CHAPTER 4 - BETTER BEGINNINGS, SMILES AND RESULTS

 CHAPTER 4

BETTER BEGINNINGS, SMILES AND RESULTS

The week (our 3^rd) began as usual but the first morning I made myself absent from the announcements routine. I was nearby but not visible to our son, who was on his computer and waiting for the session to begin. When it came time to stand for the pledge he called out, “DAD! It’s time for the pledge! Where are you!” I was bemused by it, his sincerity and urgent plea for my attendance. The announcements continued, the class muted full-time now. There will be no time or room for distractions and disorder.

Monday went more smoothly than any day prior and the workload was light. I worked quickly and easily with our son as he plodded through Language Arts, Science and Math, while my daughter sat quietly next us and playing with Play Dough. Although she remained busy in her play, I could see her peering over from time-to-time and studying what her brother was learning.

On one math problem there was a series of duplicate drawings, followed by a number (1-3). The instructions called for the student to identify the number and correctly color the same number of things in the drawings. One problem had six tanks, followed by the number 3. Our son correctly colored the series (3 tanks) but then asked, “Daddy, what are those?” I said, “Those are tanks.” He replied, “Oh, like in the Godzilla movies!” I (sheepishly) said, “Yes. They are.”

We are pretty strict on the television and/or movies our children can watch but at some point, myself a fan of the old Godzilla movies (1960’s era), I decided to let them watch one, or a couple, a few times or maybe more. “If they are tanks, then can we add Godzilla next to them? We need a Godzilla in there”, he said. Well I could not have agreed more! I drew a little Godzilla, breathing fire down on the tanks but left out (although requested) the missiles coming from the barrels of the tanks. I took the required picture of the assignment, hit submit and beamed with pride at my son’s recollection and creativity – math can be fun too!

Our schoolwork was competently completed by noon. After a short break, I decided we should celebrate our efficiency by visiting the community pool. The kids were ecstatic! We loaded quickly and headed off to splash and play in the waning days of summer. We got to the pool and found there was only one other group there – a father and his daughter. We started talking and I learned his daughter was also in kindergarten, at the same school as our son. We talked about our current situations and he explained his daughter would be going back to the classroom, the following week. We opted to delay our sons return, taking online only classes for the first 9-weeks, with the option to enter school on-campus after that time; this father did not have the same opportunity to keep his daughter out for so long. We hope she will be safe, we hope for things to be normal, we hope we can begin again after such a long time of ‘Social Distancing’.

On her way home from work, Momtch intercepted us in the parking lot as were leaving the pool. The kids dropped me as their ride home and loaded into her car. We got home, ate our dinner and the kids went upstairs to play. After a short time, I entered the room and began winding things down for the night. An impromptu game of catch began (anything to delay bedtime) and we threw a plastic, red spiked ball around the room. Bedtime grew close and I ended the game of catch. Our son handed me the ball and said, ‘It looks like the Corona virus.” He was right. It was spiked and red, like the images that have flooded our televisions for the past 6-months.

I was proud of him, at his recognition of shape and similarity, but then I was immediately flooded with a sadness, full of realization; this COVID experience will be a permanent record and part of his life too. The reality of our global situation has consumed even innocuous, childish play - our children’s lives eternally altered from the experiences we (parents) had as children. We ushered them off to bed. A full days work completed.