Preschool during COVID

In August I was having a lot of anxiety about preschool. And I know there are much bigger problems, but my baby was starting Pre-K amidst a pandemic where nothing was looking the same and yes, I was grieving that. I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to just pull her out. We had signed up for three days, and I contacted her director asking if it was possible to switch her to two days. My thought was that if they were constantly shutting down, or shut down in person indefinitely I didn’t want to pay more when she realistically wouldn’t get anything out of distance learning. Mainly because I thought they had to follow what the school district was doing and since we have a massive district, there was a good chance we’d be screwed once all those kids got together. Her director told me yes, we could, but we’d have to let her know soon since classes were filling up.

She called me one morning and said she would be sending out emails to the parents, but wanted to let me know the plans they were putting in place for safety now in order to help me make my decision.

• Ten kids to a classroom (they allow for 20 and they made the decision to split the classes despite the financial burden this causes)
• Temperature checks upon entering
• Parents aren’t able to go inside the school, and we need to pull up in our cars one by one at the entrance, always wearing a mask while walking kids to the doors
• Classes won’t intermix, teachers can choose to wear masks in the classroom, but they are mandatory when they step outside. Kids won’t need to wear masks (we know 3 and 4-year-olds won’t wear them safely), and chapel will be inside classrooms instead of the sanctuary
• If the school shuts down, they will go to distance learning with prepared lessons for two weeks—they will not do long term distance learning and we will be refunded if it’s longer than 2 weeks
• If the school district shuts down, her preschool won’t necessarily follow suit if their numbers are still good and they feel they can remain open safely.
• A later start date than the rest of the district
• Morning cleaning by janitors, the director will be cleaning the bathroom in between class visits

She explained it all to me, and I wrote it down as she talked. And then suddenly I was crying. Like, embarrassingly crying to her because I was both relieved at the amazing plan they had in place, and how lucky we were that we had found this school and also because it was just so sad. Like, it’s so great they are going above and beyond to ensure our kids can have a safe experience there, but the unfairness that this is how it has to be. Two to a lunch table. Social distancing when at the art table. No more chapel. No grandparent’s day. The drop-off and pick-up routine. But man, I’m so grateful for her school. They’ve been amazing.

Since I couldn’t walk Olivia to her class like in past years, I dropped her off her first day and she walked with a “buddy” who happened to be her teacher from last year which she was excited about, down the hall to class. After a few times of helpers escorting them, the kids were walking down the hall to their classrooms alone. And of course, she does it wonderfully, barely giving me a glance back. How has she possibly grown up this much?

The second week of school, I emailed her director to give my thanks for all they’ve been doing, doing much more than was ever expected of them. It’s been weird not meeting Olivia’s teacher in person yet (her confereneces are next week), but they’ve started up an app where we can communicate with the teacher and see the photos they’ve posted about what they’ve been doing in class.

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It’s so crazy, the papers she brings home. Like, they’re these actual little worksheets and that blows my mind. The kid is still crazy about art. She continues to bring home pieces that are quickly filling up our walls.

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She got a fuzzy unicorn notebook from one of my friends for her birthday and has been enjoying taking her books (her favorites are the Dr. Seuss ones) and copying down the words. I taught her finger spacing because she was smushing all the words together and then asking me to “Read it, Mama! What does this say?” and I thought my head was going to explode from concentrating so hard on it.

So. The kid loves school. She loves her classmates and tells me all about them every time I pick her up. She loves her teacher. She’s already made pictures for her teacher at home. Anyone who meets Olivia usually walks away with a hand-drawn picture or three.

It’s not how I was envisioning pre-K. I was looking forward to the activity days and fundraising nights and programs and I’m not sure they’ll be doing any of those. While they shut down her school already out of an abundance of caution for a day, and while her teacher went out for two weeks since she was exposed to an exposed person and wanted to play it safe, her class itself has remained healthy. Another classroom where the exposure occurred shut down for two weeks, but so far so good.

I’m so grateful for this school. I’m grateful that they’re taking precautions to keep everyone safe, and yet still give them a semi-normal experience. Olivia definitely needs it.