GRANNY’S INITIATION TO TELE-SCHOOL

It was 8 AM when Mummy arrived with Little Flea; earlier than usual so to enable setting up the laptop for the tele-school Grade One class. It was my initiation to online learning because Mummy usually works later shifts, when school is already over for the day.

Although I did think to put the beasts in another part of the house while the morning class was being held, I belatedly realized that I should have settled Little Flea with the window behind her, instead a view of the whole dining/kitchen area, nor did I remember to click on the microphone to keep whatever noise was happening here out of the classroom. Pistache, the mouthy parrot, was into her morning screech before I heard the teacher ask Miko to please close her microphone, this amid the sound of the giggles of other children participating in the class.

Oops!

I reached over Miko’s shoulder to click the sound off, and it was then I saw what the teacher and kids were seeing; my granddaughter’s sweet little face with a background scene of a sleepy granny, garbed in a chunky housecoat, morning hair askew, eye glasses on the end of her nose, and coffee cup in hand. The only thing missing was the curling rollers. As I ducked as quickly as I could out of view, I wondered how long they had been watching me waddling around the counter, measuring out ingredients for the bread making, wiping down the stainless garbage can, snatching up the rear of my housecoat to attach the heated beanbag around my lower back….

Great Scott!

When the afternoon session began, you can be sure the laptop was facing the opposite way, and I had instructed Miko how to manipulate the sound. It was mathematics, and questions were shown on the screen with each child to give their answer when the teacher called their name. Until the calculations to be done were not to be answered vocally. Instead the kids were to do the action shown in a little picture beneath the correct amount. One of those amounts pictured the child doing pushups. Miko jumped out of her chair and onto the floor. It took 2 seconds for Sam (Damn – I had forgotten to shut the beasts away) to join her, thinking she was playing. Even the teacher was laughing by the time I could get Sam away from his favorite playmate and she could get up again. It was 10 minutes earlier than scheduled when the poor lady decided to call it a day, telling the children she would see them online tomorrow. I guess the attention span had been disturbed by the antics in the bush.

Later, when Mummy came to pick up her daughter, I told her about the rather eventful school episode. “And Sam can come to Grade One now,” declared Little Flea. “He answered the question correctly too!”

Yes, we both agreed. That, he did!

And Mummy and I both SMILED.

Sending our SMILES out to y’all, with a Sam tail-wag!

LUV FROM THE BUSH IN QUEBEC