A positive today - my grandson and I move on from 4th grade.
I have been able to provide a space and a little help for my grandson. When school was iffy as to when it would open, I offered my services to his parents to help them. It would be all or nothing. He was signed up for total virtual learning and we were off.
What a year it has been. And what a lot they are teaching 4th graders. I am from a family of educators so I knew there was help for me if I needed it. We did not. He did great and I was very happy with the program.
I had so much time with him. We laughed, we cried, we debated, and we learned from each other. If we did not know something, we researched. When he learned about the Irish and Europeans exodus to America, I got to share stories I learned from my mom and my grandma. When they talked about native Americans, we discussed the ancestry of his baby sister who is Ojibwa on her dads side. When they had a course on women's rights, we discussed my grandmother not being able to vote and my mom not being able to get a credit card. We discussed civil rights, gay rights, boomers, and YouTube. And so much more.
He learned Republicans make his booma (the name he gave me when he was a toddler, it has stuck) swear. He opines that trump is an idiot. He wants to be an artist and has declared himself pansexual. We will see.
We watched Jan 6 together. He learned from watching it that he does not want to be stupid like them. And we talked about how he is to deal with people who act like that. We also watched BLM marched, and talked about the differences.
He is a smart kid, all As and the biggest problem being to slow him down to get his hours requirement. He learned about my life, my opinions. I am struggling to explain that I used to he considered a bleeding liberal women's lib white girl, and that I am now considered an old white woman centrist. But with him, I am Booma. I am the person who was lucky to be home so he could avoid the pandemic.
And to me, he is hope. With all going on in the world, he is a ray of sunshine. He is the reason I feel we are going to he ok. He is aware of the world and rolls with it. He has survived more than I ever had to face at his young age. In the past couple of years he has lost both great grandmas, been bullied to the point the police had to he brought in ( trumpets kids, flags and all), his parents divorced and are both in new relationships and new jobs. He has a new baby sister. And he turned 10 last week. He also knows how lucky we are, even though his mom and grandpa were exposed to "the covid" , none of us got it. My daughter was one who lost her job because of the pandemic, but one of the lucky ones who got a new one.
Kids are so much more aware of everything going on. And we have to believe in them. They know they had this year taken from them, and they know why. They are aware of the planet, and are learning how to save it. They have lives filled with different ethnicities, different religions, and different views. They are weighed down by the responsibilities we are leaving them. They are also up for the challenge. We haven't given them a choice.
If you are still reading, thank you for putting up with a long post. I don't write very often as there are so many here that post so well, saying things so well. So many views and layers of experience from world wide to down to earth. It humbles me.
There has been a lot of negativity, some snarking, and a whole lot of right wing opinions shared lately. I think it is a trump hangover, with some hair of the dog republican bloviating still out there, encouraging knee jerk reaction. Well, I have bad knees. So no more jerking for me.
So off I go to the last day of school. Retired, but not dead, and still relevant. And feeling very lucky.
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How fortunate to have such a meaningful and close relationship with your grandson. 
Thank you!!! 
