Jessica
You opened your email to a reality check.
Just at the time when your family finally found a way to make a short trip to one of the most beautiful spots in the country you were forced to deal with the realities of the opening of the school year. Your trip to Hawaii has been postponed and your tickets for Oahu helicopter tours have been postponed; the week long get away and plans for sightseeing adventures were just beginning and your wife alerted you to the email from your youngest daughter’s preschool that needed immediate attention.
In short, the email from the preschool director indicated that at this time they are surveying all of their current families, as well as those who have graduated, who have elementary age students who will or may be affected by their school districts’ decision to split scheduling this fall. One of the reasons that you were adamant about finding some kind of outdoor sightseeing adventure to replace the postponed Hawaii vacation was that you needed to get away from the stress and the constant conversations about the Covid-19 pandemic. And now, just as you were preparing to enjoy an outdoor sightseeing adventure in the Rocky Mountains, your wife insists that you have at least one more conversation about the upcoming school year.
How Are Your Family Vacation Plans Changing Based on the Pandemic?
It is no surprise that of the 5,000 aircraft that are typically in the sky at any moment that many of them are taking families on life long, dream sightseeing adventures. During these last few months, however, more and more people are settling for different, scaled down versions of what may have been previous grand vacation plans. And given that schools are just now publishing their back to school options, there are many families who are having even their closed to home vacations interrupted as they consider what the next school year will look like. A recent AAA survey found that as many as 35% of Americans typically plan to take a vacation of at least 50 miles away from home, but the exact number of miles that many families are traveling are severely being limited.
And even when families do find time to escape their work schedule for awhile, this is a summer when most realize that they are going to have to keep at least one eye on the messages that they are getting from their childrens’ school districts. If those plans include fewer days in the classroom, of course, there are many parents who will be looking for alternative options for their children. For example, preschools that currently have certified Elementary Education teachers may be contemplating offering e-learning for their families this Fall. If there is enough interest, in fact, many of these early education centers may host a very specialized K-3 classroom for children needing educational support and care on the opposite school group days, what has been come to be known as three-two splits, and various kinds of other alternative learning plans.
These specialized services will be offered to families needing a safe, nurturing, educational space to help their children excel in the required e-learning directives by offering an enhanced learning environment to complement their school schedule or in place of where and when required. These expanded daycares and early education options may decide to offer small groups led by a qualified teacher, guided academic instruction and tutoring, safe socialization, small classroom sizes, revised policies and procedures that directly address Covid-19 needs, music, and physical education, as well as provide amazing in-house field trips and experiences and hot nutritious meals. Parents who are interested in more information or have questions, may find themselves having to drop everything and contact these centers if they want to take advantage of the first priority that their current centers are offering.
This means, of course, that vacation plans may have to be pushed aside and decisions about the fall will need to be made immediately if parents want to take advantage of spots that will surely be in high demand. And many parents will have to prioritize their vacations days for no school days.
