Here are a few memories from Fall 2020…
We were relieved that Trevor was able to return to school in September full-time (no virtual). Trevor is four years old and in preschool. He’s only able to stay engaged on the computer for about 20 minutes (if that). I feel that children this young definitely need interactive, in-person learning! So we were really grateful to have the amazing school that we have.
I’ve had two struggles this year. First, parents aren’t allowed into the school at all this year. Pick-up and drop-off happen outside. Typically parents are really engaged with the school and always in and out of the classroom. This year I have no idea what Trevor’s classroom looks like. Second, the children (and teachers) have to wear masks all day at school. This really bothered me at first. I thought Tru would be really uncomfortable. I thought not being able to see facial expressions would be a major barrier. But I noticed that Trevor didn’t seem to mind wearing a mask. He never complained about it. So I never said a negative word about the masks in front of him and he’s been fine with it. The mask thing is my issue to work through, and not Trevor’s.
Trevor was excited for school; he loves his classroom and his teachers. He found a friend, Henry, that he does lots of activities and projects with.
A very competitive nature is emerging in Tru, which is both good and bad. One bonus is that each morning, he races to the car to get to school. He wants to be the first to arrive. Sometimes he asks, “can we get there before the teachers so I can be first in the classroom?” Definitely, it’s wonderful to have a child that eager to get to school every day!
One other change: Tru dropped his nap, and he asked to go to school for longer days! So now he goes to school from 8:15am to 1pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. And 8:15am to 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I can remember the days when Tru would nap for three hours in the afternoon (from about 2-5pm)! Slowly, he dropped down to about a one-hour nap by this fall. Then he began really fighting the nap. He’d say, “I’m not tired, I don’t want a nap.” So we switched Tru to an earlier bedtime (7pm) and dropped the nap.
Right at the same time, Trevor noticed a lot of his friends in class were staying at school until 3 or even 5pm. So every day he’d ask if he could stay at school longer. One morning he cried when I told him I was picking him up at 1:00. So now Trevor has a full day at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays! I thought he’d be exhausted when he got out of school, but I was wrong. Tru keeps going strong – full of energy – until bedtime. He definitely can get cranky in the evening starting at about 4:30 or 5pm. He loses his self control. That’s been a tough time of day since he was a baby though!
We were also really excited that Halloween wasn’t canceled in our town! Trick-or-treating happened outdoors this year, and it worked out perfectly. People just put tables on their driveways and filled them with individually wrapped candy. I actually liked this idea much more than the traditional door-to-door method. People set up chairs and bonfires outside and it was a really fun, social atmosphere.
Tru is still in love with outer space. At first, he thought he wanted to be the planet saturn for Halloween. But as we looked online and couldn’t find a really great saturn costume, we did come across an amazing sun costume. And Tru was really excited about the idea of being the sun for Halloween. The costume turned out really cool and he got so many compliments. He’s obsessed with candy and chocolate, so he loved trick-or-treating.
We’ve been doing a lot of hikes this year. Trevor loves hiking, and he has (impressive) boundless energy. He can do a pretty long, challenging hike and not get tired. It’s been a great way to drop the day-to-day routine and have fun together.
There obviously haven’t been a lot of activities for us to do this fall. We’ve made the best of what’s available. We found a really nice farm about 20 minutes from our house that we’ve been visiting to pick berries, meet farm animals, and get ice cream. We did a fun trip this fall for apple picking.
