What a week it’s been. School started this week for our kids. This year all three small ones headed out to Elementary school. Oh. My. Goodness. All the emotions!!! Our oldest wasn’t thrilled to be going back to school but overall was ok with it. I think he was looking forward to getting back to his friends and social connections. Our daughter was THRILLED to be going back to school. She loves academics and has missed her friends too. And our youngest was SO ready! He has been waiting for this day for YEARS and it was finally his turn. He has been practicing writing his name and counting and zippping his coat. He had his new backpack filled with his pencils and crayons. He even had a dinosaur shirt to wear. He was counting the minutes. But Momma… this Momma, was not so thrilled.
Sending your baby off to school for the first time is hard on every mom and it’s always an emotional day. But this year was harder. I have spent the last five and a half months with these kiddos. There have only been a couple of days that I was away from them for more then an hour to go grocery shopping! We have done school work together, art projects and science experiments. We went swimming, played games and made lots of treats. We watched all the Disney movies (yes, all of them…), we went for walks, we worked on the farm. We cleaned the house and we made it a mess again, some more then others. We loved a lot, had lots of snuggles, and made each other really mad. We fought, we argued and drove each other crazy.
And now it’s done.
What a season! No one could have ever predicted how this pandemic would work, that it could even happen. And we still don’t know what the future will hold. My kids started school in a near-normal fashion. They wore masks, but masks aren’t required. Their desks are further apart, but there aren’t any barriers. They are in school five days a week, all day.
I’m worried about the regular parts of sending my kids to school. Are they eating their lunch? Did they remember their folder? Are they being nice to the other kids? But I’m also worried, Did I just send them into a germ pool that will give them side effect for the rest of their lives… or worse?
I have no good answer. I’m trying to take each day, each moment for what it is. And make the most of the special times we have together. I love my children’s teachers and I know that they are doing everything in their power to keep my kids healthy, safe and happy as well as provide them with every educational opportunity possible.
My mom was a kindergarten teacher all my growing years and every night at dinner we would ask her to tell us a “funny kindergarten story.” She had one, every day. Now that I live with three elementary school kiddos, I have my own stories. Eli’s teacher sent me a message on Monday, his first day of school. The class is working on practicing good hand hygiene and Eli had been asked to wash his hands. He replied, “Again?!” When his teacher explained how washing hands helps to keep him and his friends healthy, his response was, in a very serious tone, “Farmers do not wash their hands this much!” Hahaha! That kid cracks me up! Please wash your hands, us farmers will too!
Be strong my smart babies. Be strong teachers. Be strong Mommas and Daddies.
Happy Harvesting,
Leah
Harvesting Roots 
Great story, tell your boy it’s not just farmers. lol
I’m a mechanical engineer and understand that world, I struggle with writhing unless it’s technical. I’m always in awe of people who can tell a story that you can feel while reading and you have that gift. Great work, it was a fun read.