Thursday, August 27, 2020

End of Free Play

By the time this gets posted, Little Miss Sunshine will have had gotten through her first day of kindergarten – and hopefully, I have my bearings intact.

A little over five-and-a-half years ago, Caeli Elise was born nearly four months premature. You’ve all read the chapters over the time span, and a lot of other stuff namely me finding my political voice (Garveyism within the concept of being pro-Black in very conservative Arkansas – study Brother Marcus Garvey to understand the views and why I found that speaks to me more than any Democratic, Republican, Green, or Libertarian Party ever will), sharing the ups and downs of serving a small traditional Black Baptist church in a leadership capacity, and igniting a passion that my family and Saline County as a whole have enjoyed since 2017 in Dub Shack BBQ; nonetheless, many eyes have peered themselves toward this direction as a result of the Dad Chronicles – life as a preemie pop to today, just a middle-class dad trying to love, care, protect, and provide for his wife and only child.

But all things do come to an end, and in the age of coronavirus, Caeli is starting kindergarten at big school. This Tiger (no, she won’t be a Leopard or a Wampus Cat – we live the Hornet life down here) is looking forward to it, and I have to say I agree mostly because the past five months have turned our worlds and routines upside down. For a child who was robbed of finishing pre-K by this novel ailment, she has been remarkably resilient except for playtime with her neighbors when we have to remind her why she cannot go into their houses to play. However, she needs to return to a regular routine of waking up early and laying down at a very defined bedtime:  What this means is the village must step up - when one falls short, another picks up the pieces for the ship to keep sailing smoothly.

Like I said months ago, AMI was a nonstarter for Caeli. We will have to get a feel of Google Classroom if not set up my computer for Zoom on a semi-permanent basis.

Do we have all of this together? Hell no! Not even close, and for some parts of it, I wish we would not have had to endure.

As the above tweet references, I am terrified of what Collegeville Elementary brings us in an abnormal school year. For the Wampus Cats who remember her, this is the school Katie (Villines) Thomas was the principal before she passed away from a heart attack a few years ago; I am still confident in the teaching and support staff educating Caeli as well as assuaging my own concerns and worries as they still exist. It’s not like I can be a helicopter parent given all of the security measures for everyone’s protection from COVID19 – heck, I can’t even bring McDonald’s in one day to eat lunch with her! More, this could very well be culture shock for her in a way that our own neighborhood looks like the United Nations in comparison:  I won’t deny the fact that she will walk into a classroom and for the first time, not only do most of the other students not look like her but possibly neither will the teacher. Coming from the majority-Black preschools in Little Rock she had attended – and excelled – this will be a new ballgame. I’m sure she’ll do fine yet as her father, I had better be on my A-game!

WE DON’T PLAY THAT.

More significantly, the end of free play means that the days of unstructured games are ending. I did not say innocence, but free play before structured routine takes over her days. In large part to COVID19, we are having to break bad habits such as sleeping in and obsessively watching YouTube, playing Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite (all of which have been banned) only to replace them with good habits and further exploring her interests in astronomy and technology. She’ll get to live a normal (for 2020) childhood but there will be days when I miss my baby bear being so small and all of the fun things that her mom has an idea of that I won’t mention in this space such as airplane *all aboard Air Caeli* around the house.

I am not ready for this - the tears will be proof in the pudding.

Thanks to all of you for your fervent prayers, relationships, newly discovered friendships within Springhill Manor as we try to help keep Bryant’s best-kept secret safe enough for our kids to play freely, reading the words that have come from this space over the past several years, and for anything that has escaped my mind over the time. As we begin the process of formal elementary education, we must recognize that not every day will be a ride in the back of the Cadillac; bumps, bruises, and potholes will have a part in the program that we must prepare ourselves for.


 


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Keep your comments civil and clean. If you have to hide behind anonymous or some false identity, then you're part of the problem with comment sections. Grow up and stand up for your words/actions.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)