I’ve been looking forward to my son starting Kindergarten since his toddler days, but unfortunately due to COVID-19, his first day of school is not going to be quite like I imagined. I’ve been watching, waiting and hoping things would improve, but here in Florida it just seems to be getting worse.

While I’m glad they are taking precautions, my heart sank as I read the school’s plans for the upcoming school year and tried to imagine how it’s going to go. There will be no walking him to class, but instead a drop off at the entrance and a forehead scan on the way in. Tears welled up as I read about social distancing, face shields, masks and directional arrows on the ground.

How will my little 5-year-old navigate this strange new world? Doubt about both his safety and ability to adjust to this weird situation gnaws at me. I wonder if I should just keep him home? Try homeschooling? or maybe just wait and start him in school next year at six?

Our efforts at home education failed miserably after pre-school was cut short in March. It would take bribes of candy and the patience of a saint just to eek out 30 min. of frustrated learning time. He learns better in a classroom situation. But what if he’s in a classroom, wearing a face shield, sitting six feet away from everyone? Will he be able to learn anything except how to play with a face shield?

My mom and I have already gotten into it when I suggested he’d be going to school. She flipped out. But she’s too far away to help out. She’s never tried to teach him anything like ABC’s or writing his name. She has no idea what having a five year old boy around 24-7 is like. I’m sitting here writing this at 4AM because I couldn’t sleep and getting up ridiculously early is the only time I can hear myself think.

I just don’t know what to do. I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long, and it’s almost here, and now I’m just a bit scared and sad about the whole situation…

*Update: My son started kindergarten August 20th, and it actually went quite well! I wrote about it here: The First Day of Kindergarten During a Pandemic. He is enjoying school and has gotten really good at wearing his cute little school mask. Their tables are divided up with tape instead of partitions (I wonder how that’s working, lol) and only some of the kids are wearing face shields, although the all got to try them on. We are one week into it and I’m optimistic it is going to work out. I sure hope so because I am LOVING having a child in school!