Or is it Part 3? 🤔 We ended Pre-K (for Ella) with distance learning when the country went into lockdown back in March 2020... and then we did kindergarten with distance learning for the 20-21 school year... and now here we go again for the 3rd time. The 3rd freakin' time. Never thought I'd be doing another round of this, but here we are. I'm actually pretty excited about getting more time with my girls while they're this young and still want me around. Ya know? 😉
So if you're not in California and are not familiar with our state's plan to reopen schools... just thought I'd share that schools have reopened for in-person learning this 2021-2022 school year. I'd say most schools public schools have already started and others will be starting in the next couple of weeks. Many school districts had reopened for full-time in-person learning towards the end of the school year last year, but ours did not. We had hoped to have had our girls go back to in-person learning, but now that we are going through another surge of COVID outbreaks with a variant that's highly contagious... and because my girls do not have the opportunity to get vaccinated yet... we opted to go the independent study route instead. This was not a clean-cut decision for us - Ella was in the Spanish Dual Language Immersion program last year and for her to be successful in the program, it would be in her best interest to be in the classroom learning with her classmates since I do not speak Spanish fluently. She (and I) put in a lot of work last year to keep up with the curriculum and Ella did so well. But the program is not designed to be taught virtually in this district and was not an option this school year. And it left me torn between sending her back to school or taking her out of the program completely and putting her into Independent Study. In the end, keeping her healthy was our main priority. At least until she can get vaccinated. So we transferred her into the Independent Study program and she started school as a 1st grader on Monday, August 9th.
We are not sure how long we will be doing Independent Study, but since we are doin' it, I spent the last couple of weeks transforming a space in our home into a comfortable learning environment for both Ella AND Everly (who was only enrolled in preschool).
3 Things I Did to Prepare for Another Year of Distance Learning...
1. I restocked and reorganized our school utility cart with new workbooks and replaced some of the supplies (crayons, pencils, arts&craft supplies).
2. I used a corner in our dining room and turned it into a little learning corner complete with calendars in both English and Spanish and a few educational posters to reference when they're doing their homework. If you're wondering why the dining room, it's because it's the center of our home and it allows me to multi-task between house chores and tending to Everly's needs when Ella is attending her virtual classes. I also think having this learning corner in the playroom or bedroom allows for too many distractions, so the dining room is where the classroom is at.
3. And last, but not least, I bought the girls some new clothes for school. Last year was the year of loungewear and pajamas for us. No joke. I did not spend the money to buy anything new unless they absolutely needed it. But since it's a new year and my girls have grown AND because I just wanted to create a true "back to school" experience as I could - I did some major shopping for their wardrobe capsule this Fall. Yes I'm aware it's still Summer... but their clothes are still Summer friendly and easy to transition for Fall. 😉
1st Week of School Update:
I think we did good. 😂 I mean, we're exhausted. But we did pretty good. It's always so hard to go from Summer vacay mode to back to school mode. I'd say give us one more week and we'll have this routine dialed 😂.
Anyway, wishing you all a very successful 21-22 school year!!!
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