Lillia & Zane’s First Day of School, 2021-2022
The Wilson kids are off to a great start in a new school year! Although the shadow of COVID-19 still looms large, there is a sense of hope and possibility this year that was distinctly absent last year. For starters, Lillia gets to attend school in person this year—no more remote-learning, hooray! What a disaster that was for her, and I know she’s not alone (especially among her peers). Zane was able to attend school in person every day last year, making St. Joe’s an outlier in our area. But, it was still a very weird experience for him, with daily temperature checks and every grade isolated in their own area with no mingling. Thankfully, most of those precautions have been done away with for this year.
At the start of this new school year, Lillia is at the tail end of Phase 2, which is sort of like sophomore year (10th grade) but things work a little differently at MC2 than they do in traditional public schools. I expect she will move on to Phase 3 by the end of this first trimester. Kids at MC2 progress at their own pace—as a parent, it takes time to reprogram your brain to be okay with the fits and starts that naturally follow child-led learning. This photo of Lillia was taken way back on July 26th, when she started her new school year. MC2 has a different schedule than other schools, with students attending approximately 13 weeks of school, followed by a three week break. They have a longer break in the summertime, but not as long as most schools. Lillia’s big to-do item for this fall (which is so close to being completed) is getting her driver’s license!
Zane just started his 5th grade year yesterday. It is almost impossible to believe he’s already this far along in school. Yes, I did shed some tears after I watched him climb the stairs and go inside the school with his friends without even looking back—he seemed so grown up. Lillia, who was waiting in the car for her turn to be dropped off, asked me, “Do you always do this?” Truth be told, yes, the first day of school is hard on some of us! At St. Joe’s, 5th grade is considered “middle school” so Zane has a locker and moves from class to class throughout eight periods during the day. I think he’s enjoying his elevated status, which comes with such perks as being able to wear khaki shorts (instead of just navy blue), and not having to get your planner signed every night . . . I think Zane is going to have a great year!
As for me, I no longer have any children whose ages are counted in single digits, and I no longer have any children in “elementary” school. Having just turned 40 a few months ago, it feels like a lot of big changes have happened in a short period of time around here. I was just saying to my husband last night that, as a parent, you are so invested in your children’s life journey—their successes and failures, their growth and development—that you sometimes forget you are still on your own life journey, which has just been chugging along as the quiet backdrop to feeding, clothing, driving around, organizing, worrying, and all the other busyness that comes along with raising kids.
Fall is always one of the most creative and productive seasons of the year for me, and I’m looking forward to doing more photography, blogging, and crafting during the coming months. My children have always been central to my blogging experience, but as time passes and their lives and mine necessarily become more compartmentalized, it will be interesting to see what rises to the surface for me to share here.