Summer's end

     Summer's end again finds me in northern Virginia, helping our eldest son's family juggle the beginning of school.  He returned to his PhD program on Monday, began his teaching with his classes on Tuesday.  Our daughter by love had a meeting regarding her school year job and a meeting with her advisor on Tuesday and began classes yesterday.  Our eldest grandson doesn't start his second grade year until the day after Labor Day.  This puts them in a bind each year, though they plan their schedules to make sure one of them is home on each end of his day, the days that he is off and they are not causes them some stress.
     This year, he is in an afternoon robotics camp, so there aren't the nearly daily trips on the metro into DC to visit the Smithsonian or the zoo, and there have been very few parts of the day that one of them hasn't been home when he was, but it is good that I could come and help with the transition back to their school year routine.
     This year, also found a child who is reluctant for school to begin.  This reluctance has reduced somewhat once he found out who is teacher is going to be, a man he was glad to have as his teacher this year.  This will be good for the grandson, as he typically responds better to men.  And he discovered that a couple of his friends are in his class.  He doesn't do well with change, so these two discoveries have helped his anxiety about starting the year.
     With my gap coverage of his care, being able to transport him to and from his camp, and fixing dinner for the family at night, I hope has helped to reduce some of the back to school stress for them, without me adding to their stress by my presence.