The First Day of School



 I'm sorry, but I just have to talk about it! 

Today was the first day of school for the 2020 - 2021 school year. I know some moms are going to not like what I say next, and I am sure I might regret it in the coming days but....the first day was not that bad. The worst thing that happened wasn't even something I had anticipated. The younger girls (aged 4 and 5) complained about their ears hurting from their headphones. To be honest, I'm not really that concerned. The headphones are child-sized and comfortable (I wear them on occasion). I just think they need to get used to them - something they will have plenty of time to do. 

Now, I am fortunate that I have a very good place to set up my three girls. It just so happened that my husband and I custom built some closets for them 2 years ago and the shoe drawers make for perfect writing desks with their clothing drawers in the perfect place to set up their iPads on. We were also able to pull some old curtains that we have never opened out of the garage and I have exactly 3 curtain rods lying around my house that are not being used. I also happened to have 3 globe lights hanging around. We didn't spend a dime on their current set up and I am so happy! 

The people I truly feel sorry for are the teachers. I sat next to my 5-year-old during her Zoom Test meeting and her Meet the Teacher night and it was not promising. One little girl was crossing her eyes and making faces in the camera while enjoying her cherry lollipop, I had to move out of view and make sure we were on mute as I was trying not to laugh! There was a little girl who seemed unable to sit still and was making the adults dizzy with her constant movement. There was another where the mom was talking on the phone in the background and you could see her walking back and forth, hearing every word she said. For most of the kids, all you could see was their eyes and forehead. Either they were super close to the camera, or just at the bottom, while the top 3/4 were wall and ceiling...and that was just what everyone was doing. Don't even get me started on a 5-year-old trying to understand the finer points of zoom...too late. I'm started. My child has no idea what mute and unmute mean. She can't read so she doesn't know what to do when a pop-up window asks her if she wants to unmute because her teacher prompted her to. She's not even 100% sure of how to turn it on. 

I watched as one teacher spent five minutes trying to explain to a girl how she needed to hit the unmute button once and only once to unmute herself. She kept hitting it twice by accident. I will definitely give credit to that teacher who very clearly thought it was cute and funny and had so much patience! I know she has that much patience because she was my 7-year-olds teacher in Kindergarten and she is fabulous! But no matter how fabulous these teachers are, I predict a very long and unproductive year for them if online school is their primary source of teaching. 

Like all moms, I was apprehensive about how this would go for me. How much time would I spend running back and forth between children trying to help them with zoom and iPads? How many times would I hear the words "Mama, help!"? And how many times would I have to stop my 2-year-old from hopping the gate to sneak into their room? But today, none of those things happened. They got up on time and did everything quickly and efficiently. We even had time for devotions and yoga before logging in at 9:00 am for class. I was pretty productive too. I was able to design 4 things for my new line coming out in the fall. I shipped out two orders (yay!) and have done half of the laundry (I would have done more but my husband has the water turned off to plumb our new room). I almost got dinner in the oven on time and I am writing my blog on the day it's due instead of a day or two late. To a mom of 1 or 2, that may all seem less than ideal, but to a mom of 4, it's pretty amazing. The next challenge is getting the kids in bed on time.

And we just have to get through the rest of the school year. Ha! This should be fun. 


Location: Goldsboro, MD 21636, USA

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