PERSONAL PROJECT // First Day of School - Part Two

Today Greydon returned to school in person since March 13, 2020. It’s been 391 days. He hardly slept last night and was nervous about everything. He doesn’t even have a backpack anymore and used his swim pack instead. There’s a photo in here showing his reaction when we told him he couldn’t take his phone to school. Like many, he uses his phone as a pacifier, and sometimes in life you need to tackle fears and worries head on and not hide behind technology. He was NOT happy with us and there were tears. To add to all of our anxiety (just me a Greydon, not Fletcher - nothing much rattles that guy) we were 30 minutes late to school. We mixed up the times and didn’t read one of the 87 emails we get a week with new reopening info. Totally our fault, but Greydon rolled with it and said it was no big deal.

When I picked him up in the car line at the end of the day he declared that today was one of the best days at school he’s ever had. Of course only about 15% of the kids were in person today, so he hasn’t had a true middle school experience. It will come one day.

PERSONAL PROJECT // FIRST DAY OF SIXTH GRADE

Montgomery County Public Schools opted for at home learning through January 29th due to the COVID-19 pandemic still raging throughout the country. That’s five months at home, and that was too long of a time to sit at the dining room table again. So we shifted some furniture around and created a tiny version of John T. Baker Middle School in our living room. Yes, for those of your counting he is now in 6th grade. Can you believe it?!

In early August, Greydon and I chased down a desk from IKEA not available at the College Park store but in stock in the Baltimore store because they had a few left. On Saturday we bought him a gaming chair from Costco. We hung a floating shelf so he could make his “classroom” cozy. We picked up a monitor and a cheap-o rug, too. We got him a couple Baker Bulldogs t-shirts and a new hoodie. We even got him a little bulldog stuffed animal mascot to watch over him. The cats are fascinated with the new “classroom” and Greydon has set up a spot for them to hang out next to him on the ottoman.

As of this morning, he’s really enjoying himself. He really likes his teachers and is having fun seeing some old friends on Zoom from Rockwell E.S., the school he attended prior to our move in 2017. He even saw his second grade crush in his math class. :-)

It’s a new schedule and should be very interesting to see how this fall will pan out. But Fletcher and I are both at home and are ready to jump in to make this as fun as we can. Day 1 - SO FAR SO GOOD!