Weeks ago, when the Governor closed schools until April 30th, I began to prepare myself for the inevitable — my kids would not be going back to school this year. This was confirmed more recently with the Governor’s decision to close for the year. I dreaded telling my nine-year-old daughter because I knew this would be especially hard for her. She loves school and thrives in the structure that the classroom brings. When my husband and I broke the news to her, she was visibly upset with tears welling up in her eyes. She stormed off to her room, and I later asked her to write down what she was feeling. The following words are hers:
I’m in 4th grade and I really like school.
If I had a choice I would want summer to be shorter and school to be almost year-round. So when my parents told me I would be finishing my school year online, I was very upset and angry. I started thinking about all of the school stuff I was going to miss out on.
There was going to be no Field Day or helping my teacher to clean her classroom. No games with friends or snowball days. No helping clean the classroom with my teacher and class. I’m sad that we won’t get to take home some of the teacher’s supplies and our unused school supplies like usual.
I miss seeing my friends and teacher at school.
I’m sad about the fun memories I’m not getting to make. I miss all the fun activities my teachers would come up with. I like group work and getting to do group presentations in front of the class. Nothing is the same working alone at home. I’ll never get to finish the science project I was working on either, even though I worked so hard on it.
There will be no more Honor Roll or ARP parties. I worked really hard to make good grades and reach all my AR goals and now because of this virus, there won’t be any parties! I’ve also been doing extra tutoring for the LEAP test this year. I’m mad about all the work I did and now the LEAP test is canceled. This was also the first year that I got to be in the Yearbook Club. Now I guess we won’t get to finish that project either. I miss Art Club. I still do art at home, but I love my art teacher and I miss how proud she was of my stuff.
It just isn’t fair that I was at school one day and I never get to go back this year to hug my teachers or bring them presents. I don’t even get to say Thank you for teaching me. I wish none of this happened.
I can definitely relate to how my daughter is feeling about missing friends, having plans canceled, and just wishing none of this had happened. I think we forgot how hard it is for children to truly understand what is happening. I try to keep this in mind when I start to feel sorry for myself or get impatient with my kids.
How are your school-aged children feeling about not going back to school?
