the table where the kids sit at with their iPads. I then found out that the two teachers are still teaching their normal classes, along with trying to help watch the kids that are doing e-learning. Good grief...that is a lot. It is a lot to manage and oversee especially with younger kids with such a small attention span.

We expect a lot from the educators and the kids. I know they spend a lot of time at home on tablets etc, but it's more for recreation, etc. This structured environment is hard on them. The kids have to learn when to mute, un-mute on Zoom, despite all the other distractions. The teachers have a tall task ahead. As parents, we have to realize that partnering with, supporting, and not harshly criticizing the teachers is what is going to make this process work. We have to exercise a lot of grace and understanding for everyone. It's new for ALL OF US. Personally, I will be glad when we get back to some sense of normalcy. I think we are all over it at this point.