In September 2021, the time had FINALLY come for our kids to attend in-person school full time!! The first day of school was August 30, 2021. It was the first time our kids set foot on a school campus since March of 2020. That's 18 months without being at a school with other kids.
The night before the boys laid out their clothes.
Dallin entered 3rd grade and had Mrs Chavira!
This is his face showing how he feels about the first day of school. He was sad, a bit mad, and said he was going to miss me.
Tanner entered 4th Grade and had Mrs Mills! He was excited and worried. LOTS of Mixed emotions.
The boys wanted me to take these poses.
I was really excited to have the boys be with their friends and socialize and learn from other teachers. We had waited for this for so long.
And I was a bit sad. Been with these boys constantly every day for so long. I was gonna miss them, and it was sweet to hear them say they were gonna miss me.
There were lots of safety precautions at check-in and throughout the regular school day. These precaustions went on for the whole year, and changed almost every month as the pandemic changed. The students had to wear masks indoors and outdoors until the 2nd half of the year. Then the school district finally let kids take off their masks outside. It wasn't until April that it became optional for everyone indoors.
I have many strong opinions about the masks and other regulations. But I don't have time to get in to all of that. Suffice it to say that these were terrible rules and most of the parents I spoke with throughout the year were in agreement with me, but we didn't complain much because we were already so traumatized by not being able to have our kids go to school, that we just said thank you and went along with it so that our kids could be at school.
For the first two weeks of school, Tanner had a really hard time adjusting. He came home really dysregulated and just needed a LOT of time to decompress. In the mornings, he had meltdowns over his hair and clothing and yelled and kicked and screamed. I'm really glad that I didn't have to start teaching until 2 or 3 weeks into the new year so that I could be available to help Tanner with all his challenges.By dinnertime, he would usually be himself again. Here are some pics of him being silly.
Doing lessons planning for my private students.
My first day teaching Tk-4th grade Music at McKinley marked the beginning of my 20th year teaching children. Hard to believe that since my time working as a preschool teacher and substitute teacher, it had really been that long!
This was my classroom to share with the after school care program and the 5th grade music teacher. I was given a really decent space to work in. Needed some life, but very doable.
I spruced up the bulletin boards and ordered supplies for the brand new music program. This school had gone at least 10 years without a music teacher for TK-4th grade.
So there was lots to supply the room with. I spent a lot of extra, non-contracted hours volunteering to make the space as inviting as possible.
Cuddling in the morning with my boys never gets old. We continued this every morning even after school started.
After a few days or the first week of school, Tanner started riding his bike to school all by himself. I took Dallin in the car on some days, and he would ride his bike home with Tanner. Throughout the year, Dallin got more and more comfortable riding with Tanner in the morning, too. Sometimes Jeremy would help Dallin get up the hill. This became a major game changer for us to have the boys taking themselves to and from school. They got a lot more exersize each day and they had could be more independent!
This is probably on their early out day, we went to our pool. They boys have early out every Thursday.
Finishing up the shield project.
Tanner bought the wood himself. He designed each shield for Fort TOD.
They each turned out amazing!!
Some fun shots of items and views we saw on a daily basis in our home.
The boys finished their math books from homeschool. To celebrate, we let them burn them in the fire on a cold day in September. Honestly, it felt really good to burn it all.
On Labor Day weekend, or some other weekend in September, we went to the Safari Park with Matt and Johanna. It was a ton of fun.
Dallin was perfectly comfortable squished up in our wagon so he didn't have to walk as much.
Him and I rested while the other family members shopped and saw other exhibits.
It was a really hot day!
Jeremy got us free tickets to a Padres game through his work.
Jeremy in front of his building where he works, which is part of the Padres stadium.
Right before the boys left for Sacramento Boy's trip, I got pictures with them at the airport.
Jeremy, Tanner and Dallin had a fun time with Gramz and Grampz.
They had blast playing with cousin Aron, who can also be called their uncle since he is Jeremy's cousin.
I was able to improve our decorations of the living room, rest my back and plan lots of lessons.
Dallin was improvising a lot during this time, making beautiful songs.
Some sort of dinner at home.
Camping trip with just the boys. (they somehow managed to do two boy trips in Sept?)
Jeremy noticed the roof was a bit cluttered with pine needles. He climbed up on the roof and found a carpet of needles! Took awhile to clean it all.
Eating at church while Jeremy or myself were in meetings. Jeremy was serving on the high council for the stake. By this point, I had been the primary president for 2 or more weeks. 
This goof!!!
Somehow Dallin lucked out to get a special trip to a Padres game alone with Jeremy. They had a great bonding time together.
Typical sight putting the boys to bed at this time of life. I'm so glad I captured these moments on camera.
I found a dinosaur battle one afternoon in their bedroom.
An adventure with just Jeremy and Tanner through the canyon by our home.
And then making cookies with Jeremy.
Watching a BYU game in our bedroom. The boys made a funny tackling game that they played. Their rule was that they had to wrestle until they hear one of the refs in the BYU game blow a whistle. The only way that I remembered this is by watching a home video in our video files.
Getting ready for church. Look at how long Tanner's hair is!
Anniversary at this spot in our neighborhood. A commercial plane crashed here in the 1970's and destroyed several homes and killed a bunch of people.
This kid (tanner) would drum about once a week or more!!
Babysitting a friend while her mom Tiana went to evening classes.
During this Thursday early out, I took the boys to Coronado Island to get the famous ice cream that we had never tried yet. It was yummy!
And that's a wrap for our first month back at school Fall 2021!!
No comments:
Post a Comment