With summer fun 'back to normal,' families head into school year hoping to move beyond pandemic

Sep. 6—WATERTOWN — Despite inflation and gas prices double those before the COVID-19 pandemic began, many north country families enjoyed getting back to "normal" summer fun, and kids are back to their "normal" end-of-summer blues.

Under drizzling skies Monday, some families spent the day together before school starts, catching a movie, doing last-minute shopping or enjoying lunch in the Salmon Run Mall food court.

Although schools transitioned back to in-person classes last year, some still implemented mask rules and respected 3-foot social distancing between desks. This year, however, students will again learn like it's 2019.

Karrie A. Thompson, of Oswego, said she's glad her daughter Lillee, 15, is heading to school with everything "back to normal."

Although Lillee said she "just hate(s) school in general," she is glad to be able to be a sophomore in high school, "having dances back and football games — social things."

Socially distanced desks — which she said felt "isolating" — and masks last year at Oswego High School kept the pandemic era in focus.

"I'm just excited for things to go back to normal because I haven't had a normal school year since sixth grade," Lillee said. "I didn't have middle school, I had a computer."

Getting back to normal started with the summer for the Thompsons, from weekends at Darien Lake to camping or spending time with family, higher gas prices and inflation in general didn't deter them.

"We did quite a few things and it went by really, really fast," Mrs. Thompson said. "We were busy."

Acknowledging it was more expensive to travel with their family this summer, Kacie L. Robinson, of Brownville, took her kids to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware because they felt it was important.

"We didn't want to hold them back and not do anything because we've been kind of trapped the last two summers. So, this summer we decided to get out and do as much as we could," she said.

Harper Foley, 10, who is starting fifth grade at General Brown, said she's "kind of" excited to go back to school but mostly wants to see her friends and continue with cheerleading, which she started over the summer.

Dawson R. Foley and his friend Camden A. Thomas, both 14 and now freshmen at General Brown Central High School, agree that being with their friends is one of the best parts of returning to school along with playing their favorite sports.

Dawson said he will also be glad to leave "failing classes" behind with continued in-person classes — the virtual classroom made it more challenging to learn.

"I hope he does a lot better in school," said Camden's father Gordon M. Thomas, of Pillar Point. "COVID has definitely affected the kids with their grades and their studying, and I'm sure they're glad to be going back without masks."

Ms. Robinson agreed, noting that she believes not masking will also help their grades because with the masks they are "not able to pay attention because they can't breath or they're hot."

While they are optimistic about the continued weakening of COVID-19, all of the parents interviewed said they hope that trend continues. No one wants to go back to masks and home schooling.

Home-schooled children were not as disrupted by the pandemic as those who attend schools, but the reemergence of summer activities brought back important socialization opportunities that were lost because of COVID, according to home-schooling parents Natalie K. and John D. Apple, of Gouverneur, and Edward N. Casselman, of Ogdensburg.

"We have to explore those areas as home school parents because they need to be socialized and have environments to explore," Mr. Casselman said. "This was the first year we did more with other kids (since the pandemic)."

"When you're home schooling, you have to put in a lot of effort to try to find socialization programs and with COVID, a lot of those did stop," Mrs. Apple said. "Library programs and things like that (are) ... starting to come back now which will be nice for the kids so they can be out and see people."

Henry Apple, 5, became more shy in his preschool years during the pandemic without the socialization, Mrs. Apple said, and Isaiah Casselman, who enjoys dance classes, has not yet returned while his parents try to determine the risk of classes heading back online, Mr. Casselman said.

For Isaiah, much like for many "regular" school kids, returning to school is "boring" — unless Legos are involved. Math and science are good, but Legos are better.