Into the Great Wide Open

I had imagined this post to be the crown jewel of the Chronicles. I mean, Into The Great Wide Open is the title track of the Tom Petty album that inspired our Chronicles’ name for goodness sakes! (In case you haven’t noticed, our post titles follow Tom Petty’s Into The Great Wide Open album’s song titles in order.)

But last week was hard. I felt uninspired. I wondered if we had made a mistake. We didn’t seem to have any Into The Great Wide Open-worthy moments. There would be no triumphant, expansive, grand post about how our life was opening up and changing for the best last week. The best I could hope for was to condense a frustrating week into part of a post covering multiple weeks. Essentially waiting for the inspo…

This morning it occurred to me that Tom Petty’s Into the Great Wide Open isn’t only about inspiring ideas. He says it himself in the chorus. It’s about a “rebel without a clue.” Well, that was the Grays last week. A bunch of East Coast rebels without a clue of how we were really going to make this all work out West.

So here’s what happened last week:

The week of August 16 was painful. August 17 we started remote learning through our children’s school. We love the school! Aubrey and Cameron were assigned to some of the very best teachers. But all of that is lost in translation via remote learning. Zoom links failed, their Canvas platform for assignments broke repeatedly, Zoom meetings were frequent and always at the same time between the children so Robert and I were bouncing between the two like ping pong balls. Children melted down. Doors slammed. Disrespect was thrown like confetti. All of this happened between 6am and 11am MST. We were all stressed to the edge.

In July, we had made the decision to move out West for the fall because we wanted our children to continue to love learning. We looked at the CDC recommendations that came out in the spring and didn’t see how school could possibly be a positive experience for our family this fall. We were privileged to have the flexibility in our schedules and the creativity running through our veins to make another semester of “Gray School” work.

We believe deeply in our Charlotte school and wanted to give it a good college try. But the hours of trying/fighting/being dropped off the platform anyway wasn’t teaching our children anything but worry, stress, and angst.

So Friday morning we woke up and to the first demand, the same one that had been made every morning this week, “I’m not going on Zoom,’ I said, “no, you’re not.” We had breakfast like civilized people (not formal, but slowly, and not rushed over a Zoom call.) I sat the children down at the table and welcomed them back to Gray School. Here are the rules:

1. To learn, have fun, and explore in nature as much as possible.
2. No whining.
3. STAR (same as the children’s school): Show kindness, Take responsibility, Act safely, Respect everyone

Day 1 of Gray School was as follows:

• Creative Writing Assignment on any topic they chose. They both chose to write about their horses from the dude ranch.
• Two Reading Assignments from Reading A to Z. We successfully work weekly with a tutor and this is the platform that we use.
• PE: Zipline and rock climbing training at a nearby playground in Whitefish.
• Music Appreciation in the car on the way to Big Mountain. We’re starting with Led Zeppelin. I aced History of Rock n Roll at UNC, so that makes me certified to teach this one;)
• Natural Sciences on Big Mountain. A Forest Ranger led us on a walk around the mountain to teach us about various indigenous wildflowers, trees and some animal species of the area. Upon departing the top of the mountain, we saw one of the deer species we had just learned about –the Mule Deer– grazing on the mountain top. They are called Mule Deer because their ears are so big they look like mules. The bucks also have a different antler pattern than Whitetails.
• School Dismissed!

We took the Apline slides down the last fourth of Big Mountain instead of the chairlift, packed up a dinner picnic back at home, and headed to Whitefish lake to enjoy dinner on a pontoon boat. We ended the day happy and watching the sunset over the lake. Alleluia!

One fear in the back of my mind that pops up every now and then, especially when scrolling ig seeing the children we know who are going back to in-person learning, is “What if Aubrey and Cameron are falling behind?” But the answer Robert and I tell ourselves that rings true is, “Behind in what?”.

We can do this.

OK, looking back at my daily journal entries, it was not 100% cursing at computers the first week of school. Here are some highlights:

8/16

“This is paradise”- Cameron describing Big Mountain at Whitefish Resort. Alpine slides, scenic ski lifts, time with forest ranger, identifying Red Shafted Flicker Woodpecker (it was dead and the ranger pulled the tongue out of the mouth to show how long it is!)

After dinner and the kids’ showers we walked to Sweet Peaks ice cream for treats.

Sitting on the patio with me before bedtime, Cam said: “This is nice.” “What is nice?” I said. “Spending time outside. This is fun.” Melt my heart Cameron. And power me up for the start of remote, remote learning.

8/17

Up bright and early for 6:30am Zooms for the first day of SCHOOL. All went much more smoothly than I had anticipated from our end. Zoom calls worked, no big meltdowns.

North Carolina administrators as a whole had a rough day: The NC-wide teaching infrastructure went down, the Daily Tar Heel (student newspaper of UNC) used an expletive on its front page, and by the afternoon it was announced all of UNC’s classes would move online after seven days of in-person instruction.

After our Zooms, we had some down time, made lunch, Aubrey and I painted pottery while Cameron went on a Just Add Magic spree and Robert worked from our condo.

We toasted marshmallows on our fire table, played Monopoly, and turned in early. 

The stress leading up to the first day of school had released.  

I wished love, strength, and wisdom for our teachers, administrators, and leaders.

8/18

Bad day. Put some calls into teachers for guidance.

Luckily, bad remote learning days can turn into good, love-filled afternoons doing Montana-things.

8/19

This morning Zoom learning did not go so well.

But I was able to finish the Chronicle post on my broken computer that Robert fixed.

Lunch at Which Haus 💯 Turning this ship around.

Headed to Big Mountain to check out their Alpine Ropes Course.

The ropes course was more intense than expected. We did our own clipping in and out. It was very safe but complicated at first and super high and advanced!

Texts to Robert re ropes course:

“At ropes course and Aubrey is working through the ropes and problem solving with a 10-year-old. This is most def better than school this am and she is learning so much more. When she messes up she figures it out and she hasn’t gotten frustrated.”

“Way to help her build confidence!”- Robert’s text.

8/20

Another painful remote learning morning. Call with guidance counselor and homeroom teacher today.

8/21:

Gray School is back in session and is WAY better than Zooms! We capped off the day with some lake time!

8/22:

Robert’s first day on Big Mountain! High ropes course, alpine slides, and Robert’s first trip to the top of Big Mountain.

If you’ve made it this far and haven’t seen any videos, please view directly from our site, www.intothegraywideopen.com. Still figuring out all the IT stuff! Thank you for following!