I’ll be honest, I am hitting refresh constantly on our school districts website… will we be learning from home? Will we be on a hybrid model? Back full time as the AAP seems to recommend?
Regardless of the options, the fact remains: here in Texas our case numbers are climbing higher and higher and the situation does not seem to look good for in person learning in August.
So how do we prepare for school to start in less than 7 weeks? Well, I have to assume that even if the kids go back, there will be some closures for COVID at points during the year, and on those days, I am guessing, the school will go virtual. Since this is a scenario that I can manage logistically relatively well, I am shifting my focus to what we will need in place to be ready for both in-person school and virtual learning.
Masks
I hate the idea of kids in masks. It feels so wrong to have them masked up to interact with other kids. It’s not what childhood should look like. It makes them aware at every moment of the virus circulating in the world.
And it’s the only way I can see feeling safe sending my kids to school.
For the kids, for the teachers, for the families… I just cannot picture how it all works and school stays open if we don’t mask up our kids for school – at least while they are in the classroom.
And if they are going to wear masks, I am sure they are going to need a few in order to allow for washing — not to mention these are going to just one more way to express their personalities.
The Joah Love masks I found are my favorites so far. I love love love how soft they are and being adjustable allows them to fit most. My 3 year old wears the the kids size – he’s got a smaller face and it fits him well. The rest of the kids (ages 6, 8 & 10) & I all have the S/M size and it works for us all. I definitely recommend these mask – which have tons of cute styles for boys and girls alike.
That said, I am on the hunt for more styles to get us through the school year. Below are a handful of the styles I am looking at to round out our mask assortment.
Home Study Desks
As much I’d love for my kids to back to interacting daily with other kids and feeling normal, I fully expect that even ay best, we will have some periods of school going virtual for days or weeks at a time. This past spring, we made it work with the kitchen table, the counter & our old PBK kids play table. The set up worked to get us through, but there was plenty of overlapping noise and distractions and I know that if we do wind up with long-term virtual learning, it won’t go the distance for us. I need to space them out more. Luckily, we have the space to spread out. But we do not have the set ups. Yet.
While we have an old desk that currently lives in my boys’ room, sending him up and away to work is the least likely solution. Since my oldest is going into 5th grade, I know that regardless, the time is coming for her to need a desk to work at for homework, so I am focusing on options for adding one or two desks to the bedroom the girls share.
My goal is to balance style, quality and price. The last thing I want is to be buying a new desk in a year because something fell apart thanks to my 4 active kids. But at the same time, this is a kid’s room – I really see no reason to break the bank. I have always found PBK to be a good middle ground for kids furniture and gear, but I have also had very good luck with my various Wayfair finds. And bonus, the Latitude desk below is collapsable so it could be set up for temporary use and stored when not needed. Right now, I am leaning towards one of the two Mercer41 desks below but I will let you know what I wind up with.
Back to School Clothes
The idea of doing massive back to school shopping only to have the kids home in their pajamas seems ridiculous to me. And to be honest, we usually continually refresh their clothes as needed throughout the year thanks to Nordstroms, JCrew, Amazon & Zappos. But this year especially, I will be focusing on one first day outfit (fingers crossed) and refreshing the staple items that will be worn & re-worn regardless of home or school-based learning. Since the Nordstroms anniversary sale is right around the corner and I am working on my kid’s selections for the sale, here are a few Nordstroms picks that are in my cart for back to school. And yes, I will totally be buying both girls the “favorite daughter” tee. Too perfect.
What about you? Where are you focusing your back to school dollars and energy this year? I’d love to hear in the comments!
XOXO
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