Katy Starts School During a Pandemic

Katy started school this year; in 2020, the year of the pandemic.  Because of the pandemic, her first day of school was at home, in my sewing room, on an IPad.  She wasn't nervous at all and neither were Chris and I because she was still at home.  

After about a month of virtual learning, Katy started attending school on campus two days a week.  Because of the pandemic, however, Chris and I were not able to walk Katy into school on her first day of face-to-face instruction.  Instead, Chris drove her to school and left her with a teacher waiting at the curb of the front entry, already aware of the rule that parents must remain in their car at all times during drop off.

Katy was so excited to go to school.  She wasn't nervous at all, not even when it came time to get out of the car on her first day. And why should she have been nervous? She already knew her teacher, she knew the daily routine, and she had seen her classroom and classmates online everyday for the past month.  For all the same reasons, Chris and I weren't very nervous for her. 

It was a strange way to send your first child to school for the first time.  There were no school supplies to buy because now everything must be sanitized and monitored so closely.  There were no first day of school jitters for mom, dad, or student.  There were no exciting walks into the school building together for the first time.  There were no pictures with the teacher or her desk on the first day.  Thank you pandemic for robbing us one of life's more memorable transitions points and turning it into a gradual slide into a new routine.  

The day before Katy started school, I tried to explain to her the significance of what she was starting.  Starting school marked the end of her years at home with little structure and endless amounts of free play.  Starting school was the beginning of 12 plus years of having a large portion of her life planned out for her.  Obviously, Katy didn't understand the gravity of what was about to take place because how could she?  It is something that requires more maturity and life experience than a five-year-old possesses.  Someday, however, she will understand and then she can read this blog and smile at how she wasn't nervous at all; only excited and eager and so very proud of her new backpack.