welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, June 10, 2021

dear ms b-thank you for allowing me into to your world

DEAR MS B-THANKS FOR LETTING ME INTO YOUR WORLD

that world is your kindergarten year zoom style
i hope you do not have to do a year like this one again

i personally want to thank you for allowing me to participate in your kindergarten classes this year
you had 180 kindergarten zoom classes
and
i got to participate in 60% of them
i will never forget the experience
i realize that probably very few grandparents have got to experience their kindergarten grandchild do their kindergarten classes this much

i feel honored
i will never forget being able to do this
i hope you dont either

i am writing this today but i want you to read this when you graduate in 12 years
i hope you can remember some of this when you graduate high school

i know i will as long as my memory works

my goal ms b is to attend your high school graduation and know that i am there
if i dont make it ie if my memory doesnt make it
i want you to know this years experience monitoring your kindergarten class will be one of the last memories that i lose when the time comes
hopefully my new drug aduchelm will get me there to your graduation

in case you dont remember
i sat behind you and to the right in a chair to stay out of the zoom camera and out of your line of sight
my goal was to make sure you didnt get sidetracked by distractions going on 
i mostly succeeded

as the year progressed 
i enjoyed watching you need less and less supervision
i mostly stayed silent and did computer work on my iphone 
you got to where you didnt really know i was in the room
you became more independent

in fact at the end of the year i was there mainly for my benefit not yours
when you get to be a grandparent one day you will understand

you went from barely knowing your letters to writing full sentences at the end
you could draw a picture and label it and then wrote a sentence about the story 

you learned to count easily to 100

you learned all your 50 sight words those english words that really dont sometimes follow the rules
english is a hard language to learn

i enjoyed playing the sight word game with you at each break
i would show you 1-5 words for you to identify 
later we were left with the hardest ones
we eventually or should i say you got to where you knew them all
if i forgot to do the word game at the break with you you would remind me
it only took about 5-10 seconds

i watched you be shy responding to questions on zoom or talking on zoom to being one of the first to raise their hands to answer a question or to show your work

you progressed and blossomed over the year

we did outside stuff with you like dissecting that owl pellet more than one of them
planting stuff and harvesting stuff and enjoying the community garden
you also helped me dig up your garden at home and replace all the soil and plant your garden of sunflowers sweet peas green peas pumpkins tomatoes swiss chard kale and onions
you helped keep it watered and helped to harvest the produce from you garden
you helped eat most of it
you and mr hudson

also the other days over the year you were monitored and helped by your two grandmothers your talented nanny and mom and dad

you had a real village get you through this year

your gma my wife she and your talented nanny and mom and dad helped you do all of your out of class work each day 

i think looking at how you progressed over the year that you got most of what you needed to get from your kindergarten year
except
of course 
the social stuff

you were lucky to have had an experienced and talented kindergarten teacher
thankfully you eventually got to hug her real good at the end

you were isolated from your classmates and friends for over a year thanks to the covid 19 pandemic and due to mr hudson kidney transplant and need to be protected from bringing outside infections to him

i must say you have been a great big sister to him this last year
you two sometimes act like twins even though you are 3 years apart

you did a good job of protecting mr hudson this year
you were at times like a momma bear protecting their cub

i hope you havent lost too much this last year from the lack of social interactions with others
you are just a few months from getting your covid vaccine then you will be able to expand your social interactions

here is hoping your first grade year is able to be live at the school and your life can return back to some normalcy 

you girl 
did good this year
im proud of you
i feel so lucky i was able to be part of that year

so 
if you are reading this as your graduate and just had your 18th birthday 
i want you to know that was a special year in my life

heres hoping i get to see you walk and get your diploma
if i am not there in person i will be there in spirit
take a pause look up at the clouds and the sun
i will be up there somewhere in spirit

thanks again
for a memorable year

love
granddaddy

the organicgreen doctor

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