Pomerleau Family Blog: First days of school-2020 was a completely different start to the school year

School this year was a strange one. In August the school district began announcements about possibly starting the school year with distance learning. They had several meetings and the parents had to choose for the first half of the year to do hybrid or distance learning. The hybrid schedule was one that the kids would be placed in small cohorts (groups) figured out by the kids' last names A-L together and M-Z together and each cohort would go to school for 3 hours a day together. There was a lot of meetings, debate, and speculation leading up to the first day of school. We found out in mid August that the kids were not going to be going back to school even though we chose the hybrid schedule as our counties were not meeting the COVID requirements to go back to school at the time set by Governor Brown but that we would be starting the year with distance learning. They also pushed back the start of the school year a week so they were starting Monday September 14th. The school year also started in the middle of the wildfire and smokes that were blanketing Oregon. Due to the amount of smoke outside, I got the kids' annual first day of school photos inside. Brandon had Ms. Berkowitz this year with his friend Silas and Matthew in his class. Olivia had Ms. Steele this year and was so excited to have her bestie Addie in her class. I completely re-did the kids' playroom to have room for a desk and to make a good study place for one of the kids. We added a desk upstairs in our bonus room for the other kid so we were set up nicely for the school year.

First day of school as a 4th grader!

Brandon's first day of school sign says first day of Distance learning and that his teacher is Ms. Berkowitz, he is 9.5 years old, and he wants to be an engineer when he he grows up

Olivia's first day of 2nd grade!

Olivia's first day of school sign says she is 7 years old, her teacher is Ms. Steel and Ms. Sherri (her tutor), and when she grows up she wants to be a vet

Olivia and Brandon's first day of 2nd and 4th grade

Brandon with Teddy and Olivia with Lulu on the first day of school

First day of school in our newly set up room

Olivia and Teddy on the first day of school

Listening to class on the first week of school

Olivia and I had fun going to Target the Friday after the first week of school and we found the dogs some cute Halloween costumes. It was a fun way to end our first week of school! We ended the night with a fun Monopoly game (which we had just bought and the kids discovered they loved). We had our neighbors over to jump on the trampoline. That weekend Brooke and I took Logan and Brandon to the Children's golf course (a small par 3 over in Oregon City). The boys had fun golfing and it was nice getting out to enjoy the fresh clean smoke free air now.

Ladybug Lulu

Rainbow Teddy!

Monopoly fun

Neighbors on the trampoline

Golfing at the Children's Course

Brandon and I at the golf course

Beautiful day to golf

The dogs got groomed and looked so cute in mid September! I had found a wonderful retired teacher to tutor the kids for 10 hours a week with them doing distance learning. Her name was Sherri and she was willing to take the kids with masks at her house which was only 5 minutes away. Our neighbor John who is in Brandon's grade joined the pod and Addie did for Wednesdays. Sherri also had a nephew who was turning in the pod as well. Olivia and Addie started school at our tutoring pod and dressed up in their apple dresses for the first day of our tutoring pod and looked so cute! We had more Monopoly fun and then took Auntie Rachel's family to our fun Sunset Park near our house. It was a very fun first weeks of school!