Johnnie First Day Online Kinder

So last year I don't know who was more nervous on Johnnie's first day of TK at Mar Vista Elementary, which was almost exactly a year ago. Actually I do know the answer to that question. It was ME. Johnnie did not have a good first couple of days if I remember and was simply trying to get acclimated. No such problems this year because for the first day of Kinder, it's all online. And he's here at my apartment with me. But that doesn't mean I was any less nervous than last year. I wanted everything to be perfect at least technologically. It was like this the first time I had my Tech Council meeting online 6 months ago. And now, it's like second nature. Like the last month of TK when everyone was on Zoom then too, all I wanted was for Johnnie to be engaged and paying attention. He has developed a penchant for being fidgety with a short attention span. But then again aren't all kids that way? All I know is I needed to make sure he was listening to the teacher Ms. Wiley and the difficult part is that they are all navigating through the tech stuff together, just like we did at QueensCare in March. They will be ok in time and things will work out I'm sure of it. It has to. Just like with QueensCare. The school plan was actually to slowly acclimate and to ramp up for the next week. Which means all he had to do today was to log on, know the basic commands and be familiar with online etiquette. You know, raise your hands before you speak, don't unmute yourself. And for me it was about getting used to the school portal which will have ALL of his online materials and activities. This could work... I mean it's like me at work with TEAMS and Outlook and stuff and even more directed. The thing I didn't know how it would work out was the interaction with the other kids. There were maybe 6 kids from his TK class in this class and so he knew some of the kids. But not the majority of them and I wonder how that will work out? We will all have to see...

I was actually on Johnnie's case for the good part of the school day. I needed him to understand that the routine has now changed. And I'm afraid I didn't do a good job explaining that. And so he sort of didn't pay attention to his class. Which irritated me. And so I found all the videos they played in the Zoom class and made him listen to them over and over again for the next hour. Finally I reminded myself to watch MY state. It's actually not his fault, it was mine. I didn't prepare him enough for the first day of online school. And now I have to catch him up mentally and emotionally. And myself as well. Fortunately, despite multiple bouts of me yelling at him to pay attention and to stop playing games [yeah right, like that would work after I spent months playing nothing but games...], and throwing whatever little bouts of activity that I could at him, he managed to take it like a sport. See him doing PE activity stuff? And he still did ask for Panda Express for dinner. And tonight surprise surprise, Lisa called a full hour earlier than expected to pick him up. She figured that the first week of class probably has me on overdrive. And it did. So much so, a blip in my resting heartrate from 69 to 71 after almost 3 weeks at 69 happened because of the first day of school, NOT from anything at work. And if I were in the office, today was the day after Tech Council Meeting and the HIT Meeting which meant I was tanking after lunch. I probably would be wandering around 7th and Fig too. But not today. I did do the HIT Roundtable and I did manage to highlight some of my own work... the Approval Center had a few people pretty impressed. But there would be none of that TANK stuff, not with Johnnie in the house. I happily handed him over at 7 PM and updated Lisa on what had to be done for class tomorrow. I'm coming over to make sure Zoom is prepped and ready to roll and they have no problems. And then I finished off my 11,000 steps. Another Thursday night. But it wasn't was it? At least the work week is almost over...