First Grade, Here We Come!

Summer has come to an end. Tomorrow my little boy starts First Grade.

First of all, how dare he grow up, turn 6, and go off into the numbered years of school? It’s sometimes hard to reconcile the tiny little 34 week preterm baby he was to the long-limbed getting-too-tall-on-mommy sophisticated 6 year old he now is, but I know he’s one and the same because the only time I’ve spent time away from him is when his sister was born, but his dad and Nana ensured he remained one and the same. I hope.

Our school district was the first in the country to shut down back in March. First, it was for two weeks. Two weeks stretched into the rest of the academic year. For about a month after school ended, I was on pins and needles, waiting impatiently for them to decide whether to reopen for the fall or not.

Things are not getting better in California. It was never getting better before our county decided to reopen. As much as I like the school my son goes to, I had decided that if they did decide to reopen schools, I was pulling him out and homeschooling for the year. Fortunately, they chose to go online only to start. How that will work, well, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. The state also made it easy as they issued a directive to close schools in all the counties on the governor’s watch list (ours is on it) until they remain off it for 14 consecutive days. Honestly, I think our district is being very cautious, closing as quickly as possible and choosing to remain closed, so I think they won’t reopen campuses until it actually is safe. I just hope my son will be able to get back into the classroom before the end of 1st grade.

So, please, wish me luck. We had a little less than a semester of actual school in a classroom. He did do a year of preschool, though. I’m hoping it’s enough for him to be able to transition back into a classroom with his peers and without me present. More importantly, I’m hoping he can keep the rules of his virtual classroom in mind and maybe learn that school can be done from home, too. We did workbooks and other educational activities all summer as well, so I hope that helps him transition to doing school at home. And that he’ll stop melting off his chair in the middle of class.

My son is a smart cookie, but he does have the attention span of a six-year-old boy. He likes to fiddle with things and whisper constantly to me or his sister. This kid needs the classroom. We barely survived the end of Kindergarten. I’m a little scared of part, most, or all of 1st grade at home. He doesn’t like challenges unless they’re ones he wants to do, so, yeah, wish me luck.

And good luck to all the parents out there doing school from home!