So, we needed to make a decision by last night on whether our kids will be going back hybrid for 3rd trimester, which starts March 15th. Anand is staying remote (he loves remote, and would gladly do all the rest of his schooling remote), but we’ve decided to send Kavi back hybrid.
This was not an easy decision — Kevin and I had several talks about it, and also talked with Kavi. It’s mostly fueled by her unhappiness — she really loved school when it was in-person, and while she’s borne up like a trouper the last year of remote, she’s having a harder and harder time staying engaged.
It’s gotten even harder the last few weeks, because when the school started offering a hybrid option, the remote learning, unsurprisingly, became notably less engaging, with a lot more asynchronous. We’re seeing a lot of partially completed assignments from her, and trouble keeping track of them all, and we’re not so worried about the academic piece, but we hate to see her getting disengaged from the joy of learning. Kavi’s also extroverted enough that she’s struggling a little with mild depression — trouble getting out of bed in the morning, that kind of thing.
We don’t know yet whether all the teachers will be vaccinated by the time she goes back — I’m really really hoping so. I don’t know if there’s a way we can know that for sure? Is the teacher’s union going to be putting that info out to the community, or the school? If the teachers aren’t vaccinated, we may keep her home an extra week or two, until they are, so as not to potentially contribute to teacher risk. I’m hoping we’ll be past that point by mid-March, though. All the fingers and toes crossed.
She’s a very responsible 13-year-old, and we think we can trust her to be rigorous about mask-wearing, maintaining social distance, and hand-washing. Given 11-year-old Anand’s general sensory difficulties (he’s often bumping into people, spilling food, etc., because he has trouble keeping track of physical space), I really don’t know that he’s capable right now of that kind of discipline, so we’re lucky he wants to stay remote.
As a cancer survivor, I may be vaccinated by March 15th as well, depending on how the expansion of 1b goes (scheduled to start on 2/25 in Oak Park). Kevin probably won’t be — he’s 50, and doesn’t have any underlying health conditions that would bump him up in the queue. So there’s a little risk there, and we’re worried about that, but in the tradeoff for her mental health and joy in school, we’re okay with this risk level.
UPDATING TO NOTE, it looks like all the teachers will have the opportunity to be vaccinated before we go back. Huzzah.