Guest Post: Kindergarten During the Pandemic by Kimi Ann-Marie

The Lily Cafe is thrilled to present a very timely post from Kimi Ann-Marie, who writes over at Confessions of a Parentless Mother. She’s an incredibly strong woman who lost both of her parents before her daughter was born and is now working hard to ensure her Kindergartener is doing as well as she possibly can in the midst of a pandemic. Enjoy her post, and do check out her beautiful and extremely touching and raw blog.

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Kindergarten During the Pandemic

by Kimi Ann-Marie

Kindergarten is supposed to be a HUGE deal. A kid attends an elementary school for a full day rather than a half-day or starting later than every other student. The child eats in the cafeteria like everyone else. Specials are also added into the school day such as art, music, gym, and Spanish. Each special has a different teacher as well. It’s so exciting for Kindergarteners. Who doesn’t like getting out of one room? Kindergartens are no exception. In 2020, the pandemic changed what Kindergarten looks like for my daughter.

My daughter started Kindergarten in September after Labor Day. Her school district decided to go all virtual until the beginning of November. The virtual school has its ups and downs. In the first and second weeks, my daughter struggled with getting used to this new form of school. Her anxiety kicked it bad for the first couple of days during class. She also started not wanting to go to school in the morning. It was a struggle but the two of us got through it.

I have many issues with the virtual school. One of them is how my daughter LOVES to argue with me WHILE she’s in class then blaming me for her not paying attention. More than half of the time, I’m done talking and she’s freaking out. I have to ignore her because she’s in class. She doesn’t understand that.

I’m also loving seeing her learn and seeing her face when she gets an answer right. I love hearing her teacher tell her, “Good job,” when she gets an answer right. I never knew what she was like in school last year BEFORE the pandemic. She’s a good student who knows the answer more than half the time. I love seeing her learn to read. I love seeing her lean to spell. It’s truly AMAZING.

As time moves on, she’s started to get the new school norm. It’s not too much as a harness anymore. She’s starting to be more independent and learning how to listen while at home. She can switch tabs and go to her assignment without help.

I know this isn’t normal BUT I do know it’s what is safe for her. I just want her to be healthy. I would be a mess if she got sick from the virus. Also, let’s be real, I would be sick as well because she can’t leave me alone. Seriously… I don’t want her to get sick. She already has medical issues, so she doesn’t need Covid on top of that. I’m not going into the details right now. Just know she’s fine but has a lot on her plate.

When I started this blog post, she was only in school for a month. She’s rolling into her third month of virtual school. Her school also just started hybrid last week, but the school district is back to virtual now. The struggle of my daughter seeing kids in school was real. She was jealous and worried about her kids in school. She had a meltdown about it.

By Friday, the superintendent decided to go back to all virtual schools. My daughter was so happy, while her friends were sad because they got the taste of “real school” throughout the week. I feel bad for her friends. I really do. They got something “normal” back, but now it’s taken away from him or her again.

The kids and teens have gotten so much taken away for them this year. My heart feels so much pain for each and every one of them.

I wish more than anything got my daughter and other kids/teens could have things back to “normal” soon. Unfortunately, I’m not sure when life will be normal again.

Stay safe and healthy everyone. “

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Thank you so much, Kimi Ann-Marie!

This is such a rough time for parents as our hearts break for our little ones who should be in a classroom with their peers. Please do check out her blog.

Confessions of a Parentless Mother

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The author of this post, Kimi Ann-Marie, retains all rights to the guest post published above, which may not be copied, reproduced, modified, sold, or distributed without the author’s express permission. To contact Kimi Ann-Marie to request permission to utilize the above guest post, please send your inquiry to Kat via the Contact page.