❓The Big Question
"Should we or shouldn't we send them?" - the question being asked by all parents.
The Topic
Here in Vancouver, public schools are opening up June 1, for two days a week. For the past couple of days, my husband and I (and many of our friends) have been agonizing over whether we send the kids back or not.
On one hand, they’ll get a chance to see their friends and teachers, get some structured schooling in before 8 weeks of summer kick-in and it’ll be a good chance for us to see what the new realities of the fall might look like, so we can prepare ourselves.
On the other hand, it’s only 2 days a week and we’ve gotten into a good groove - loathe to blow it all up for 3-4 weeks. Even more, if a bunch of the girls’ friends don’t go back and without the fun of the playgrounds and general school mayhem, will it leave a negative memory to stress over the summer? And finally, we have no idea how risky this will be, especially if we need my mom to help with some of the remaining 3 days/week. Is it worth it?
So yeah. No easy answers. And I know so many are asking themselves the same questions, whether it’s for school or summer camps. Economist Emily Oster has a great in-depth post about this. In the end, it comes down to understanding your personal risk tolerance combined with what is important to your family.
Given everything, we’re leaning towards sending them back. I think it’s a good way to test and learn our collective way to the future and I want the girls to get some kind of closure on the year. We believe in learning and being brave through the scary and working with our community.
So we’re stocking up on cute masks and hand sanitizer and yummy smelling hand cream for those overwashed little hands. And we’re going to have some fun coming up with fun greetings for their friends. Here’s are some to start with:
Anyway yeah. There’s a lot to think about. But we’re taking it one day, one week at a time. We’ll do it until it doesn’t work, and then we’ll adapt.
In the meantime, our household is really enjoying the finer points of 🍹Palomas - already cemented as our summer beverage, and this dead simple make your own ice cream recipe.
Cheers parents.
🏆 Teamwork Trophy
I’ve seen lots of coverage of how extra challenging these months have been for parents that don’t have help from their partner (or don’t have a partner in the picture), but we’d love to spend some time highlighting and celebrating the positive teamwork - the moments that have made you extra grateful or maybe surprised you.
This week I’ll kick it off:
Both my husband and I have demanding work schedules, running companies and with 8 and 5 year old daughters, there’s a lot of childcare and schooling to tackle. I’ve taken the lead on staying on top of assignments - printing, schedules, uploading completed ones, making sure they’re getting it all done. My husband has always been the main one to handle things like dishes, trash, laundry (🙏🏽) but it’s taken on another level with all of us being in the house all day, everyday. Every night, no matter how late it is, he makes a point to make sure all the dishes are done and put away, all surfaces are wiped clean and that the main areas are tidied up.
It might sound small, but to come downstairs each morning to a pristine living space has been incredibly calming. I am endlessly grateful that he does this for us, each night, without complaint and that I know I can always count on him to divide and conquer through the worst of anything.
Want to share a story on teamwork in action? Would love to feature the story in a future edition: hello@modernvillage.com.
🤓 Worth Reading/Watching
The American Girl Pandemic Collection - a little tongue in cheek fun we could all use.
How to Host Your Family’s Own Personal Summer Camp - great resources for all of us wracking our brains for how to tackle the summer ahead.
Why kids love building forts — and why experts say they might need them more than ever - glad ours aren’t the only kids that have built forts all across our home.
🏘 From the community
We’ve been getting amazing ideas from around our community - parents sharing their tips and tricks for everyone to enjoy. 💕
🧮 Surendra Malu, a dad from CA shared this math worksheet he built for his son in first grade. It’s super simple where every refresh creates a new set of problems. Just download it and upload it into your own Google Sheets. So good.
🖍 Romy, a dad in California shared this helpful list for everyone stocking up materials for summer camping at home.
📚Rutu Mulkar has a fun (probably multi-week project) for budding authors/illustrators:
My 6yo published her first book this week! She has been writing books for her friends for a while, but recently discovered my book on the bookshelf and asked - how can I get my books published so that my friends can read them?Writing a story was easy! She had recently done an assignment on pets, and wanted to write a fictional story about herself and her pets. Next, we worked on the illustrations. What would be the best picture to go with a given page? She drew about 30 images, and we picked the right ones for the book.
Finally, we needed to digitize everything. She requested me to type in the content of the book because "I am so slow with typing on your laptop, Ma" - her words.
Kindle Direct Publishing makes it easy to create and preview an e-book. We spent an afternoon fixing the illustrations and typos and the book was live in a few hours.
The immense pride that you see in your child's eyes is beyond words. Her Aunt purchased the first copy, and the little writer is now buzzing with ideas about her next book.
💡Have your own ideas or tips to share? Email them to: hello@modernvillage.com.