“I had the best day.”
That’s an expression we’ve been hearing a lot lately from our seven-year-old son.
Coincidently, it merged with his return to school.
While many families wrestled with the decision whether to send their children back to the socially-distant embrace of their teachers for a few weeks of in-class learning before the summer break kicks in, there was little debate in our household.
The bigger discussion for us was how would we manage the rather curious decision by our school district to welcome back elementary students for five half days rather than a couple of full days combined with online learning the rest of the week. It’s not the easiest schedule to manage for working families.
But with the logistics (mostly) sorted and a new rhythm established, we can see the method to their madness.
Our son wants to eat lunch at 11 a.m. every day so we can get to school as soon as possible. And the smile on his face as he bolts from his classroom’s exterior door so he can get a few minutes of playtime on the monkey bars at the end of his afternoon is priceless.
The pressure of online learning is off.
Instead of getting ready for scheduled meetings on Google Classroom with his teachers and classmates he fills his mornings prior to heading to school by building Lego structures and creating new comic superhero characters like Katrpiller and Slug Man.
Not that learning from home was all bad.
His teachers in his Early French Immersion program were incredibly supportive and patient, and it was fun to overhear him converse with them in French, an exercise we tried to extend to the occasional discussion at dinner or breakfast.
And we got to see our son’s creativity blossom.
What started as a daily visit to online drawing sessions by renowned kids’ author/illustrator Mo Willems morphed into following the directions to recreate the characters in Dav Pilkey’s Dogman books then his own fantastical adventures of protagonists and antagonists in pamphlets of increasing thickness that eventually overburdened our modest home stapler.
Even as he’s returned to the classroom, that creative energy hasn’t dissipated and it’s a joy to be able to share it with him.
Perhaps that’s the reward of teaching. The exuberance of young minds trying new things, testing their limitations then going beyond them, finding new passions almost every day, cuts quickly through the stress of strained resources and bulging class sizes.
Of all the lessons we’re learning through these strange pandemic times, the value of teachers and the challenges they face with enthusiasm and energy every day are ones I hope stick with us. They’re pros. And we’re so happy and thankful they can be there for our son, even if it’s just for a few weeks more until summer.
