It’s September!
I didn’t mean to leave my sad sack post up for so long but the good news is that I used my shame at posting it, along with all you lovely people’s encouraging comments, to make it a point to turn things around. So while the end of August wasn’t exactly a Super Party Fun Time, we did do a few small things, whatever we felt we could do within our comfort zone.
So we went miniature golfing, and we baked up quite a few exotic treats, and played disc golf for the first time with my sister and her husband (fun! Would recommend!). We risked bowling, which felt a little dicey but it turned out we had the whole place to ourselves so it was fine. We took a family day trip to Brockville and did some outdoor stuff like the light tunnel and an open boat tour of the river. My youngest and I started a marathon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is basically the reason I had children in the first place, so things really did turn around.
Now we’re back in to school and we’re all trying not to panic or be too freaked out. My husband is pretty sure this whole “school” thing won’t last longer than a month, and I am trying to remain positive, but in my heart I fear he is right. For now at least, we’re riding the in-school wave and seeing how it goes.
Gal Smiley went back to school on Thursday for her first day of Grade 11 and said it was very weird but generally okay. She had seven kids in her class, and didn’t leave her seat all day, which was fine. She had tech class, though, which I think is a class that actually benefits from having four-hour long in-class segments, as you can get some real work done. I have heard from parents of kids who had math that first day that it was exhausing, four solid hours of math class and so many new concepts at once. It’s going to be a hard year for sure.
The Captain should have gone back but it turned out he has one of his spares this quadmester so now he has every-other-week totally off. He went in this morning for his other class (grade 12 chemistry) with his best buddy who lives next door, who also had spare on Thursday. It turns out his best buddy has TWO SPARES this quadmester so basically gets a quadmester off. That’s dumb, I think. But it’s the kind of year when everyone is doing all that they can so I guess this is how it might be. I’m pretty happy the Captain didn’t end up in that situation as heaven knows, he doesn’t need a full quadmester of getting an A+ in Smash Bros.
Little Miss Sunshine is in grade 8 this year and she has the latest start time of any school in the province. She doesn’t go back until this coming Friday, so we’re still waiting to see how it’s going to be. But we already heard that there are only 20 kids in her class, so that’s hopeful, and she herself is really looking forward to getting back among people and back into a regular routine.
Actually, I am happy about that too – the routine idea. My husband has been out of town for a lot of the past month as his parents are ill and he went to stay with them to help out. So I’m single parenting it, and although that means a busy schedule, fitting in all the work and errands and shuttling kids around and (ideally) some shared family time with them too, I find it has helped to be busy. When your mind has a lot to do, the days go quickly but they feel like they meant something, rather than your whole life being one long blur of pajamas and eating chips and surfing the web for gorgeous collector teacups that you really shouldn’t buy.
So things are looking up, things are super busy, things are super weird but we are adapting quickly. And those are all good things.
Happy September!
TurtleHead 
I was thinking that tech classes would be pretty awesome to have all day. And Drama as well – things where you get into a project, and don’t have to wrap it up after 45 minutes… I know my son will love it when it’s math all day, but he’s a little special that way LOL. In any case, the kids are getting some education (this is how it’s done at summer school after all!) and hopefully everyone stays safe. The rising Ontario cases are worrisome, but also to be expected as the weather cools and people move inside. Fingers crossed for all of us.
We also were saying that drama is a class that will really benefit from this new format, as well as things like art or auto, where you don’t have to spend half the period setting up and then cleaning up again. Sciences too might go well as you could do an entire lab in one day without having to set everything up multiple times, and languages might go better when you can spend the whole day immersed in that language. But I think math will be hard to do all day long, and maybe English too (how will they do all that reading in time?). It’ll be interesting to see how this year goes for sure!
Mark started school again this morning as well. I was wondering if your kids were going or doing online learning.
I stopped reading the board’s updates about secondary schools this summer because I was always losing my mind with plans for elementary students. Looks awfully complicated. Even the logistics for Mark are… questionable.
We also joke that the school experience won’t last long but Mark is really happy to go back and I feel he does need to go to school, so whatever we can get.
I had heard about quadmesters but wasn’t sure how they worked. Whoa. WHOA. That sounds…daunting, honestly.
Wow! I haven’t heard much about school around here (mainly because our county is online until mid-October). Man-Child teaches in another county at the elementary level and they are doing A/B days so not hitting one subject for hours at a time. As for me? If I were in school, most subjects would probably work better for me for a couple of hours at a time. Not math though. Never math.