"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." -Joe Fox in You've Got Mail
There's something about August that makes me want to buy school supplies, and new clothes, and start wearing jeans again, even though it is still too hot. So, I dragged my kids up to the Outlets to pick out new outfits and shoes for school. I tend to buy them clothes as they need them, but I feel like you MUST have a brand new, never worn before outfit for the first day of school. Here the kids are in all their shopping glory at the outlets.
Rachel started dance at a new studio, and that also meant that she started tap! The first thing she learned before starting second grade was how to tie her shoes. I was so proud of her learning this skill!
Finally, it was time for the first day of school!!! Two kids, two different schools (five minutes a part), and I think we got them both to school on time, even with the traditional back to school pictures.
Gabe knew that he would be starting school soon, and he couldn't STAND that it wasn't the same day as his older siblings. He got ready, with a backpack and sack lunch for the big occasion.
Brian took Michael to his school. This was the first time I didn't take him to his first day of school since he started pre-school.
I took Rachel up to her school. She was so excited to start 1st grade, and be there all day long.
And I was pretty excited to see that her new teacher was in the teacher tunnel that welcomed her to school.
Gabe got to eat his sack lunch later that day, and it was so quiet with just the two of us.
A week before his preschool started, he had his back-to-school open house. He packed a lunch for that one too, and he was pretty upset that he didn't get to eat it at his preschool.
First day of ballet and tap dance at the new studio:
First day of Jazz at the new studio. First year going two nights a week to dance!
The school year crept up on me, and at the Back to School nights, I felt kind of bad, but I didn't volunteer for anything. I explained to each teacher that my kids had just lost their grandfather, and we were just lucky to be there. I stood in Rachel's classroom, just staring at all those sign up sheets, and I said, "I just can't even think about this. We're barely keeping our heads above water. Rachel's sweet teacher just said, "Don't even worry about it." When you're ready, if you're ready, you can sign up later. If not, it's no big deal." Both teachers were incredibly compassionate and understanding of our situation. I don't know what we would have done this year without them! And who knew we were all starting the craziest school year of our lives?!
A strange virus called Covid-19 would shut everything down by March, but even before that, Rachel's teacher had an unexpected health crisis by the first parent/teacher conference in September, and she finally made it back to school full-time by the end of February. So, for all those months, Rachel had a substitute teacher and wasn't allowed to talk to us about anything that was going on at school. I couldn't email the subs due to privacy laws and the like. They finally got a more permanent sub who was able to hold a parent-teacher conference. But before that, it was a bit of a mess! Especially when Rachel's lunchbox somehow ended up with the wrong class before lunch one day. I ended up picking her up from school early that day, and had to go hunting through all the classrooms to find her missing lunch box. I worried about Rachel eating enough since they barely gave the kids time to eat and Rachel is SUCH a slow eater, especially when she has friends around.
I applied for an out-of-bounds transfer request for Rachel to attend Michael's school. They waited until the day before school started to make a final decision on that, but with all the growth they had over the summer, they didn't have room for her, so we had to keep her at our neighborhood's school. Having two kids at two different schools posed some serious logistics issues, especially since I had to pick them both up at the same time! I tried to find a group of neighborhood kids for Rachel to walk home with, but the mom I asked didn't think that was fair to have kids to be responsible for other someone else's kid every single day. With so many kids walking home together everyday, I didn't see it as a problem, but I felt incredibly stupid for asking. After tears of frustration over that, we figured out how to make it work. I'd get to Rachel's school 20 minutes before school let out so that I could be near the front of the line of cars picking up kids, and then, after Rachel got in the car, we'd go pick up Michael, who I felt better about leaving in front of the school alone for 5 minutes. Sometimes, things would not go as well as all that, but we figured things out and nobody got hurt or died. We won't talk about how much screaming I did at other parents who would cut in the carpool line or things like that. We'll just say that I learned to be patient and tried not to get too bent out of shape worrying about my other child being alone.
Michael really struggled to focus on school as he was still reeling from the loss of his grandpa. They had a special bond, and Michael took Dad's death really, really hard. I probably should have had him see a grief counselor. He ended up getting behind on his school work, and that was really discouraging for him. Thankfully, as I mentioned before, Michael's teacher was incredible. She was patient and kind, and she didn't get bent out of shape or make Michael feel really bad about where he was at with his school work. She forgave some assignments. She was kind, loving, and laid-back, which is what our family really needed for this school year.
