This week we heard an inspiring message from our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlcILxGmVrI
In it, he encouraged us to apply gratitude as a form of healing from the difficulties we are facing, posting what we are grateful for and why on social media. I decided I would use my blog to fulfill this "prescription," posting for seven days with the hashtag #GiveThanks.
So, today I am going to talk about the school year. I've been meaning to post about this since September, but with all the uncertainty around whether we should send our kids to school at all during a pandemic, I hadn't written about it yet.
Before school started, we worried about where to send Alaina (who was starting middle school) and how Eric would handle the transition back after six months off, especially with all the difficulty he'd had with kindergarten. I had my doubts about Ben cramming a semester of learning--particularly in math--into 9 weeks, and I wasn't sure what would happen with music classes for Janae and Alaina.
But, we sent them all back, hoping for the best.
And I am so grateful that the best is exactly what has happened.
First, I had to drop Eric off in front of the school, rather than parking and walking with him up the hill as I have always done at the elementary school. This year, parents were asked not to even leave their cars. I anguished over this for weeks, but when the day finally came, all went well. The drive-by area was chaotic, and I wasn't sure how the school would handle the "new normal," but I was reassured by how Eric handled it--he jumped out of the car, waved goodbye and ran in the direction of his classroom door.
Since that day, I have dropped off and picked up Eric from the car without incident. Sometimes I cry seeing him walk away with confidence, but I am so proud of him.
At parent-teacher conferences (over the phone), Eric's teacher told me he is "friends with every single person in his class." He is participating well (though wiggly at times) and progressing nicely.
Here he is in his Harry Potter robes (not his school uniform) counting out coins to donate to the Terry Fox Foundation before his class run in September. They took nickels on Monday, dimes on Tuesday, quarters on Wednesday, loonies on Thursday and toonies on Friday to raise money for cancer research.
I am so grateful Eric is happy at school this year!
Now Alaina. She was changing schools, going from a very structured elementary school environment to a much different middle school experience at a fine arts school. When she went to the orientation day, Alaina felt a little intimidated--and I have to admit, I was more than a little stressed about sending her into a new school where she did not know anyone, wearing a mask and hoping to make friends.
But, Alaina made friends on the very first day, and by the end of the first week, she was feeling comfortable in her new classes. Every day, she told me she had talked to someone new and that she loved her teachers.
At our Google Meet with her teachers, we heard that she has an incredible "growth mindset" that makes her a pleasure to teach. One of her teachers actually said that if she could have hand picked students for the fine arts program, she would have chosen Alaina. This was such a relief, and confirmed to me that Alaina was at the right school.
Alaina has continued her cello lessons over Zoom and performed beautifully in her fall concert, despite being extremely nervous.
I am so grateful that Alaina is thriving at middle school and with her music!
Janae is in Grade 8 this year, her last year of middle school, so she is pretty comfortable. Janae despises Google Meets and Zoom meetings, so our decision to send the kids back to school was largely based on the reality that Janae needed to be in school, in person.
Janae has had dance at school this first semester, and her class performed a dance/drama titled "Call to War" for their Remembrance Day recording. They went to school in stage make-up and dress for several days, doing dress rehearsals and waiting for their chance to film their performance. When the day arrived, Janae came out of school so excited about the experience--she said she'd felt like she'd been in a Broadway play, being on stage the entire day with cameras filming from different angles. I am so proud of her--the way she gives her all to her passions, whether they be dancing, playing the violin/piano/flute or drawing.
I am so grateful that Janae can attend school in person and be so involved in meaningful arts-oriented activities.
Now Ben. When Ben was filling out his "getting to know you" form for math at the beginning of his first 9-week term, he had to indicate the grade he hoped to achieve in the course. When I read over the sheet, I saw he'd said "A." I hesitated a minute, then asked, "Should you say B?" Ben gave me a somewhat hurt look and then asked, "You don't think I can get an A?" Before you think I'm the worst mom ever, I should explain that Ben was happy to pass math last year, but I should have known that if he thought he could get an A, he could.
It was a lot of work, but Ben achieved this goal.
Ben's other class was called Directing and Script Development, a course he was probably born to take. He surprised me with every assignment--his creativity in crafting believable characters and interesting plots seems endless.
This class also required Ben to stretch beyond his comfort zone, participating in a Remembrance Day monologue titled "Faces of War" and writing/running portions of his school's Halloween escape rooms. Watching the Remembrance Day video, I felt so grateful Ben had the chance to be involved with such a powerful presentation.
For Ben's final script development project, he wrote a 10-minute screenplay and animated a small portion of it. Ben stressed about this endlessly, worried about his idea and the animation (which was shorter than he'd originally planned). He had got "exceeding expectations" on almost all of his assignments so far, and even though he had 98.4 percent in the course, he was worried about his grade.
His teacher sent me this message at the end of the term: "Ben completed great work for the course and he was a pleasure to have in class. His final project was excellent, and downright creepy, which was what he was going for! He should be proud of the accomplishment." His final overall grade was 98.8 percent, rounded up to 99 on his transcript :)
You can imagine how grateful I was to see Ben having so much success in an area he loves and plans to pursue as a career.
So, clearly I am thankful for the experience each of my children is having this year at school. As much as I loved having them at home, I am grateful our decision to send them back was right for every one of them.
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