When the kids were younger, the bus stop was ‘a thing.’ It was a thing because all the parents went down to the end of the street with their kids to see them safely onto the bus. The kids would stand on one side of the road in a line they formed while the parents stood on the other and chatted.
Well, mostly.
These trips to the bus stop were, for me, a nightmare. I would be balancing an upset, wiggly, jiggly toddler while trying to separate my older two from each other’s wrath. Nothing seemed to please them more than to see the other one screaming in pain.
As I juggled the separation of my kids while balancing the third in my arms, I could almost feel the looks of abhorration from the other parents behind me while I separated my *great decision-makers.*
(*Add sarcasm to your reading voice for that one).
Thankfully, from our front door, I could see the bus stop and knew when the bus arrived to cart my children to school. So, I changed our routine. I balanced a frustrated, wiggly toddler in my arms with an older child standing next to me at our front door while the other older child joined the ranks down at the end of the road. When the bus arrived, I released the child standing next to me to the bus stop with one important directive:
“Do NOT sit anywhere near your sibling.”
As the years have passed, a lot of maturity has been gained except for this one area. My older two still take pleasure in seeing the other in some sort of physical pain that they have inflicted. An elbow here, a ball to the head there, a swift kick to the shins. It is like living with the three stooges. I guess I am thankful there are only two in this game.
So, when the school sent their plans for the reopening this school year, I laughed at one of their plans:
“Providing an additional six buses to help decrease transportation time and maximize social distancing. Siblings will be required to sit together, and the bus driver will sanitize the buses between runs.”
I am by no means laughing at the directive. I think it is a good idea – in general. But I have a feeling, after making my two sit together for even a week, the school will probably want to change that one.
Or, at least, make an exceptional circumstance when it comes to those Coupe kids.
Sitting on the pool’s edge this week, watching my little swimmer, I heard the woman in “the know” talking again.
(It’s really not my fault. I have determined the woman is just a loud talker and I have very adept listening skills).
It turns out, she is a teacher.
“I’ve spent the past two mornings removing all the furniture from my room. I usually have 28 students in my class, and to have their desks sit far enough apart, I had to take everything extra out. It is going to be challenging. No carpet time, no moving around to different centers. The kids have to stay put. I don’t know how the masks are going to work. In the classroom, I need to see their mouths when they read aloud to make sure they are saying the right word. And how is a child to receive speech therapy if the therapist can not see their mouth? What choice do I have, though, with any of it? I need an income.”
But the most important thing the (loud, not my fault, I couldn’t help but hear) teacher said:
“There are still six weeks to go before the start of school. I am sure there will be a lot of changes before then.”
Our family is one of the families that have decided to return to the school environment this school year. We are not medically compromised. I am not a homeschool parent/teacher, and my kids are not homeschool learners. Online learning was enough of a struggle to get them to complete. With an IEP, Declan requires extra support, although I do not know how his 1/1 aid is supposed to help if she can’t be close to him. Or his OT who does a lot of hand over hand instruction. But we are willing to go with the flow and figure it out.
School during a pandemic is new for everyone. I am sure as the school year progresses, a lot of changes will occur as we all adapt. It will be a process.
That hopefully carries down to the bus as I can almost guarantee one of my kids will show up with a bloody nose while the other dons a smile from ear to ear.
Ahhh, kids! 😊
We haven’t heard anything else from Ben’s school. I try not to think about it. Last I heard, busses would probably not be provided. I’ll drive him if I have to🤷🏼♀️what choice?! His teacher scheduled a class Zoom meeting but when the day and time arrived, it was pointless. Ben couldn’t sit still that day.
My brother and I were just as bad. We were more of the irritating the bejeebers out of each other rather than hitting. We both got hit Hard if we hit each other.🙄
My brother and I were just as bad as well. I don’t know how a bus driver is going to be responsible for keeping kids separate and with their family. I guess we’ll see what happens!
In Toronto there has been some discussion about having half days. To minimize the numbers of kids in classes. But how are working parents supposed to deal with that? It is very difficult and it certainly worries me and I am just a Grandparent not a parent with a full time job like my daughter and son in law.
I had thought about half days as well as a viable option. The teachers are still exposed to all their students but not all at once and the students are less exposed to each other. But you are right. I left full time employment when my kids were starting kindergarten because it was only half day, which really boiled down to 2 hours and 50 minutes. We were expected to be there to drop them off and pick them up. I was surprised how many parents were unfazed by this in my area. Thankfully, I was able to leave full time employment to take over this duty. But not everyone can. It is an unreasonable request.
I still know *nothing* about our coming school year. It’s frustrating, but I agree with your friend, in today’s world, six weeks is a long time. If I were in vegas, I’d bet on remote learning for the fall semester. My kids, different genders, three years apart, poke at each other constantly. But also, during the pandemic, they’ve become thick as thieves. They’ve constantly got each other’s back when a parent starts raining down hell for foul behavior. It makes me sad that they’ll be split up (probably) in the fall.
I was thinking that we would at least be doing a 2-3 days in school learning per week but our district sent something out saying they were prepping for full 5 day in school instruction which surprised me. I guess it is better to start there and start peeling stuff away. Bobby started outdoor football workouts but that is the next thing I see going. Doesn’t really matter for him as he will be a freshman, but I do feel bad for seniors who will most likely miss out of their last season – college and HS.
I’m glad you have some dribble of news coming. It’s crazy to think how much is still unknown. Sounds like your kids may need separate buses by the the end of week one. 🤣 All the things your teacher source at the pool described are legit points. It really is going to be a different normal. Good luck for D with adjusting to this. I can imagine how different it’ll feel for him. But I think you are making the right call with sending the kids back. Fingers crossed!
Ha! I know! Then I started thinking about the worst-case scenario is that they get kicked off the bus and I’ll have to drive them, yelling, “Don’t make me come back there!” from the front seat :-)!
I am glad she talked so loud. She does make some valid points that I hadn’t even thought about. But I guess there is so much to consider that the details are going to be a “we’ll figure it out as we go” kind of thing.
Thank you! Fingers crossed!
Reopening services is always a scary one and I often feel that decision makers (eg school administrators) work with the information that they have, which is often not the whole picture. But we gotta have faith for the kids and their wellbeing. Fingers crossed!!! 🙂
School has emailed a return date in September. Staggered return for each year. School is still trying to work out the details, but it’s a mess. If it’s keeping the year groups apart then our little village will need 5 school buses each day. I guess the government will do its normal thing and just randomly drop rules to wing it.
That is what I think will happen for us as well. They will try their best to adhere to the guidelines, but there will be a lot of winging it, for sure!
I just want to stop by and tell you that reading your blogs have become a habit of mine now. It makes me feel so connected to you. Keep posting more such amazing blogs.
Thank you!!
They might surprise you on that bus, in a good way 😉
Mmmmmmmaybe. Just mmmmmmmaybe. I guess it is 2020 – anything is possible! 🙂
Lol
We haven’t heard what the plan is yet for the fall and school starts in a month! My kids have started summer school in the classroom. The first 3 weeks at home. However it has been challenging with my second. The pandemic has really affected us all but with my son regression has really affected everyone at home. At 9 yrs old he getting older and taller. More tantrums and stimming and repeats the same thing all day long. Its been a challenge to say the least. Thank you for posting. I look forward to reading more of your blogs!
Thank you! Good luck and I hope they give you a plan soon!
Thank you! I hope so too!