On Thursday, Amelia’s class was having a little pre-Valentine’s Day party, which started with the class having virtual breakfast together. Erin got up early and made Amelia a special breakfast of red heart pancakes for her to take to the party.
Amelia had fun with her teacher and class, and they did lots of Valentine’s Day related activities throughout the day. Henry had his usual ABA therapy, followed by pre-K in the afternoon. Henry was excited to show off one of his new masks. Erin had got him a three pack of PAW Patrol masks, but for some strange reason there was a Bugs Bunny one in the package. Coincidentally, he likes Bugs Bunny too, and that was the one he wanted to wear.
It was pretty cold outside, but Amelia and I bundled up and walked him to school. The kids wanted to show me how fast they could run ahead of me. Turns out they are pretty fast. Could also be that I’m pretty slow.
Back at home, Amelia asked if she could do her afternoon school work with me in my office, and I said sure! It is nice to have an office mate sometimes. She set up shop on my desk, and was walking me through a weather tracking assignment she’s working on.
After we picked Henry up, Erin and I had to hop on a Zoom parent-teacher conference with Amelia’s teacher. Not to use this platform to brag, but we were really happy and proud to hear how well Amelia has been doing. Particularly with the challenges of virtual school, she has stayed really engaged. As pleased as we were about the academic stuff, we were even more happy to hear that Amelia is a very active participant, asks questions when she has them, and in small groups when some kids are shy to speak up, she encourages them to join in.
It’s great to hear how well she’s doing in reading and math, but we are so proud of her work ethic and her willingness to advocate for herself and others. I know I’m coming off like a proud dad here, but well, I’m a proud dad, so there it is.
Online learning is hard for students and teachers, and it was nice to hear Amelia’s teacher say that kids like Amelia have made her experience more rewarding, becasue they do participate and engage. I give so much credit to all the teachers out there making those interactions happen. It’s not always easy in person, and so much more challenging virtually.
That good news in hand, we had another nice and low key evening, made some dinner and hung out. I played some catch with the dogs, and had they had epic battles over their octopus toy.
I don’t know who won in the end, but I knew who lost. That octopus.
