How are you talking to your kids about school in the fall?

[Anonymous]

We have an entering kindergartener, so he has almost no pre-existing expectations about what school will be like. The fact that we don't know whether it will be in person or online is of course causing us as adults a lot of anxiety, but we're not really discussing that with him at this point.

How are you talking with your kids about what school will (or may) be like? What are their reactions?

[Anonymous]

Struggling with this too, my kid is entering PK so a bit different as not a mandatory grade but I'm planning on waiting to talk to her about the switch in schools until we know more about what DCPS plan is.

[Anonymous]

I've got a Fall K'er too. She was in preschool this year, though (until March), so she knows that "the virus" means that school is different. If your child was in preschool or daycare or whatever, I bet he knows about the disruption, too.

So we're just talking about what she'll learn in K (letters, shapes, how to read) because no matter what format school is in, the content should be the same. Hopefully. So sticking with what we DO know. And then acknowleging that "maybe you'll ride a bus, or maybe you'll have school in the kitchen. We'll just wait and see. But won't it be fun to see who your teacher is?"

[Anonymous]

I have a rising second grader. We are not talking about it very much but I have let drop that we expect some days in class and some days remote. We have talked about setting up a new work space for her in our home office, and told her she won't be riding the bus or going to aftercare. But otherwise, staying quiet for now.

We don't know if she'll be required to wear a mask. She *really* doesn't want to so I am saving that discussion for later while occasionally bribing her to put one on.

[Anonymous]

Rising 2nd and 5th graders here. I have explained that school will look very different - they will have to wear masks and social distance, and they might not be with friends due to the half class having to go one day and the other half another day. They will also be in rows facing the front and I will be driving them to school. Both kids still want to go back and say they don’t care. They are excited just to get back to a face to face teacher and the building.

[Anonymous]

I told my rising K'er that he starts Kindergarten in the fall. Once I know what that looks like, I will tell him more. I can tell him the week before - what is the point of loading him up with uncertainty. "Maybe you will go on a bus, maybe you won't. Maybe you will go to the school, maybe you won't." What is the point of loading up such a young kid on uncertainty? He's living his best life right now with a summer nanny who pampers him, plus summer gymnastic camp. Why mess with it until there is something to tell him? I can understand with older kids though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told my rising K'er that he starts Kindergarten in the fall. Once I know what that looks like, I will tell him more. I can tell him the week before - what is the point of loading him up with uncertainty. "Maybe you will go on a bus, maybe you won't. Maybe you will go to the school, maybe you won't." What is the point of loading up such a young kid on uncertainty? He's living his best life right now with a summer nanny who pampers him, plus summer gymnastic camp. Why mess with it until there is something to tell him? I can understand with older kids though.

I'm the PP with the with the other Fall K'er. We don't dwell on uncertainty. But I don't want my kid thinking that she's going to go to school, and then, whoops, drop it on her that no, she's not. She's seen her older brothers go to their "Kindergarten Popsicle Parties" on the school playground the summer before Kindergarten. That's clearly not going to happen. She's read books, especially her favorite Berenstain Bears book, about starting school, so she knows that it's typical to actually GO to a school. The longer I keep letting her think that school in the Fall is going to be "normal", when I clearly know it's not, I think is going to create more anxiety when she finds out it's different. So that's why we're having conversations. Maybe your child will react differently, and not having older siblings, it's likely he doesn't know what to expect. But mine does know what to expect, and I don't want her to think that's what's going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Rising third grader. We've talked about the DCPS Bridge program, and about t he fact that school next year might be a mix of at home and at school, or maybe even all at home. We've talked about how we will be flexible and do our best, knowing that things might change and we'll have to change, too. We don't talk about it a lot, because we don't have a lot of details, but in general terms we are laying the groundwork for an unusual school year.

[Anonymous]

I have a rising 1st grader. I've told her she'll need to wear a mask. That got some protests, but I just mention it here or there that she needs to be getting used to the idea.

Other than that, I've told her nothing. School doesn't start for awhile and we aren't sure what it will look like. I'll let her know once things have firmed up, but I don't need a lot of anxiety about it in the mean time.

[Anonymous]

I think this depends very much on the age of your child. I am being very honest with my rising sixth grader. We don’t know yet what school will look like but it will be different and it may be a fluid situation. Child doesn’t really care as long as they can be in the building at some point.

[Anonymous]

My rising 3rd and 1st grader listened to our principal's Q&A on the options for FCPS, so they saw pictures of classroom set-ups and heard the guidelines. They know everything I know. They have basically reacted as I expected - the one who has fun no matter what is fine, the one who needs to know everything and process it is processing.

For my PK4, I have no idea so I haven't said everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my rising K'er that he starts Kindergarten in the fall. Once I know what that looks like, I will tell him more. I can tell him the week before - what is the point of loading him up with uncertainty. "Maybe you will go on a bus, maybe you won't. Maybe you will go to the school, maybe you won't." What is the point of loading up such a young kid on uncertainty? He's living his best life right now with a summer nanny who pampers him, plus summer gymnastic camp. Why mess with it until there is something to tell him? I can understand with older kids though.

I'm the PP with the with the other Fall K'er. We don't dwell on uncertainty. But I don't want my kid thinking that she's going to go to school, and then, whoops, drop it on her that no, she's not. She's seen her older brothers go to their "Kindergarten Popsicle Parties" on the school playground the summer before Kindergarten. That's clearly not going to happen. She's read books, especially her favorite Berenstain Bears book, about starting school, so she knows that it's typical to actually GO to a school. The longer I keep letting her think that school in the Fall is going to be "normal", when I clearly know it's not, I think is going to create more anxiety when she finds out it's different. So that's why we're having conversations. Maybe your child will react differently, and not having older siblings, it's likely he doesn't know what to expect. But mine does know what to expect, and I don't want her to think that's what's going to happen.

Ok continue those conversations. The entire country is agonizing over what to do here, so go ahead and put that on your kid because she’s been to a popsicle party and needs certainty. There isn’t certainty. You’re not going to be able to give it to her. So my suggestion would be to teach her to be a little bit flexible.

[Anonymous]

Rising K. I was going to wait, but like PP I’m starting to drop hints like, you might have to wear masks at school, you won’t be able to ride the bus, the virus is getting worse because people aren’t wearing their masks so that’s why mommy always says wear it. He originally met this with a lot of anger, but I think prepping him is the right move. Recently I out the news on and we listened to Dr Fauci talk about social distance and “cases going up.” So he sees it’s real and not just something in mom’s head. It’s so invisible he was “over it” yelling “social distancing is stupid!!”

[Anonymous]

Rising 1st and 3rd. We talk about how we expect that next year will be a mix of some time at school and some time distance learning, and talk about how it will be an interesting adventure. We don't get into details because we don't have them yet.

[Anonymous]

I just told my high schoolers I would kick their assRs if they don’t wear their masks and not to bring home the ‘rona cuz that would blow chunks of dead chicken through a straw. Also I told them they better so their work or their iPhones will mysteriously stop working and car keys would be mysteriously lost.