We still played Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out” last Friday morning.  But besides a kitchen dance party blaring “schools out for summer, schools out forever” at the top of our lungs to commensurate the last day of 3^rd and 1^st grade for the girls, nothing about the last three months of the school year was like any other.

School abruptly ended Wednesday March 11.  Widespread concerns of COVID 19 started about two weeks prior and the county was working on putting some plans in place for virtual learning starting a few weeks later.  Things got serious and real overnight and school was suddenly cancelled Thursday March 12 and then again Friday March 13 and then for an entire month before virtual learning started in mid-April.  The kids had no notice, left all their belongings at school, said no goodbyes, they got on the school bus that Wednesday afternoon having no idea that they wouldn’t step foot in the school again for the remainder of the school year.  They didn’t know that we would be quarantined for the next three months, not going out to eat, no going to the grocery store, no hugging and indoor visits with grandma and grandpa, no playdates, no takeout without sanitizing the containers.  We were now living in a pandemic experiencing unprecident times.

It’s a good thing we liked each other because it’s pretty much been us and only us for three months!  We began homeschooling the girls the first week they were out of school.  The first five weeks were definitely the honeymoon period.  Days were hard but Justin and I managed to work demanding jobs while still homeschooling the girls with a schedule that consisted of language arts and math workbooks; reading; puzzles, creative time to include science, engineering, photography, cooking, and art; physical activity, and electronic academic time.   We were busy managing it all, often staying up late to review subjects with them and lesson plan for the next day or catching up on work from taking extra-long breaks during the day to be hands on with the girls, but we had a rhythm.

Mid-April the county started virtual learning.  It was a disaster so much so that classes ended up being cancelled the first week while the county worked out system issues.  Week two had similar challenges and virtual learning was again postponed another week.

Week three things started going smoothly, but there was a wide discrepancy in the expectations and assignments of the teachers, not to mention that between the virtual learning synchronous class and the assignments, the girls still had a lot of time in their day.  We continued with much of the homeschool but a scaled back version which eliminated much of the creative time and extra time to relax. Avery and Emerson also started meeting outside for math “class” with one of the neighbors Ms. Stype a few days a week along with a few of the other third grade girls.  Avery started meeting with Ms. Dishek twice a week to type.  The girls attended their teacher’s office hours a few times a week.  Dance classes started back up in April virtually, which too was a new experience. Days were busy to say the least!

Fast forward to June 12, the girls officially finished 3^rd and 1^st grades, exactly 3 months to the day that school inside the school abruptly came to a halt.  No backpacks, no walk to the bus stop, no lunches to pack, no teachers or friends to hug, but three happy girls who took it all in stride and had a great memorable school year

We ventured on a socially distance walk through Meadowlark.  This was the first weekend the parks were open since March when everything suddenly closed.  Six feet place-markers at the entrance and masks are somehow the new norm.  If you told me last year that this summer we would be in the midst of a pandemic – quarantining, wearing masks when we go out, applying hand sanitizer 50 times a day amongst so much more, I would have laughed.  Yet, here we are. In fact, this is where Justin and I sat (standing this time so as not to touch shared public spaces) almost 12 years ago.

Here are the girls wearing their masks.

This will most definitely be a time period in history and their life that they will always remember.