Are you frustrated with how the school year has changed due to COVID-19? I know the Link household is.….. As most people know, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) was 100% virtual for all students. This made life interesting in the Link household. Shannon, my wife, also works for nonprofit. We both had board meetings on Monday which we both needed to prepare for. At the same time, Drew needed a lot of help getting and staying online. He also needed a lot of help staying focused since it was his first day ever of school. Yep, that’s right, Drew is 5 and started kindergarten Monday. To say we had a rough first day of school is an understatement. Tuesday was much better for us but Wednesday on the other hand…. I don’t think I can share the conversation Shannon and I had without some heavy editing.
I share this with you because I’d like you to know I appreciate what you as parents might be experiencing with your own families. I want you to know you are not alone. This is also why Next Step Clubhouse has been working out how to adapt our School Day Out Program.
The short version is that we will not be able to adapt our clubhouse programming to create a learning environment outside of the home for you and your family. As a social and recreational program, we simply are not designed to be a classroom.
With that said, we are expanding our School Day Out Program. Starting August 31, 2020, Next Step Clubhouse considers every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that CMS is open to be a School Day Out day. What does this mean? For starters, if your child doesn’t have to be in class for half of or all of the day, they can come join us in the clubhouse. If your child needs to take a day off so you can go to the meeting (or just need a mental break like we did), they can join us at the clubhouse. If you decided to temporarily unenroll, the clubhouse is open. If your child needs ZERO assistance getting online and participating in any school related function and can skip a class or 2 when we leave the clubhouse for activities, the clubhouse might be a place to go.
Please feel free to call the Clubhouse at 908-272-7687 with any questions you have about our School Day Out program.