The school year ended virtually at the beginning of the summer. I still got summer workbooks and tried to make them keep up with some sort of "schoolwork." Thankfully, they all like trips to the library and it's not too hard to get them to look at books.
With interesting and different scenarios on the horizon for the 20-21 school year, we felt led to make some changes.
Adam teaches at a small Christian school. Going on his 3rd year there.
Due to the boys doing well in their public school settings, and Adam and I both being products of public schools, we both had never felt a strong urge to change anything for them. We had encountered great teachers, the boys had made friends, and we've had a good experience so far.
Our public school system is quite large. At any size school, decisions about how to handle things during COVID have been incredibly difficult, but even harder to manage when dealing with so many more students. When our public schools announced that they would be starting virtually this fall (and initially said they would do this through at least October), we felt like we needed to consider another option.
When we realized we qualified for a Choice scholarship for private education (due to our income) paired with Adam's staff discount, it was almost about the same cost as the public school fees to send our boys to the school where Adam teaches. And that school was going to be starting in person.
In the spring, Adam was home with the boys for virtual learning. But he would be going back in person this fall and I work 3 days a week in an office setting. How would we juggle virtual learning/childcare for them?
So......we decided to send the younger 2 to school with Adam. They've loved it so far and are happy. They've been safe. There haven't been any outbreaks. It's been so good for them to be back in-person in a classroom setting. Our public school has recently begun having elementary students return in-person, but we still feel good about our choice. We'll take one semester at a time with them.
Landon wanted to continue at the public school. He's in quite a few honors classes and likes the extracurriculurs that he's been invovled with in middle school. Ad the small private school can't quite offer those. And he's very independent and responsible with the whole virtual learning thing (The younger two boys are not!). He's been doing virtual learning since school began. Just this week, they will begin a "hybrid schedule" where he will go 2 days a week in-person. He's looking forward to it.
