Community Voices by Avery Hilton: Sheltering in place has saddened 9-year-old, but she’s doing her best to look on the bright side

Family has a routine they follow each weekday and the weekends are meant to relax

By Avery Hilton

Avery Hilton

At first I was happy about the shelter-in-place order because I wouldn’t have school. That would give me more time to play. But then I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to see my friends since my school was shut down.

I do not like online school because it’s harder to learn when my teacher is not here. The hardest subject to learn at home is math. My teacher helped me early on getting adjusted to this new school style by sharing the schedule she had for her kids and my friends, too.

There are some good things about not being at school too. I was invited by Jim and Connie Rogers to see all the different types of birds that are nesting along the Levee Bike/Ped trail right now. They keep track of the nesting birds for the Audubon Society. I saw swallows, bluebirds, and titmouse baby birds and eggs.

I like that I have the ability to Facetime my friends, and play games with them online. It’s like seeing them in person and I get to see them and hear their voices. We are being creative while talking online, too. My friend Mackenzie and I created a cookbook where we each named ingredients over 10 minutes, and then we counted to see who had the most ingredients listed.  My cookbook contains candy, desserts, fruit, sides, vegetables, snacks, drinks, and toppings. It’s also a time where we have made art projects from items around the house. I created a “life hack” hypnotizer to place above my bed.

I am happy that we don’t have to be on total lockdown and we can go outside for exercise. I have been on some drive-by car rides to say hello to friends with birthdays. It’s important for kids to get some fresh air. I want to go back to school to see my friends and get my cursive license from the third grade. I will miss my STEM challenges and my dance performances. We have been practicing dance at El Roble since the second grade, and then we would have a schoolwide performance for our parents/teachers/friends. This year we were going to perform at back-to-school night.

My family has adjusted good together. We have a routine that we follow each weekday and the weekends are meant to relax.

Finally, one of the hardest things about sheltering in place is that I can’t give my family a big hug. I know we can’t go back to school right now because we don’t want anyone to get sick, but this is time that we can spend with our families that we live with and watch movies and play outside.

Avery Hilton in a 9-year-old who attends El Roble Elementary. She wrote this for Gilroy Life.