“I always think of the postpartum period as a period of isolation,” said Alison Underwood. Parents are adjusting. They’re not sleeping much, not gathering with friends the way they used to. They’re staying home to protect their baby’s fragile immune system. But the pandemic has complicated things, said Underwood, a licensed independent clinical social worker […]
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This summer, when Addison County Schools announced their plans to reopen with a hybrid of remote and in-person learning, Willowell Foundation Administrative Director Tasha Ball started getting a lot of email. “Parents were looking to us to pull something together for their children’s days off,” Ball told the Independent in a phone interview last month. Willowell, which
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Erin Dufault has been a high school counselor for 17 years, but nothing in her career could have prepared her for this pandemic moment. Now in her fourth year at Mount Abraham Union High School — which, like the other middle and high schools in our area, has embraced a hybrid model of remote and
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Much to my surprise, I am writing this column from the front porch of our rental house in Ogunquit, Maine. It is the tenth summer that I have spent a week at this beach with my husband, our growing brood of children, and my parents. This year, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down and cancelled
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Last week my family went camping — twice. I had never camped with my children before. I loved camping as a kid, but the idea of sleeping in a tent with a baby or toddler seemed … unpleasant. Then the pandemic happened. Everything was canceled or closed. Suddenly camping seemed like the perfect (only) thing
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This story was first published in the Addison Independent on July 2, 2020. In early May, the Henry Sheldon Museum invited people to share their personal stories, pictures, and video clips of how they are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Students from Brandon answered the call. Neshobe Elementary School art teacher John Brodowski provided the
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The Mount Abraham Union School District has been interviewing its students, teachers and administrators during the pandemic shutdown, asking them to reflect on the sudden changes in their working/learning lives. Nancy Cornell, the editor and publisher of Vermont Learning, a free weekly online newspaper for educators, compiled the interviews into a comprehensive look at how folks
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This essay first appeared in the Addison Independent on April 30, 2020. I’ve never felt much like one of those beautiful, glowing pregnant people. I hear they exist, but as far as I’m concerned those folks are unicorns. It’s hard work growing a human, and if some days I’m a little dull — oh well.
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