Plan D

 If someone had told me last year what the 2020-21 school year would look like, I just would not have believed it. Of course none of us would have believed any of what's happened the last several months, but this is reality.

I happened to go back and read my last blog post, and it occurred to me that at the end where I mention our very own "Plan D," I never elaborated on what that was. Now that we're about a month in, give or take, I'll do just that. 

So, June and July saw the two of us just hoping for the best, and not even entertaining the idea of the worst. I think that after the fiasco of virtual learning in spring was done, I just wanted to eject that experience from my brain and enjoy the summer. But then began the rumblings of the next school year, the school board polling parents to see how they wanted it to go, and then deciding regardless to go with Plan C, which was all virtual learning, for at least the first nine weeks; and then reevaluate after that. That was a huge disappointment, although truthfully, Plan B, which had also been on the table, wouldn't have been better. That would have had the girls in school one day a week, and Timmy in school two days, with so many stipulations it sounded like a logistical nightmare. With the girls, I could make anything work. But Timmy, whether he knew it or not, desperately needed the structure of the traditional classroom experience, with a teacher to motivate him in person, and other kids his age to be around. He's a bright boy and a good student, but for him, the wheels fell off the virtual learning pretty quickly. It was a draining and disheartening experience. The following text exchange between his teacher and me was fairly typical for the those last couple months of third grade. It makes me sad to look back and remember how such a great school year turned into a complete goat rope. Ms. G loved those kids and worked so hard.  

We called up our Catholic school, St. Paul, and learned that they had room for another fourth grader. We took him to the tour, got him signed up and his uniforms ordered, so grateful to be able to get the boy out of our house and learning again. This happened with maybe a week to spare before the first day of school in mid-August.

As for the girls, at first I thought they would just continue with virtual learning at the middle school. They are organized, dependable, studious, as well as a little more mature than Timmy; and I knew that it wouldn't be a problem for them. I still felt sad for them that their one overlapping year of middle school was to be spent at home. Then I got to thinking about how inadequate remote school had been for Delaney. The teachers kind of gave up because parents and students complained about the workload. Delaney said that as a result they had hardly anything to do. Annie is the only one who had a satisfactory remote learning experience, in my opinion. Her 5th grade teacher was a stickler, and Annie is a perfectionist, so they got on wonderfully. But now Annie would be at middle school, and she and her sister both be spending a gazillion hours online, and neither of them would be challenged enough. First I thought I'd try to supplement their learning with whatever I could come up with. That thought led me to another thought, and I cautiously solicited the girls' opinions one morning at breakfast, about this harebrained scheme I had brewing. If they had been completely negative about it, I would have said "OK," and turned my mental energies to something else. But to my pleasant surprise they were both open to the idea of having our own homeschool experience this year. They both expressed relief at not having to be in and out of Zoom meetings all day.

We did school pictures one day on the porch. Annie curled Delaney's hair, and for whatever reason, she put on a cowboy hat and bandanna for the occasion!

After discussing with Tim, I plunged into the world of homeschooling and curriculum shopping. I asked my sister Anna as well as a couple friends what they were using. Amazingly, they all told me the same thing. Well, for Anna it was what she had used last year, and it wasn't quite going to work for her this year, but to me it still sounded great. It's called The Good and the Beautiful. They have an open-and-go language arts curriculum that is several subjects in one: grammar, reading, writing, geography, and art/art appreciation. All from a Christian worldview. I also chose their history curriculum and a couple of their science units as well. Currently, we're learning about ancient Egypt in history, and mammals in science. I read aloud to them every day at lunch for fifteen to twenty minutes, and we are spending time together and having conversations that most likely wouldn't be happening if they were on their own schedules all day. They're using my mom's old homeschool standby, Saxon, for math, which is also what Anna and my two friends recommended.

Annie's turned out well too! 

I was so nervous at the start of this. I disenrolled them from school, submitted the homeschool paperwork to the State of North Carolina, and then lay in bed that night thinking, What have I done? It would be one thing if they were little kids -- how hard could it honestly be to homeschool two little girls in the younger grades? But these are big girls, middle schoolers, one almost in high school, and I felt barely qualified to teach them. In fact to be honest, I am not qualified to teach them math; I don't remember much of any concepts I learned beyond maybe 5th or 6th grade. Enough to get me by and that's all. But these girls are strong math students, and as I had hoped, they open the book every day, read the lesson and do it, with little or no intervention needed from me. No issues with coming from Common Core math. And I figure there are plenty of online resources out there if I need them. They are handling their language arts courses (which I've been told are advanced) well, which tells me the public schools and DoD schools have been doing a pretty good job with their core subjects thus far. There is a heavier emphasis on spelling and grammar than they've been used to.

The middle school band teacher is graciously including all the homeschool students in her program this year, so there are Zoom meetings for the girls after all, sometimes two a day for each of them. (Two Zooms a day apiece, all four at different times, just for one subject. If I'd kept them at the middle school for everything else, it is highly doubtful there'd be time in the day for me to supplement their learning in any way.) But now there won't be any gap in their skills. Annie is playing clarinet too. Reaching out to the band instructor in the beginning was awkward for me too; I was worried the answer would be a big fat no, not from the band instructor, but from the school -- like you don't get to go rogue and have band class for your kids. But that is not the case at all, and Delaney and Annie aren't the only kids in that boat.

Celebratory ice cream out after Timmy's first day of school

We're also doing a class with the whole family once a week at dinner, called Principles of a Free Market. When one of the kids asked me one day why the government doesn't just print more money and give it to the people who need it (a fair question!), I thought maybe it was time for something like this. I feel like we're being so much more intentional this year with what and how the kids are learning, and it's more effort on our part, but I know it's been a blessing to have the events of COVID shake me out of my complacency. I'm hoping that no matter what the plan is next year, we keep seizing opportunities to shape our kids and impart our values to them.

Back to Timmy for a minute -- I'm so pleased with Catholic school, which we had heretofore not been convinced was worth the expense. He wasn't happy to have to get up early and put on a uniform -- to the point where I didn't bother trying to pose him for a first day of school picture. I just wasn't picking that battle. Mornings are still rough, but we get through it. He leaves the house every day wearing a collared shirt tucked into pants with a belt. There are standards, so it's not just me trying to convince him not to wear holey sweatpants. On Wednesdays they go to Mass, and on that day he wears a button-down shirt and on his feet for once in his life are shiny leather oxfords. He looks so handsome. I attend the school Mass myself, and I see a more energetic side of our pastor as he talks to the kids, and the music teacher plays beautiful music. After Mass we say the Pledge, and the students recite the school mission statement. When he gets in the car every afternoon, he tells me about the football games at recess, quizzes me on things he's learning, and in general seems much happier than he is on the morning drive. Sometimes later on I'll be reading aloud or talking and he'll interrupt to say, "That's one of my vocabulary words!" and then tell me what it means. His teacher reads to them every day, too, in addition to having them read on their own, and I'm so glad. Sometimes kids aren't motivated to read classics on their own, the language looks too quaint to them, and they need to just be able to relax and listen. The current read-aloud is The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, I believe. 

To have some outside reinforcement in raising a child with the Catholic faith is pretty great, too.

I considered sending to Joey to pre-k at St. Paul's too, but I am so sentimentally attached to his preschool, which is the same one the girls went to. He even has the same teacher they did for pre-k, Mrs. Ann. He goes MWF 9-12, so it's a lot of driving to and from for me on those days, between him and his brother. I also volunteer a couple Tuesday mornings a month at Timmy's school library, and there's a lot of catching up to do once I get home. It's worth it, though, to have found a solution for each of them in these crazy times.

I am extra busy this year, and it's about to get busier with soccer starting. I have no problems falling asleep at night. This school year is an adventure, one that I definitely did not want, but we are going to make sure it's worth our while.