On Sunday night, I completed Canada’s most important parenting task for the first time in almost exactly six months—I packed a waste-free, egg-, soy- and nut-free, safe to leave at room temperature lunchbox for Mark.
“What did the school say, already… oh, yeah. ‘Any wrappers, containers and garbage created during the Nutrition Breaks will return home in the child’s lunchbox for disposal at home.’ Don’t worry about it, just put your apple sauce pouch back into your lunchbox.”
“Because of COVID?”
“Because your school doesn’t want to pay for the cost of waste disposal.”
We baked small pains au chocolat using store-bought dough and I grilled a few ham-and-cheese sandwiches to celebrate Mark’s first day of Grade 3.
“Just try not to catch the coronavirus the first day, okay?”
Mark laughed. “What do I know? I’m just a kid, COVID is your problem, not mine!”
You bet.
Feng and I are on the same page about school. We know the virus is still around but there’s just no other sustainable alternative. We can’t keep Mark home for the next few months or years and we can’t pause life any longer.
Still, this 2020 school year is a headache.
I always have a hard time understanding Mark’s school’s logic but COVID-management plan took the struggle to a whole new level.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been getting dozens of “parents update” emails with instructions on:
- Entry and dismissal procedures (“Please note that as per Ottawa Public Health Guidelines, no parents/guardians or children who do not attend the school are to be on school grounds. Families must stay behind the fenced areas.”)
- Staff safety (“Prior to coming to school each day, parents/guardians must complete the Self-Assessment Questionnaire with their child[ren].”)
- Exact start day (“In a K-8 elementary school, students in grades 1-3, plus specialized class students start school on Day 1; on Day 2 they are joined by students in grades 4-6 and some kindergarten students; on Day 3 they are joined by students in grades 7 and 8 and the rest of the kindergarten students.”)
- Exact start date reminders (“Parents/guardians, please pay particular attention to which date is your child’s first day of school this year. Since schools are using a staggered entry by grade level, please do NOT send your child[ren] on the bus if it is not their scheduled day to be at school, even if the bus is driving by your child’s stop. Parents/guardians will need to pick up their child from school if they come on the wrong day.”)
- Areas of focus (“During the first week of school, teachers will focus on teaching/training the students to self-distance, on the importance of wearing masks as much as possible [even though they are not required to wear masks unless in Grade 4 to 8], and sanitize their hands well upon entering the school and classroom.”)
On Saturday morning, we were finally given the information every parent was waiting for. The email was sent as an afterthought—so, ahem, class size… yeah, 25 kids, same as usual, have a good weekend and see you on Monday!
Okay, I’m paraphrasing but seriously, months of planning to have classes of 20+ kids?
Fortunately, the final email sent on Sunday offered this piece of advice: “Model Calm. As a parent, your child looks to you on how to feel. Being calm and not getting caught up in your child’s anxiety will help your child to remain calm. Think and act with confidence regardless of the challenges. Focus on what is in your control. Believe in your child’s ability — they are often stronger than you think!”
Ah, ah.
“Remember, Mark can’t bring anything other than his lunchbox and water bottle because he has to store everything under his chair. Kids don’t have lockers or cubbies anymore.”
“But… how are they going to do with snowsuits, boots, gloves, hats and all?”
Feng and I looked at each other—this is a real Canadian problem, by the way, winter clothes are wet, muddy and bulky.
“… I don’t think they planned that far,” I said. “No one actually assume schools are going to stay open.”
We burst out laughing. This kind of comment is on everyone’s lips—“kids are back at school… but for how long?” “I give them two weeks!” “No way it’s gonna last past Thanksgiving!”
As you can see, we Ontarian are an optimistic bunch.
(To be continued…)
wow! mark already going back to school (literally).
my kids (both high school) are still Study from home until God Knows When. cases are getting high in number..:(
Elementary school kids are back to school (if parents are okay with that) but it’s more complicated for high school kids who have a mix of in-person classes and online learning.
What’s a regular school year schedule down there? In Canada, summer holidays are in July and August and school ends late June to start again in September. So kids missed school quite a bit already!
here, if it is not international school. long break only early June to mid July (around 6 weeks holiday).
except for international school, pretty similar with northern globe with summer holiday
So almost the same schedule as us. I feel it’s about time kids go back to school. The pandemic ain’t gonna end.
Ha! Guess the blaming game happens everywhere. We are fortunate to have a choice – in person or virtual, and school started last week of August with 55% students attending in person. Even though choice was given, many parents (mostly ones who chose virtual) were still upset, criticizing about everything and projecting dooms days ahead. They demand for same quality of teaching as in person kids, but complain that it is ridiculous for their kids to spend full day of school in front of a laptop. Mind you, there are asynchronous portion, breaks and lunch throughout the day. How else can it be if you decide to stay home? The school invested a fortune on webcams to provide as similar an experience as possible for both sets of students (per virtual parents’ demand), just to have them changed their mind and expected a separate virtual curriculum because following full school day schedule at home is apparently an unreasonable expectation for their kids. Obviously, there are protests too from some in-person parents, not wanting their kids to wear mask (because they will be reduced to being faceless robots). Go figure! Social media is now their favorite pastime, watching for any type of school related news to complain or fight about with each other. I have lived here for 15 years, my child has been to public school for 6 years, never have I experienced such ugliness in the community. Our school district is great in communication and prepared, 4th week in and still going. We had 1 case in week 2, but due to 6 ft desk separation, desk shield and mandatory mask, only 2 students were quarantined (1 of which due to inability to have 6ft separation in school bus). No outbreak so far…. knock on woods, but yes, lots of Debbie Downer projected school to shut down by week 1. They are still hoping to be right. Haha! I am glad Mark gets to go back to school in person. It is not as convenient (no locker, same here) but it is for the sake of safety, just like my daughter is getting used to wearing mask all day. I do a lot of disinfecting when she gets home but I am thankful that she gets to go back to school.
Oh boy… where do you live?
I mean, if you *really* think about it, the risk isn’t super high at school right now, especially with the way classrooms are set up. And most kids have been playing with other kids for a few months now, few parents really isolated their kids from the rest of the world. I mean, I can see it in our neighbourhood, playground was packed all summer long. In a way, it was already a test and there wasn’t any ajor outbreak.
Remote learning just doesn’t work for us and I suspect it’s the case for younger kids. High school… meh, I don’t know. I think I would have felt isolated and bored as a 16 or 17 year old taking classes online but from a practical perspective, at least it’s doable. Not great though and I highly suspect I would have looked for social opportunities, which kind of defies the purpose.
I hope schools stay open, I’m just mentally preparing myself for the fact they may be shut down again.
North Texas… yep! The infection rate is high here, but we abide by safety protocols to mitigate the risk. A lot of people can’t believe the kids are playing sports and attending school here in Texas/US. There are certain pockets which are worse than others, esp. high density inner city areas. At this point, I don’t think we should shut down everything and wait for the vaccines.
I completely understand what you mean. From Canada, Europe looks like a COVID red zone but cities I visited in France this summer were doing fine, judging by the numbers. The US is a huge place, it’s not like y’all turned into zombies.
And same… I just don’t see an end to it. It’s crazy to reopen too quickly or do nothing at all but there’s gotta be a happy medium.
Wow !
Here the official message sounds more like : kids don’t catch covid that easily, and don’t really spread the virus, so in primary schools are almost back to normal – except that they have to wash their hands a little more often and that the teachers have to wear a mask when they get close to pupils (but not when they are in front of the class).
I truly hope that’s Mark’s school isn’t going to close in a few weeks, I’m guessing that wouldn’t be a good thing for your sanity (and his ;). I am personally soooo glad and grateful that my kids can go to school, meet their friends, learn, have fun…
And I heard some ‘experts’ saying that we will have to learn how to live with this virus anyway, since the vaccine will not eradicate the disease anyway… so… I mean… We should try to live as normally as possible, while taking as many precautions as possible, if that makes sense.
For the first time in years, I feel closer to the European mindset than the Canadian mindset because of the attitude both places have towards the virus. I also don’t think we’re going to eradicate the virus, but the Canadian government behaves as if we should. People are going crazy… and I find it hard to identify with either side, the no-mask conspiracy theory folks or the side constantly blaming and shaming people for just about anything :-/
> I packed a waste-free, egg-, soy- and nut-free, safe to leave at room temperature
So, a bag of chips and a piece of beef jerky.
Crackers. Chips are not healthy and kids are missing too many teeth for jerky 😆
OMG good luck with all of this! Im so happy my son dont go to school anymore! Crazy shit!
… and I’m happy Mark isn’t starting school (like, grade 1) this year :-/
Pareil pour les vestiaires ici… Ils doivent bientôt y avoir accès mais pour le moment ils entrent avec leurs bottes mouillées dans la classe. Depuis une semaine, ils peuvent cependant changer de chaussures avant de s’asseoir à leurs bureaux apparemment. Un petit pas après l’autre (littéralement).
Yeah, we’re struggling to understand the rules for shoes (same thing, rainy week in Ottawa). Mark claims they can’t change shoes so he’s keeping his boots on for now.