Monday was the last day of school for my two big kids. My 8 year old second grader will be moving onto third grade and my 5 year old pre-k girly has graduated into the big time kindergarten. Both of my girls have had significant struggles this year with the new COVID regulations. Next year we will hopefully be back to some kind of a more normal school environment. My girls both love school. Despite everything they had to endure this school year was still a tremendous year of learning new things and overcoming new situations for all of us. If we can survive school during a pandemic, I am confident we can survive anything together as a family.
My second grader, along with most second graders last year, started the year extremely behind. My once blossoming student that had no trouble catching onto any subject was now struggling with literally every subject. We had to adjust to a brand new homework routine. In first grade it would take my little lady 15 mins to finish all her homework after school with little to no assistance. In COVID second grade she would take 2-3 hours with my husband and I helping her ever step of the way. There were other frustrating aspects of a COVID School life. For example this was the year of the mean girls. Students were forced to stay in pods and only play with the people in their class. It protected her from a virus but not from the mean girls. The new system gave the girls that love to exclude people ultimate power. My sweet lady was caught in the crossfire. My previous advice of "Go play with someone else" was not an option with the new restrictions. Sometimes she was in the group and hated that others were being excluded. Sometimes she was the one being excluded and hated it. We are all looking forward to two months of no mean girls. Except her sisters but she can handle them.
My little pre-k kid graduated in a ceremony last Thursday. Normally we would have had a big celebration with aunts, uncles, gramie, pa, and all the cousins in attendance. This year only two tickets were allowed per student for the ceremony. I am thankful because last year's graduates didn't even get a commemoration. Therefore all the people that loved her watched on a live stream as my spunky redhead bounded across the stage. After two years of having the same teacher she is onto much bigger things. She is going from three days of school to all the days. Despite all her trepidation about her next chapter she sang "This Little Light of Mine" with the rest of her fellow graduates while using intense focus. My sweet 5 year old has control anxiety disorder and is already very nervous about a new school, new teacher, and new friends. We are all looking forward to two months of processing time before she takes those big steps onto the elementary school bus. Luckily her sister will be there to hold her hand the whole way.
Summer is a time to unwind and relax for kids. Not for moms obviously because more people will be living here for more hours a day which equals more mess. Moms will have more fights to break up, more messes to clean up, and more laundry to pick up. However, despite all the extra work for moms this is a much needed break for all our little humans. As a mom I love change. I love to switch things up and fall into a different routine but it's only been two days and my girls are already fighting. We might not make it for two months but deep down I know they need their summer. More than most years I think our kids need a summer. More than most years I think our kids need to unwind. More than most years I think our kids need two months where all they have to worry about is being a kid. Next school year will come all too soon so for now my girls and I are planning to soak up every last second of summer.
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