I left for work a little earlier this morning, so I trusted my kids’ alarms to be enough to get them up for virtual school. Since I’ve returned to the building, I’ve been going into Maxine’s room at 7:00, the same time her alarm goes off, to make sure her eyes are open and to say goodbye. Then, she calls me at 7:15, which means she has to descend the stairs to retrieve her phone. I usually just say a quiet goodbye to Edwin, since high school starts later.
I stood in the hallway, about to go into their rooms, but I thought, “It’s 6:50; they need a little more sleep.” As I turned to go down the stairs, steadily falling rain pattered on the skylights outside their doors. The cats yawned and stretched as I put on my coat, and Sasha went around in circles a few times before settling down on her bed. How peaceful. How quiet.
I was so preoccupied with setting up my teaching station and getting ready for today’s book discussion groups, that I didn’t even notice I hadn’t gotten a call from Maxine. It was 7:43. Uh, oh. I called her phone, knowing it was futile. Then I gave Edwin’s phone a try; he actually keeps it in his room. Nothing. I texted the family chain. “Are you kids up? Chris, I don’t think they’re up.” Silence.
I called Chris, who left home right about the same time, and asked him about that device in her room that he likes to give commands through. He’ll say, “Hey, Siri. Tell Maxine it’s time for dinner” or “Tell Maxine if she doesn’t get down here and feed the dog now, that’s a dollar off her allowance.” He can also use the Home app on his phone to adjust her LED lights that run along the tops of her window frames.
“Do you think you can wake her up with that app?” I asked, my finger hovering above the join button on my Teams app.
“Yeah, I think I can.”
It was now out of my hands. My day started, and about 20 minutes later, when I had a second to glance at my phone, a flurry of texts had come in from the kids, assuring me they were up and that Maxine made it to first period on time. Yeah, by the skin of her teeth.
It turns out Chris put on a real light and sound show for her. He played a very upbeat “OK, Go!” song as he went nuts with the dimmer and color controls, all from his desk in his classroom. It’s crazy what we can do remotely, isn’t it?
My Corner of the Village 