This post was meant to be shared in the fall of 2020, as school resumed, but as it goes, life is on its own schedule these days. So here I am in December, finally gathering the words to share our experience at the start of 4th grade, during a global pandemic. Better late than never!
This past fall when the realization that elementary school was going to be remote, aka online, for my 4th grade, ten-year-old son Charlie, I decided to pack our car and take off for my family’s condo in Aspen, Colorado. Grateful am I to have this place that belongs to my stepfather to call a home away from home. We live in Venice, CA, and the drive via Southern Utah into Colorado is a solid two-to-three-day trek. Being held captive in the USA since March, the start of our global pandemic, had made our family stir crazy. We typically travel abroad a handful of times annually. Charlie has explored 24 countries in his young ten years of life! We are blessed and have followed a life mantra to choose experiences over objects. We don’t own a home. We save in order to travel, instead. It’s what fuels our tanks!
Welp! We adjusted to this new idea of school behind a screen. We expanded at the same time and had the realization that there were treasures of divine nature to be had, right in our backyard. We had three weeks, one of which would be spent in Aspen for the first week of 4th grade for Charlie.
After ordering a real folding paper map of Utah and Colorado that would guide our way to Aspen, I humbled myself and accepted that perhaps there was MUCH more of the USA that I had to discover and share with my family. A teacher friend shared that all 4th-grade children in the states can access a pass that grants free entry into all of the US National Parks! How perfect! Applying for that pass and printing it out gave Charlie, my kiddo, a sense of ownership and leadership as we departed. We had five days before school started, so we headed to Utah.
Highlights on the road trip to Aspen included Bryce Canyon, Goblin Valley, Escalante Park, and Boulder, Utah. We hiked through slot canyons. We discovered private zip lines. We bathed under freezing-cold waterfalls. We trekked with six llamas that truly changed our lives. We pushed limits. We laughed. We bickered and pushed each other’s buttons. It sure beat what we had been doing at home for the prior six months!
School started upon arrival to Aspen, and no, we didn’t nail it. We did not have the perfect desk setup with an ergonomically correct chair and keyboard. We did not have ALL the school supplies. We winged it though! Due to the time change from L.A. to CO, we often played some tennis before school started. Two days of that first week back, we played hooky to hike The Maroon Bells and to drive up the pass to see the Aspen leaves changing colors. What was more educational? Online zombie school or hiking some wonders of the world? Waterfalls, bike rides, bouldering, and mountain biking–Aspen was good to us.
The trip back to L.A. was again filled with wonder. We hiked deep into the Arches of Moab. We rafted the Colorado River. We trekked waist-high through water in The Narrows of Zion. We practically got swept away in a windstorm at our glamping camp.
We enjoyed three glorious weeks overall, dipping into freezing-cold river water or waterfalls. We collected red rocks shaped like hearts. We achieved badges for the blisters on our feet from climbing higher than we have ever climbed. Charlie’s national park booklet has more stamps filling its pages than ever before.
It was ALL worth it, and it set the tone for this 2020-2021 school year that is a true shit show–I can say now, reflecting halfway through.
There is NOTHING that my son will miss this school year academically that will hold him back from achieving his full potential. So what if he doesn’t learn 4th-grade division facts? He will still be an amazing human. He will have survived a pandemic as an elementary-aged child. He will be stronger, more resilient, and more compassionate for having his travel experiences.
I am forever grateful that we had the freedom and fortune to have uprooted and left home to have our journey back in the fall of 2020. I know that we are among a small population of Americans that have this privilege. My work as his mother is to translate that privilege into a language that he can digest, with a sense of understanding that can guide him in adding to our community. I hope to nurture his sensitivity into a strength that can become true compassion, leadership, self-reliance, and joy that can be shared.
Experience nature whenever you can. We are in L.A., and what we can access easily here is far from what Utah and Colorado gave to us. However, it was necessary for us. It was a reminder of our roots and a true breath of fresh air. Take it whenever you can.
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