Plans for September 2020.

As August comes to a close, many of our children are headed back to school. Any other year, this would most likely mean on-campus learning for K-12, or if you’re a homeschooling family you had curriculum and activities planned out just the same! Now, it means on-campus learning with social distancing and masks, hybrid models that no one quite understands, remote learning which is so difficult for all parties, or homeschooling with limited access to all the wonderful places in your community (libraries, museums, parks, playgrounds, co-ops). It, most likely, means that at some point or points in this school year… homes will be offices, dining room tables will be classrooms, and you will be parent, employee (maybe employer), teacher, and let’s face it — your child’s assistant! So, whatever “plans for September” means to you, your children and your family — I’m here to tell you, it’s okay to mourn the school year you don’t get to have. 

To mourn means to feel regret or loss over something that has gone away: normalcy, safety, consistency, comfort. And we need to grieve that. School closures happened swiftly in March. We were left stranded and in crisis mode. We had to survive. There wasn’t another option and we told ourselves there was an end in sight. But here we are, nearly 6 months later (no end in sight) and now we need to grieve, process, mourn and move forward. Is it uncomfortable that it isn’t the same? Yes. Would it be easier if health was promised and schools could function at 100%, 100% of the time. Sure. Did you go back and forth about the right thing to do regarding your child’s learning? Of course. Assuming you’ve made your decision, accept it. If you’re not ready to do that yet, give yourself a few more days to mourn what isn’t, and what can’t be. But then remember, being confident in the decision you made for your children come this September is the best thing you can do for them. Whatever you decided, is right.

In our house, we’ve decided to stay put. We won’t be enrolling our oldest in pre-K, we won’t be signing up for extra-curricular activities, we won’t make weekly trips to the library, or to museums, or to the playground. For us, that’s right. Of course, I was upset. I had a very different vision when it came to thinking about my first year as a stay at home mom of three kids under 5. I spent July wallowing — the thought of more time cooped up in the house made me feel a bit, anxious. But I processed it, put that behind me and spent August planning. 

So, in September we’re jumping into homeschooling. In the next few days, I’ll be sharing a more detailed “curriculum outline” for our month: daily, weekly, and an overall monthly plan. If you’re in the same boat, or even just in the same body of water — stick around and we can do this together.