Despite early concerns, many parents in southeastern Manitoba were generally happy with how the start of the school year played out.

Jess Goertzen has three school-aged children. She notes they all really enjoyed their first day back.

"All of their teachers are fantastic and they were still able to play with their friends at recesses and lunch because they were in the same zones together. My kids go to Elmdale and we find that Elmdale is a lot closer to a normal school day than any of the other ones. That is what I have noticed in talking to other parents and my kids seem to have really really liked that it is pretty much normal minus a lot of handwashing, social distancing, and masks."

With such a positive start to the school year, Goertzen says it shouldn’t be hard to settle into a good routine.

Astrid Szulc has one son in grade 1 and one son in grade 3. She also says the first few days of school went well.

"My oldest son said you are not allowed to sit on the carpet anymore because they are distanced from each other, recess they didn't have to wear their masks so he was pretty happy about that. Overall, I think it went great. They were both pretty excited to see their friends again."

Meanwhile, the first day of school was a little rockier in the Reimer household. Mindy Reimer has two kids enrolled in middle school and three in high school. She notes there is a lot to get accustomed too, especially for the high school students.

"The high school is doing schooling every other day and with that, the kids will do a six-period schedule in three days so they will have two classes a day as opposed to a full six classes per day. They are like two and a half-hour classes and they get a half-hour lunch break. It is good and bad because I don't know about you but I don't want to sit in a math class for two and a half hours."

Reimer says her middle school students described the first day of classes as ‘meh’. She notes one of her middle-schoolers who struggles with anxiety asked to be homeschooled following the first day of school. She adds it is hard for them not to be able to hug their friends.

All that said, Reimer is confident her kids will adjust to the new systems over time and once again enjoy school.