The last day of school usually makes me a bit misty eyed every year! It makes me happy to see all the cheerful faces so proud of their achievements, talking animatedly to their friends, making plans for play dates, saying goodbye to teachers. The school campus feels so lively as it does on the first day of school.
The teachers are happy that the year is over, but sad to let their students go. They get attached to the students more than we realize.
This year, the last day of school was so different. No running around with their yearbooks to get their friends or teacher’s signatures. No end of school Popsicle parties or movies.
I am usually there with them on the last day and the activity around the school playground is an amazing sight to see. Even I missed all of that this year.
The teachers did a car parade around our neighborhood so they they can say goodbye to the kids on the last day of school. It was planned and executed really well. The teachers were as excited as the kids. Since we live right across the school, all we had to do was stand outside our garage. Some of neighbors whose kids attended this school also stood outside. They made it fun even in the quarantine situation.
The teachers have been awesome with the distance learning too. They helped and guided the kids as everyone got used to the new way of teaching. I am so proud of my boys who handled all of this with minimal tantrums and meltdowns.
The best part of distance learning for my kids was the part where they could choose when to work on their assignments. They took frequent breaks and in a way that helped them focus better.
The worst part was not being able to meet their friends. Today, after the car parade, Sanjay was able to meet a couple of his friends. They talked while maintaining social distancing. They didn’t want to stop at all. The kids are so good at social distancing too. Hopefully, we will soon be able to schedule play dates like we did before.
Summer break is usually a relaxing time for me too. We usually don’t send the kids to any summer classes. They get up later than usual and generally spend time playing and reading. I usually also get them to do some Math and Writing during the break and it keeps them occupied. Our favorite thing to do in Summer break is to go to the library. We go when the library opens and stay there for a few hours. I find a quiet place to work. The kids read all that time and we come home with a bunch of books.
This year, the start of summer break was not special. I didn’t feel relaxed knowing that I don’t have to rush in the mornings or that I don’t have to stop working to pick them up from school. Libraries and pools are closed. They don’t have any sports classes to burn off the excess energy. This is going to be a long summer. Sigh!
Hope we can make the best of it.