School Daze

 Well, this school year hasn’t gotten off to the way we originally envisioned, which in this day and age I guess is to be expected.

Here in the South kids head back to school well before Labor Day. So, with great anticipation, Connor and Harper strapped on new backpacks and headed off to their first days of second grade and pre-K, respectively, on Thursday, Aug. 5.

It lasted all of two days.

Unlike a year ago, Columbia County (Georgia) did not offer a virtual learning option, which we would not have chosen anyway. But by the end of that abbreviated week, there had been a COVID-positive person in both pre-K and Connor’s aftercare, so in-person learning has gone off the rails.

As per guidelines, Connor was not permitted back to school for at least 14 days, so we set our sights on Aug. 23 as his return date. Unlike when COVID reared its ugly head initially, at-home learning went fairly smooth with Connor for those two weeks, but he was ready to get back to being with classmates.

The Friday before his anticipated return, I put in a long day replete with mowing and edging the lawn in the hot sun before heading to work at Kohl’s. That night I wasn’t feeling great and by Saturday afternoon I was definitely out of it. A trip to urgent care discovered a fever that had reached 102.7 and a case of COVID.

That means at least another week at home. We hope all the time he's missed in-school teaching hopefully won’t be extended. In the past week alone, the county has upped safety measures twice, fueled by the rise of COVID in the area.