I spent last week in Nebraska, caring for my parents who, at 97 and almost 94, are definitely winding down. Each afternoon we’d take a drive around the county on roads that followed the Little Blue River and the Union Pacific tracks. We drove past farms abandoned long ago, with barns and houses on the verge of collapsing. It was a time of deep reflecting on the cycles of life.
As I returned to the Seed this week, it was clear that we, too, are in a process of winding down. For us, it’s an exciting time of completing a whole school year, pride in acknowledging accomplishments, and for some children the anticipation of moving on to a new school. For our 3rd/4th grade graduates, it’s a time of intense revisiting of years at the Seed, especially for those who have been with us since the Toddler 1s. For them, and for many of us, it’s a bittersweet time.
Winding down after another year with Covid is especially a time of mixed feelings. We’ve successfully made it through another year, stressful as it’s been with having to continue our vigilance, and have been able to return to a few of our standard practices. Having parents in the building in the mornings has been good for everyone. We are so happy that we were able to hold our tie-dye/tile painting day and start a new winter solstice tradition. There are other practices and events that we were not able to include as part of this school year, which has added to the sense of loss created by the pandemic. We weren’t able to have buddy reading all year, and the kids missed out on some incredibly precious relationships. We also had to forego our huge annual Halloween carnival. We continued to handle pickup at the front door and back gate which, though efficient, limited opportunities for parents and teachers to establish deeper relationships.
We decided to make this year’s end-of-year awards ceremonies more open and inclusive by holding them outside. Doing so will allow parents to attend in-person, gathering together to celebrate the end of the year. Because the awards will be held outside, we are conducting them over three mornings, starting on Wednesday. Those days we will continue to have a regular school day schedule, so if your child receives their award on Wednesday or Thursday, they will still have school through the end of the week. We hope you will all be able to attend your child’s award ceremony, and stay tuned for further details.