Well, Bridge family, we have made it through two days and survived. At least I think we all have! I have been so overwhelmed by seeing you all work together to create consistency for our kids. I am so proud of all of you! The pictures have been priceless. Please keep posting them. It keeps us all a little more connected to each other. Remember that Friday and Monday were already holidays so you will not have to have your child do work on those days. You are halfway through the first week!!
We really cannot predict how long we will be asked to maintain this level of social distancing or how long we will remain out of school. So I am going to ask you to view this like a marathon, not a race. If your child is having a difficult day, take that day to spend some extra time on the subjects he or she loves. Take what they enjoy and make meaningful activities out of that. This would be a great time to teach things that we don't get to teach much at school. Can they sew on a button? follow a recipe? talk on the telephone? help with chores? So many Board games are about all kinds of hidden skills. See what you have and how you can bounce off that. There are about a million resources on our Facebook page so take a look at those. I may or may not have taken a virtual field trip or two over the past few days.
Your kids are going to remember this period of time. That is a fact. You get to decide how they remember these weeks. Will it be conflict and frustration and fear or will it be a precious time of memory-making that came out of something bad? We are open to all the creative ways you can teach your kids. if you want to take a few days to create a family tree and let your child research their ancestors that would be amazing! If your child loves to cook, create a cooking show with your camera and allow them to post it for their friends to see. Maybe your child has been eager to learn a new craft. This is a great time to do it along with them. Pinterest has so many "Minute to Win IT" games that can break up the monotony of your day. At school, we are always looking for ways to give them just a minute to regroup and reset when they are having some difficulty with a task. Many of our kids love to dance! They would love for you to dance with them even if they roll their eyes.
Yes, we have upper school kids that need to stay on track to maintain their credits. But this time is an incredible time to be present with your kids. Curl up and read together. Teach them to journal their thoughts. Use your conversation starter cards that were in your packet. What if, in the wake of this thing, we find ourselves closer to the people we loved? What if we learned to be better listeners and learned to love each other well? What if, in having to hide out in our homes, we learned to reach out to others a little better? What if, right in the middle of a world of cynicism and distrust we learned that God was bigger than we ever imagined and we learned He could be trusted with all of it?
Please take care of yourselves and love your kids enough for all of us because we are missing them fiercely. Rest. Tomorrow is another day! #TBOGstrong