PaigeyK! PaigeyK!
Obviously this has been the strangest
time for Paige versus the other kids.
Let's just start by saying Paige has had the
wonkiest start to gradeschool.
Kindergarten ended in March and then went virtual.
First grade started(ish) and then stopped for her in October.
That's just strange, y'all.
When she has a full year of school its gonna blow her mind.
(and probably crush her soul a bit)
So back in March, Paige left school for spring break
and then never. went. back.
We keep telling her that schools don't just close. They don't
just offer online options and go through allllll this trouble
every now and then.
Let's be honest, it still boggles my mind.
Paige has handled it like the little go-with-the-flow champ that she is.
She transitioned to being "homeschooled" in March easily.
I loved getting the assignments on Sunday night and having the whole
week to turn them in.
That was my kind of ideal.
Then first grade hit and we made the choice to send this
social little butterfly to school with her friends.
Boy did she need them.
That choice was so stressful. Just stressful to actually make
a choice, not necessarily stressful because she was going...just
hard to make such a big decision with almost no information.
By day 3 she didn't fuss about the mask.
But then by the second week of school, the honeymoon phase
and excitement of being back was gone.
I wish I had this documented somewhere to remember the
exact timeline...but pretty much around week 2 she
started crying most mornings about going to school.
Then it got to where she was crying every morning.
Then it got to the point that she started crying at night about
having to go the next day.
It was rough.
(worth noting-there was only 1 other girl in her class and
because of covid, classes aren't allowed to play together...so they
were solo everyday. Thankfully it was the sweetest
little girl)
She would come home somber. She didn't have much
to say about her day. She wasn't talking much and was
just sooooooo far from being herself that Josh and I started
talking about taking her out of school.
Round 2 of making the same stressful giant decision.
Can you see the worry on her little face?
This kid is so incredibly aware of everything around her
that we were realizing that being at school was stressing her
out more than the last 6 months combined.
Not worth it. Not even kind of.
But she's also so trusting and such a good listener. Lots of talks and
more school details later, we decided to keep her home.
The final drop in the bucket (that had a lot of drops) was learning that they were
on their computers a lot of the day to streamline with
the kids who were doing school from home.
Totally makes sense, but we sent her to school hoping that
she wouldn't be looking at a screen all day.
Re-enter happy Paige! She was back!
We did "homeschool" with the school's curriculum for
a few weeks (month? I genuinely don't know)
and then ended up taking her out of school.
Something I never expected to say:
"I'm homeschooling Paige."
We make sure to meet friends at the park a few times
a week. Trying so hard to make sure she's still getting
plenty of chances to play with her friends.
But you know what?
Its great!
You know what's even better?!
We're homeschooling with friends. The irony is that
one of her friends we're schooling with started
the year in class with her!
She's soaring and I've adjusted to having her
as my side kick all day every day.
Starting the week after Thanksgiving, we rotate 2 days
out of the week with our friends.
She loves the day that "the boys" come here and
probably loves being dropped off at their house even more.
(I have a new love for Thursday mornings when I'm kid free!)
Josh and I try to remind her that when school is fully in
session and everyone is back on campus, she's going to have so much
fun seeing allll of her friends again!
Pray with us that she transitions back easily.
It's not gonna be pretty...she's adjusted well to this homeschool life.
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