A Back to School "Open House"

During the spring shut down, we worked primarily at our breakfast nook table and dining room table. It was okay, but I realized, the more weeks we were out of school, how distracting that area was. My kids were just steps away from food and toys. Not to mention, for a good chunk of their day, someone was cooking something near them. It was way easier sometimes to watch mom making sandwiches than it was to finish a journal entry.

The Space

Because of that, we've been working to clear out our main room in the basement so that we can do learning from there. I wanted the space to be inviting, comfortable, but devoid of as many distractions as possible. I also wanted to be able to spread out my three humans so they had an area to clearly focus without getting too distracted by each other. Little by little we've been organizing, sorting, and getting rid of things to make that space work.

Restructuring this room isn't necessary, but it has felt really good to feel productive in this way. Even though I cannot control what's happening and I cannot control what school will look like for my kids, I could control what the space looked like and how much fun we could have giving that area a facelift. 

Remote Learning

This week, three of my children start back to school: two second graders and one kindergartner. Our district will start 100% online until at least October 30th. There will be many back-to-school milestones that will be missed or will look different this year for us. When we sat down a few weeks ago to tell the kids they wouldn't be returning to school face-to-face, one of the things they were most sad about is not having the open house night at school.

Going into your new classroom for the very first time, shaking that new teacher's hand, seeing where you might be sitting, and crossing paths with some familiar faces... there is truly nothing like it. As a teacher, there's nothing like it. As a student, there's nothing like it. Carter, my kindergartener, was especially excited for it because it was his very first one. He had seen his brothers get dressed to impress the last two years and couldn't wait for it to be his turn.

An Open House for Our House

I can't remember who said it, but as we were talking about online learning and moving our learning area to the basement, one of the kids lit up and said, "We should have an open house for the basement!" I didn't hesitate even a second before saying, "That's a fantastic idea! I'm in."

Sunday, we got all dressed up. I put on makeup for the first time in weeks. As #hundtboysx4 walked down the basement stairs with Josh, I met them at the bottom to shake their hands. The kids perused the space and picked their areas. They oooed and awwwed. 

We had cookies and punch and toasted the new year. I had a few little gifts for each boy like some new markers, a book, and some blue light reducing glasses. They could not have been more positive and excited and it warmed my heart.

I am bracing myself for some seriously hard stuff to go down in that room: frustrations, anger, technology hiccups, writer's block, pushback, and contention between student (them) and supporter/accountability coach (me). 

I am also hoping for seriously awesome stuff to go down in that room: applause, ahas, courage, imagination, perseverance, a whole lot of pride, and celebrations between smarty pants (them) and cheerleader/biggest fan (me) when we can stand on chairs and scream out, "I'M A GENIUS!" after learning something new.  

HAPPY BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR, #Hundtboysx4! 

Be classy.
Be kind.
Be you.