Remote learning with a kindergartner

I am so thankful for kindergarten teachers. They are truly an amazing group of people who have tons of patience, speak in a calm and beautiful voice and could quite possibly be superheroes.

During our seven weeks of remote learning I have become fully aware that I am not a kindergarten teacher. I appreciate the choice board that we receive each week and try to give Caroline two choices each day on what she can accomplish for each subject (for a total of 5 activities). It is fun to do these learning activities when Caroline is having fun.

A rainbow nature scavenger hunt

Drawing as many shapes as she can think of

Using play doh to spell out some of her sight words

Drawing a favorite scene in her book

For instance, today in math we walked around the house and discovered things that are taller than Caroline (refrigerator, door) and things that are shorter than Caroline (the toilet, the sink). And then we cruised right into looking at a book together and she was supposed to point out all the sight words that she knew. Except that Caroline decided that instead of pointing out words that she knew she wanted to try to read the entire book. Ok, great! Finding excitement to read for Caroline doesn't happen all of the time, so I went with it. And she did great! For the first 15 pages. I then realized how many more pages were left until the end of the book and told her we were no longer trying to read the whole thing and would now just be doing the original assignment of finding the sight words. But I had lost her. Because I don't have the magic of a kindergarten teacher. Because her sister was being ridiculously distracting by trying to "do school" with us. Because she's not in a classroom setting with a trained teacher who knows how to get her excited again. Because her peers aren't next to her trying to do the exact same thing as her which brings a thought of, I don't know, work ethic or peer pressure to keep going. Instead she's with her mom who is losing her patience and then feeling terrible for losing her patience.

So we took a break. I let her play with her sister. I breathed and allowed myself grace in that moment. I thought about how amazing her teacher is and how much I miss our "normal." I thought about how much I miss my job and the satisfaction I get from it. I also know that this is just a short moment of time in our lives. She will not remember (hopefully) her mom losing patience with schoolwork. I hope she will remember us running around the house, laughing and finding all of the things that she is already too tall for. It's what I want to remember the most too.