Classes have started for the high school.  Even though our daughter is home for her first two weeks of school, she’s really only missing two days of in-person instruction.  The rest is a combination of Zoom-based lectures, supplemented with Google doc submissions and self-structured completion of assignments.

When I stepped out of my home-based office around noon, she had her computer on her English class.  She had the Zoom meeting going, with the teacher’s voice sounding through the speaker remarkably clearly.  As I prepared my salad, I learned all about annotations. 

Shall I admit that at first I was a bit annoyed?  Lunch is supposed to be my time to read a book.  It’s time for me, according to my schedule established from more than two decades of working from home.  Today was a rainy day, or I might have stepped outside to eat on the back deck.  Unless I wanted to eat back in my office, there was no escaping the lecture.

So I decided to embrace the idea of finding out more about what my daughter is learning.  Admittedly, figuring out what to note in any reading is not exactly scintillating lecture material.  In fact, I would go so far as to say it’s rather dry.

But kudos to this instructor!  She spoke with enthusiasm, gave real-life examples that resonated with both my daughter and me, and presented this class with skill. 

Back in March, I learned about tectonic plates from her science studies.  Today it was annotations.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring? 

Truly, hearing what she is studying—and seeing her feel competent and ready?  Silver linings for this mother!