Letter to my son

 Dear Son,

I haven't written a letter in a long time.  I'm sorry, sweet boy.  You know Mommy has been through a lot with cancer.  You were so helpful, offering to help me get out of chairs and hold the doors open for me and picking up things that I couldn't reach.  Mommy is getting better and feeling better, almost a year since the first surgery and not even a month after the second surgery.  I did a blog post (scroll down further past this post to see it) about my "pink journey."

"Pink Journey" is called this for breast cancer awareness and also because you know Mommy loves the color pink.  I used to think it was pretty, but now I know it also means strength.  I hope you remember Mommy being strong and determined to heal.

You certainly have been strong!  So many changes at such a young age and you adapt so well.  At the end of 1st grade, Corona Virus swept around the world.  Everything closed down, including schools.  Your teacher, Ms. Falgout, did a great job in her pre-recorded lessons.  You did a great job in doing the school work.  However, I knew the pre-recorded lessons disconnected you to the world.

This is when Mommy found Outschool.com.  It's an online community for classes, live classes.  Mommy found classes that correlated to what you were currently learning, art classes for fun and classes that would relate to learning for next year.  You loved the online experience!  It gave you an opportunity to connect not just to other students and teachers, but other students and teachers from around the world.  How wonderful!

Not only did you learn about the class topic, but you also heard accents from people all over the world and how the time of day is different around the world.  We might have sunlight, but someone else might be taking the same class at nighttime.  It was an extra education for you!

Another thing Outschool taught you outside of the class topic - how to navigate an online classroom via Zoom.  Not all classes use the Zoom platform, but they are all very similar.  Terminology such as "pin this" and chat and how to move the screens so only the teacher is visible.  It was another extra education for you and came in very handy for your new school year.

Just to mention a few classes you took online over the summer:  Multiplication Fun, tons of art classes (using watercolors, acrylic, chalk, 1 point and 2 point perspective, shading, faces and bodies in motion, drawing and paintings while learning about famous artist, etc), How to Take Notes, Galileo, India, Pirates, Spatial Reasoning, Tesla, CE and BCE, Three Branches of American Government, Cursive Writing, Ancient Cities in the UK and Turkey, writing paragraphs, Shakespeare, Robot Coding, Genetics, Fibonacci, Spirolaterals, Latin, Origami.

This week (and for the next couple of weeks), you have a "flex" class on the Periodic Table.  Flex means that you can take the class whenever you want.  This helps, because you are back in school "virtual."  So, you can take the flex on the weekend.  This past weekend you learned about the Elements of Life:  Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Hydrogen and Sulfur.  You had a fun scavenger hunt to do as well.  I'm hoping the class goes through all of the elements!

Yes, you are continuing the classes, but not as many as you did during the summer.  Most of the classes you have for Outschool will be in art, just because you really didn't want to stop those classes.  Right now you are working on a drawing of Mona Lisa, plus you wrote a Couplet Poem on Sting Rays.  The classes are in the late evening, so it doesn't affect anything with school.

In fact, the rule is - no art class until all homework is complete.  This school year had a rough start.  Your teacher, Mrs. Brenes, is doing both face to face and virtual learning.  God bless her for her patience, willingness to take this on and her natural kindness of character.  The first week was the worst, with technological difficulties and learning curves of the process.  And hey, while a teacher is acclimating to a totally new system, (not just with virtual, but face to face had all kinds of changes too due to the virus), let's throw in a hurricane or two or three!  This hurricane season shortened a couple of the school weeks.  Stress?  What stress?  God bless the teachers and school administration.

This is our first week of "cold fronts."  I hope the fronts keep coming (pleasant highs in the upper 70's, low 80's)... the fronts push the hurricanes away from us and cool the gulf waters.  

If the fronts keep coming, it means less days canceled for school.  You love your teacher and you are enjoying the lessons.  You know the pattern now and are comfortable with it.  Mommy used to bring you to Oma and Opa's house, then Mommy went to work.  But now Mommy is at home, recovering from her second surgery.  No driving allowed.  Daddy brings you to Oma and Opa's house in the morning.  

In the beginning of the year, when it was really hot, you went swimming in Oma and Opa's pool for your P.E. time.  When we found out that you were accepted into the GT program and GT Art, we were so excited and proud!  

Oma and Opa go between two rooms in their house, because both you and TJ are doing virtual school (two separate rooms).  TJ's school is in Atlanta, but with the joys of Internet, he can be in Louisiana for his lessons.  Oma needed you to be an independent student, because most of the time she is with TJ.  Mommy needs you to be independent with your homework, which you are (other than Mommy reviewing vocabulary words).

It's been a crazy year.  Life does that, shakes us up.  When things look down, just hold on tight, say some prayers and remember there will be brighter days.  I'm proud of you for how well you have adjusted and your willingness to continue to learn and have fun learning.

Stay kind, stay sweet.  I love you.

Love Always,

Mommy