February 28: School Heartbreaks and Mouse Beds

Amy had one day of in-person school and absolutely loved it. She came home beaming, saying it was the best day of her life. Unfortunately, this coming week her school is all virtual again due to covid precautions. I’m glad they are being cautious and following good procedures, but Amy is sad about it. Part of me thinks it would have been better if the school never even tried to open in person because this is much more of an emotional rollercoaster than it was before. Meanwhile, the teacher who had been suspended and then reinstated has resigned because the administration didn’t agree to do restorative justice and it was going to be on his record that he was suspended for insubordination. Restorative justice is a beautiful process but does require people to own up to what they did and hear how it hurt others. It is also full of love and acceptance and not judging a person based on their worst moments. Parents sent more emails and another petition and had a gathering in the yard outside the school, all asking the school to do restorative justice. This is all heartwrenching and I’m furious with the admins who can’t just admit they handled things poorly. When there is already struggle based on switching to the hybrid model of learning, this is not the time to lose an extremely gifted and experienced teacher. My heart breaks for his students, many of whom said he was their favorite teacher ever and the best teacher they had ever had.

Amy recently corrected my spelling on my shopping list. I had written that I needed a certain kind of storage “thingie.” When I got to the store I noticed she had written “thingy” on top of my writing. When discussing our disagreement with Carl, he said probably the actual correct word is “thingifer.”

Sarah, Amy, and Anna turned Sarah’s bed into a Mouse Bed with construction paper tail, paws, ears, eyes, nose, whiskers, and tears (of course). Sarah and Anna also made a Goodnight Moon book where Sarah drew the pictures and wrote the words.

Yesterday Amy directed us in attending Pirate Academy. We practiced sword fighting, kicking a soccer ball, riding the rough seas, what to do when shipwrecked, and making mud balls to throw at other ships. 

If you are shipwrecked, I hope you have all of the thingifers you need.