Back To School

Dear Kiddos, 

Since COVID touched down in Austin back in March of 2020, you guys have been doing school at home. We finished the 2019-2020 school year with virtual school, but the rest of the year has been homeschooled by me. You both finished your language arts curriculum and you both almost finished the 2 math curriculum books which focused on problem solving, basic math facts, and applications of those facts. The world was our classroom for science and we just had impromptu, random lessons. For geography we played a few board games for exposure to locales and we had an election at some point to teach you about the democratic process. 

I've come to realize that COVID is probably going to be here to stay, so we made the decision to find a way to live with it. We started in-person extra curricular activities back up, re-instituted play dates, and sent you all to school with masks on. The first day went well. Hannah walked in and you said that you just lived the best day of your life. Nathan, you said you were bored and wished you had a friend in your class, and Hailey, you wanted to go to school 10 days a week. When I suggested 2, you exclaimed, "No, 2, that's not 10!" 

I wasn't sure how your first day was going to go, so I had planned for us to have some ice cream sundaes to look forward to at the end of the school day. You guys really like gummy worms in ice cream! 

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And of course, here are the obligatory 1st day pictures. 

Hailey, I wasn't sure how you would react when we started gymnastics back up. You were not the biggest fan of gymnastics pre-COVID, so I was kind of expecting some timid-ness or at the very least shyness from you, but as soon as I unbuckled you from the car seat, you walked with a sense of urgency into the building. You found the first mom that you saw and exclaimed, "Do you like my lilitard? It's fuzzy, I love it!" And then you proceeded to strut around, chest puffed out, displaying your fuzzy blue "lilitard" for all to see. 

Gymnastics really brings out the best of you. You typically are not a risk  taker, but of all the times that I've observed you, you have climbed higher than you have ever climbed with me. 

So, seeing how much happiness gymnastics brought you, I decided to sign you up for their mother's morning out program, which ended up being a good move because most of the kids in the class wear face masks (compared to how most of the kids in the regular gymnastics class do not). I also like that the group is much smaller, you only have 4 kids in your class on Mondays. 

You've been loving the crafts, the gymnastics, being able to eat a packed lunch, all the big girl things! You made this crown today and you wore it all afternoon. 

On days when you don't have school, you and I just hang out together at the house. We clean, cook, read, play and

sometimes we'll venture out to the library or a playground. It's much more fun for you to go to school. 

The first week of school went pretty well. Luckily we have not heard of any COVID cases at our school (we've already heard of cases at other schools) but there was a case of lice in Hannah's class. Just thankful I've been sending her to school in a pony tail and that the school is having the kids practice social distancing. 

 Hannah is continuing with gymnastics and you really love it. You both also started in-person martial arts again. You both love the activity that usually takes place at the end of class (some variation of dodgeball) and just today survived another belt test. Hannah, you are now a blue belt and Nathan, you have now earned your brown belt. You have to earn 6 brown belt levels before you can move onto red belt, so that's exciting! 

Nathan, you are also going to be trying out for baseball. We have try-outs this weekend, so we'll give baseball a shot for a year to see if you will enjoy it. 

Well, that's it for now.

Love, Mommy