Today was Elyse’s first day of kindergarten. Not the way we imagined her starting her elementary school life, but here we are.

Our school has done their best to try to accommodate the return, but I remain extremely skeptical about how long this will be possible. We’re currently committed to a 9-week start online, after which the school will reassess what to do. At least for K-aged kids, this online learning the way the schools are equipped to do it is a mess and can’t work with the same format. 5+ hours of sitting at a computer with minimal breaks is torture for adults, so I can’t imagine how well it’ll work expecting high engagement from kids.

What I wish they could do is shake up the format to do something shorter during this first couple of months. Even a 2 or 3 hour per day session would be a huge improvement, with the rest made up by parents in the interim while we figure this out (though I get the issues that some parents just don’t have the time to do this).

None of it is ideal, but continuing to try the same old methods of teaching without changing things up is not a solution.