First day of actual “school”

School started in earnest today. I anticipated the multitudinous tech issues and had both boys on our laptops rather than their school-supplied devices (neither had zoom installed, surprise!) so at least we were able to jerryrig our way through Bobby’s full day of school and Theo’s two hours of zoom followed by independent work (that fell flat as Skies wasn’t working for us - no camera, no video, no launching of videos; sigh). 

It was a terrible flashback to last March and April with me running back and forth to both kids making sure they were paying attention and being respectful (the BF was part of this process, too, thankfully); things got better when I was able to trust Bobby to do what he was supposed to and let him use his headphones. He did great - the teacher set a timer for breaks which he followed, and after the first couple of hours he was able to be mostly unattended. Theo will need to be watched more, but thankfully his day is shorter (so far). 

After another flurry of emails I was able to fix a few issues - hopefully tomorrow they can get off our computers - and when the school gets us a hot spot for internet that should help a lot, since our internet cannot handle two zoom sessions at once. 

I’m confident things will get fixed and we’ll get into a groove. But man, today was insanely stressful, and I feel like I just ran a fucking marathon. My utter lack of preparation showed - I never did buy any supplies, assuming we had enough from previous years - and there was a big scramble for composition books and sharpened pencils and blank paper. Theo’s chair was so uncomfortable we had to retrieve our old kitchen chair from the shed. Life would be A LOT better if each kid had their own room with a desk and a light and good internet. But we don’t have any of those things, so we’re making due with an antique writing desk in a corner (Theo) and a random kitchen chair, and the kitchen table for Bobby. These arrangements will probably not last the year. We’ll see how it goes. Right now I’m just sort of Forrest Gump-ing my way through this mess. Not really leaning into it, not not participating, just hoping I come out of it in the end like crawling out of a dark cave with a “huh?” look on my face. One more day tomorrow and then at least we get a break for the weekend. 

I don’t know how single parents and/or parents with full time jobs do this, I really don’t. I *could* manage on my own, I suppose - single moms find a way. But as with all things it’s just easier with another adult around.