Dear Callum,

I wouldn’t have predicted it a year ago, but your biggest challenge in your first grade online learning class is keeping your mouth shut. I don’t think you said a word for the whole first trimester of kindergarten, but now, you can’t resist unmuting yourself and chiming in on every little thing. It can be disruptive to the learning environment, and we’re working on it, but secretly I’m glad you feel comfortable participating so actively. Your teacher is great, and you have some of our old friend-teachers for your specials, and overall you’re learning a lot. I’m very impressed with how fluent and confident you’ve gotten with reading. We’ve been taking turns reading books at bedtime, and you have no problem with those. Most of them are familiar favorites, of course, but you’ve been doing well reading new books aloud in school as well. You’ve really been enjoying the Mercy Watson book you’ve been reading, and it’s inspired you to eat toast “with a great deal of butter.”

I hope at this time next month I’m writing about you having completed your first COVID vaccine, or at least that we have it on the schedule. All signs point to it being available some time in the next several weeks. That’s going to be a huge relief for our family. As I mentioned above, online learning is going great for you, but it’s something I hope you don’t do indefinitely. The school district has amended its previous plan of only allowing changes between learning modes at the trimester marks. Instead, they plan to have a start date in early January, or whenever the vaccine has been available to kids your age long enough for you to have gotten two doses plus the two-week wait. That will be a tough decision for us. I would love for you to have a traditional school experience, but it might be hard on you to be a “new kid,” as most students are doing in-person learning now. We’ll see how it goes. Tobin definitely wants to go back to school as soon as possible, but he has the advantage of returning to a grade full of his old friends. I don’t think there are many of your old preschool classmates who will return to that elementary school, and even if there were, do you even remember the kids from preschool any more?

You are a sweet-hearted little person. Today we were talking about the difference between “thanks” and “thank you.” You described “thank you” as more tender. I gave the example that if you dropped your pencil and I picked it up for you, it would be perfectly fine to say “thanks.” However, if I worked really hard on a special birthday cake for you, it would be nice to say, “Oh, thank you so much.” You smiled and agreed, and you even teared up a little imagining such a moment.

Another emotional event for you was when you voted on what your school mascot should be. The online program is a permanent addition to our school district, and they’re treating it as its own school, so it needs a mascot. You were having a hard time deciding between the two choices. You liked the idea of the Otters, because otters are so cute, but in the end you said, “I voted for the owls. I just had to do it for Pengwee.” Pengwee is your stuffed owl, and once again, you got a little tearful thinking about how much you love that guy. Fortunately for your tender heart, the Owls won. You and Pengwee were happy to hear it.

You’ve decided to be Luigi for Halloween, and we’ve been working on your costume. Check this space next month for pictures. We bought a set with a hat, gloves, and an adhesive mustache, but we’re making the overalls. You tried them on today so I could check the fit, and you’re awfully cute. You even found a vacuum cleaner attachment downstairs, and you want to carry it around in order to emulate Luigi in his role in Luigi’s Mansion. In that game, he carries around a tool that sucks up ghosts. You assured me that it was very appropriate, since Halloween is a time when you’re quite likely to run into a ghost. I think we will do traditional trick-or-treating this year (which makes me wonder whether we should put the adhesive mustache on your mask). Maybe your dad or I can accept the treat on your behalf and the home occupant can appreciate your costume from an appropriate social distance.

Your current favorites: playing outside, crafting various weapons and toys for yourself, Minecraft, YouTube, the math games on Dreambox, taking showers, and the movement activities you do with your classmates on GoNoodle. You never met a stick you didn’t want to pick up and swing around. We went on a walk to gather fall leaves for an art project, and you have different standards than I do about what makes a collectable leaf. “It has so many holes!” you said as you put another brown, crunchy leaf in the bag.

I love the enthusiasm you have for your world, Callum. I know it can be hard to be quiet, and we’ll keep working on timing your school contributions appropriately. You’re so much fun, and I’m so glad we have a jolly little guy like you at our house.

Love,

Mommy