Back to School! Aug 2021

[danvers]

Taitai I’m glad you all survived a hotel quarantine. I know you all enjoyed your stateside visit but I’m sure getting back home feels good too. When does your DS1 start school (and will it be virtual)? Will DS2 do preschool this year virtually?

duskymonkey it’s hard to believe that in the last your DS1 hasn’t ever really had a real school experience in all the time he’s been enrolled. Pandemic, shut down, virtual…. I worry that with people refusing to mask and vaccinate it could still be years before he gets a normal school year too. Will DS2 be doing preschool? DD2 is in daycare here that does some preschool things so while it’s not perfect I feel like she’s getting something.

CoachTsWife your poor mom. Taking care of aging parents is so hard. Even harder perhaps during a pandemic when you have to seek care.

August Blooms I understand about the graduate program and $$$. Tough call. Congrats on the triathlon though - even if it’s not your best time you are still out there doing it!!!!!

curmudgeon Sinus stuff in the middle of summer with the heat is absolutely miserable. I hope you're feeling better by now!

[Taitai]

danvers Long wow to your state and your school. It’s just so….unsafe and not right. I don’t think I could send my kids to school in an environment like that. School has been virtual here since March….and in 2020 we were virtual for about 50% of the year as well. I’m bummed that the boys ended school online back in June, and now they are starting online again. DS1 is doing okay with the virtual schooling - he’s gotten used to it, and DS2 is even adapting okay (he was in nursery school last year, pre-K this year). That said, online schooling is just not the same as in-person school, and as everyone knows - it’s an additional burden on parents, especially ones that have to work (like H and I do).

The estimates are that we will likely be doing online schooling through at least December 2021….and perhaps even into early 2022. It really, really, really sucks.

The only silver lining is that we live on a compound with a big garden, playground, and other facilities with other international families who have similarly ages kids. So, we’re all locked down together and have our own little germ bubble. Our kids go to the garden each afternoon to play and get that socialization in. Thank goodness.

Good luck avoiding a breakthrough infection - I feel so badly for you and pretty much everyone in your school district.

[duskymonkey]

August Blooms congratulations on both your Tri and getting into the grad program even if you turned it down. Maybe it can be something you pursue later when the girls are older. The younger years go by so fast and even though I miss work terribly I am at peace with it now knowing the time spent with the boys is irreplaceable. I am at awe that you have all the energy to want to do so much though. You're a great role model for your girls. Enjoy training for your 10k race. The AQI has improved in the last couple of weeks and we can finally see the stars, mountains and blue skies again. Have you been affected by the fires? Has your DD1 begun school yet?

[duskymonkey]

danvers are you and your H doing ok? I feel very badly with my last post being upset about the anti mask parents. Our district is implementing all the precautions and it's so outrageous that yours isn't. I am so sorry it's so unfair for teachers to have to go through all this stress. How is your bestie doing? We signed up lil fella for PS/ PK and he will start sometime in October. At this point, since DS is already going to bring home germs from school, it doesn't make sense to keep lil fella at home plus he does need to interact with other people. It's crazy to think that when all this mess started, our littles just turned 2! and now they're going to be 4. I am thinking of you and CoachTsWife and curmudgeon that you all will continue to stay safe. Change of subject, how is your addition and reno going?

[duskymonkey]

We made it to 2 weeks in school! There are 6 kids in total quarantined after the 1st week due to exposure. They aren't quarantining the entire class and only unmasked kids in the class but everyday last week, I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Taitai I told a few parents about my conversation with the SI and principal and encouraged them to contact them too and they did so at least the district admin knows we are around, just not loud and obnoxious. One of them shared that the principal told her that 1 class had an exposure due to that, 2 parents revoked their child's exemption because they had to to be quarantined. HHmmm, interesting how their kids medical claims suddenly vanished? 
I am taking a sewing break this weekend. So far I have made 14 masks for DS. On his first day, as he was walking with this class entering school, his nose started bleeding and I pulled him from the line, 1 mask down. When he got home, he told me he had another nose bleed Oy! I pack him off with 4 extra masks daily lol! I was also scrambling the last couple of weeks trying all sorts of things to alleviate pressure at the back of his ears from the loops and trying to figure out how to make it easy for him to take it down to eat and not lose it. At one point I crocheted several different types of "ear savers" lol! Poor kid went to school with all sorts crazy designs his mom did Oy! His favorite mask is one with Snoopy. Here are a bunch of them.

[danvers]

School feels… crazy? I’ve just decided I’ll have to do what I can to mitigate our own risks. I try to make my students spread out around the room to work so only two kids (instead of the normal 4) are sitting at the round tables. If the kids come to my teacher table to work with me I make them wear masks. No kid has complained yet - which is no surprise because it’s not the kids but the parents who don’t want masks.

My teacher bestie will be able to return to school Monday. She feels mostly recovered, just tired now. Most of the teachers in my hall have started to wear masks - again no surprise because we are also the only ones in the school vaccinated.

duskymonkey house reno is just us waiting around for the excavator guy and once that starts it will go pretty quickly. H wants it done right now!!!!!!! and I’m very meh, it will happen soon enough. Prices for construction stuff are slowly coming down so it’s kind of working in our favor anyway. Contractor thinks it will all be done end of October:

[danvers]

Also my MIL asked me if kids have to wear masks here at school yesterday and when I said “not yet” she made a comment about how good that was because kids dont need that.

I very quickly shut that shit down and told her the girls have absolutely no problem wearing masks when asked and are so good about it wearing them when we go in public.

Like… she knows we had the girls wear masks last year, why wouldn’t we have them wearing them on 2021 still?!?!? Arg!

[August Blooms]

danvers and duskymonkey My gosh you guys have a lot to deal with and working against you to keep the kids safe. That must be so stressful, I can’t even imagine being surrounded by anti maskers and COVID deniers. They are a small but vocal minority here. We are still under most restrictions and my biggest concern is Kindergarten class size for DD2, masks and distancing are still in place.

[August Blooms]

Aug 28, 2021 23:08:42 GMT -6 duskymonkey said:

August Blooms congratulations on both your Tri and getting into the grad program even if you turned it down. Maybe it can be something you pursue later when the girls are older. The younger years go by so fast and even though I miss work terribly I am at peace with it now knowing the time spent with the boys is irreplaceable. I am at awe that you have all the energy to want to do so much though. You're a great role model for your girls. Enjoy training for your 10k race. The AQI has improved in the last couple of weeks and we can finally see the stars, mountains and blue skies again. Have you been affected by the fires? Has your DD1 begun school yet?

We have had some fires in Northern Ontario that we have felt the affects of down here but only for a few days. School starts for us Tuesday. The big one is go into Grade 1 and the little starts Junior Kindergarten, it’s a graduated entry the first week so she goes for a half day Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. My little babies are all grown up 😭