Wow. That's all I have to say about life right now. 2020 has been crazy. Back at the beginning of this year I made a chalkboard art that said something about ushering in the "roaring 20's," to which my ever positive husband replied something about 1920 having a plague (I see you, Spanish Flu) and we probably didn't want that to happen again. Fast forward to April... and we are all confined to our homes with the exception of leaving for groceries, medical needs, and exercise because of... a pandemic. (Insert facepalm emoji here... but I'm on a laptop so I don't have one of those.) This has been a crazy start to a new year. I am still having trouble wrapping my head around what has gone on over the last month or so for our country, our world, and our family.
Here's what we should be doing... both kids should be in school today. Steven would likely be sitting in a water plant in Melbourne counting down the hours until he got to come home because he had been there all week away from us, and I would be likely working on a report or something while the house was quiet. Here's what we're actually doing... Steven is on a work phone call as he works remotely from home and worries about making sure he has enough work to fill all the hours until we can go back to offices because he can't travel to Melbourne right now to finish that install, Kenzie is doing "digital learning" from the comfort of her bedroom and is a little sad that her teacher had to cancel their morning meeting where she would usually get to see her friends' and teacher's faces on her computer screen and check in, Will is coloring a color by number and getting ready to do a math worksheet or Hooked on Phonics on my tablet behind me in the playroom, and I am, well, writing this... but it's mainly as an outlet right now and because in some odd years I want some sort of record of the craziness that has become our new normal... because there are no reports for me to work on right now due to "shelter in place" orders and "social distancing."
Those are terms I never thought I would need. I didn't even know what they meant until a few weeks ago. Our county went on Spring Break a few weeks ago... and the kids never returned. While we were on Spring Break, businesses started shutting down in an effort to "flatten the curve." Around these parts, you know when things are going to get even more serious when Disney decides to close. And they did. Indefinitely. While on Spring Break we were not yet in a shelter in place so our lives looked slightly different, but we still weren't going out and doing a lot of things. We did pick blueberries one day. That was our last outing. Our county's shelter in place went into effect at night on March 26 with initial plans to end on April 9. Just this morning (midnight on April 3), our state officially entered a month long shelter in place.
Digital Learning started this past Monday and we are now officially one week in. This is so new and strange, but we are doing what we can and doing our best with it. We have certainly lucked out that the kiddo that ended up digital learning was Kenzie. She is an great student, which is what we have heard from a lot of her teachers. She is independent and a self-starter so she has needed minimal assistance from me. Her teacher called the week before digital learning started and assured me of all of those things. She has taken to learning digitally and more on her own like a duck to water. Thankfully. She still needs me for things, such as doing her reading fluency worksheets with her or making sure she stays organized. Thankfully, she is a mini-me anyway so having a to do list is right up her alley. She highlights what she finishes as she finishes it and moves on to the next thing. The hardest part for her, we think, is not being at school with her teacher and friends. The morning meeting and the 10 or so minutes she logs back into the video chat each day before her teacher signs off are definitely the highlights of her day. She is so social and this has been difficult for her. We have noticed that she has gotten very attached to her doll lately. It's a doll she has had for years, but lately the doll has to try to match clothes with her and she carries her almost everywhere. We think she is trying to make up for some of the interaction she has lost with her classmates. Her school held a teacher and staff parade last week to wave at the kiddos because just like we miss them, we know they miss the kids. It was emotionally overwhelming, for sure. 90 cars, 110 staff/faculty members, and a lot of tears from all sides of the parade. Kenzie was doing absolutely fine seeing teachers she knows including her kindergarten teacher, but became so emotional when her teacher drove by and called her by name. She hid behind me the rest of the parade and cried. It was tough. On a bright note, we were provided virtual report cards this week and Kenzie earned straight A's again. Now, let's hope everything can stay on track for her through these last 9 weeks and she can earn the same again while digital learning.
Will has been the hardest part of all of this. He is in VPK. He misses his teachers, school, and friends. It's also difficult for him because, unlike Kenzie, he doesn't have the schedule and "need to do" type of work to keep him busy. He's also less mature (obviously... since he is not even 5-and-a-half quite yet). Instead, I am trying to find ways to keep him busy that don't involve non-stop screen time. Though I would be lying if I said he didn't get way more screen time right now than normal or if I tried to downplay how much he gets. I'm giving myself grace on that one. We signed up for a month of Hooked on Phonics because it was $1 for the first month. He actually sort of loves it and we started him with Kindergarten skills because he blew us away when we sat down to try to figure out what he already knows. He has learned that he likes color by numbers. He likes to use play-doh or kinetic sand. He tries to sneak some extra PBS Kids shows (and I let him) frequently. We have read together, played catch with a foam baseball while sitting in on the floor of the playroom for a full 30 minutes the other day, and I have spent numerous minutes convincing him he doesn't need to see what his sister is doing every 10 minutes. We let him open a remote controlled car that he got for his birthday (now is the time that we are thankful we don't let them open every gift they get immediately and instead put them in their closets to open randomly for the next year or so).
We now take a daily morning walk/bike ride for 2 miles. Some mornings we are all tired so we switch it to afternoons or evenings. We play outside with chalk. We spend a lot of time in the pool. We had no idea last summer when we decided to officially have the pool built, how much of a lifesaver it would be. The kids are obsessed with Drawing with Ms. WendyMac on Instagram. We watch Kenzie's school's daily morning announcements and participate in whatever the specials area activity of the day is. We watch the daily video her school puts out with a mystery reader. Kenzie and Will play "daycare" together almost daily without too much arguing (ah, the joy of being the little brother to a big sister), build forts, play the floor is lava, make a general mess of our house, argue about needing to clean it up but eventually do, play cars, put together puzzles, play card games, and all the other things siblings do together. I, personally, have noticed less arguing. I think they both understand that this is going to be our normal for a while and they need to get along as much as they can so they can play together. I don't know that Steven thinks there is less arguing, but since he typically works outside of the house, he doesn't always see as much as I do. We eat dinner together at night. For us, that is usually a less common activity typically because of the crazy schedule we normally keep with activities and Steven's work schedule. On Sunday mornings we watch our church service together casting it to our TV. The kids do their church class's activities and we watch the full service (which Steven helps prep and record on Thursday nights). We absolutely love watching "Tucked in Tuesdays" as our pastor reads through the Jesus Storybook Bible with his family. The kids think his kids are the best entertainment out there. It's a slower pace for us, for sure, but we are making the most of it. Kenzie is taking dance class virtually right now. Her teacher does it live so she can interact with the students. Her class will start working on their recital dance again next week. The recital is not until late June so there is still hope that it will go off as planned. We are talking about setting up a virtual Girl Scout meeting soon.
I know this post has focused on positive things and that is my intent. When I read about this in a year or more from now, I want to remember how this pandemic slowed our life down, but did so in a way that made us appreciate the time we have together more. How it might have made us sad because we lost out on activities like baseball, girl scouts, and dance, in addition to school, for a while. However, in the grand scheme of things, we haven't lost anything. We understand how scary this time is. We don't take it lightly. We are being very careful about going out of our house. We have always washed our hands frequently, but we are doing it even more so now. We are being careful about interacting with anyone else and maintaining 6 feet of social distance. We are not making unnecessary visits to places and definitely not as a whole family. We have gotten take out a couple of times, but are careful how we do it and are mostly cooking at home. BUT... when our kids think back on this time we don't want them to remember just the fear and anxiety. We want them to remember that although it was a scary time in the world, they were safe, loved, and cared for.
Here's what we should be doing... both kids should be in school today. Steven would likely be sitting in a water plant in Melbourne counting down the hours until he got to come home because he had been there all week away from us, and I would be likely working on a report or something while the house was quiet. Here's what we're actually doing... Steven is on a work phone call as he works remotely from home and worries about making sure he has enough work to fill all the hours until we can go back to offices because he can't travel to Melbourne right now to finish that install, Kenzie is doing "digital learning" from the comfort of her bedroom and is a little sad that her teacher had to cancel their morning meeting where she would usually get to see her friends' and teacher's faces on her computer screen and check in, Will is coloring a color by number and getting ready to do a math worksheet or Hooked on Phonics on my tablet behind me in the playroom, and I am, well, writing this... but it's mainly as an outlet right now and because in some odd years I want some sort of record of the craziness that has become our new normal... because there are no reports for me to work on right now due to "shelter in place" orders and "social distancing."
Those are terms I never thought I would need. I didn't even know what they meant until a few weeks ago. Our county went on Spring Break a few weeks ago... and the kids never returned. While we were on Spring Break, businesses started shutting down in an effort to "flatten the curve." Around these parts, you know when things are going to get even more serious when Disney decides to close. And they did. Indefinitely. While on Spring Break we were not yet in a shelter in place so our lives looked slightly different, but we still weren't going out and doing a lot of things. We did pick blueberries one day. That was our last outing. Our county's shelter in place went into effect at night on March 26 with initial plans to end on April 9. Just this morning (midnight on April 3), our state officially entered a month long shelter in place.
Digital Learning started this past Monday and we are now officially one week in. This is so new and strange, but we are doing what we can and doing our best with it. We have certainly lucked out that the kiddo that ended up digital learning was Kenzie. She is an great student, which is what we have heard from a lot of her teachers. She is independent and a self-starter so she has needed minimal assistance from me. Her teacher called the week before digital learning started and assured me of all of those things. She has taken to learning digitally and more on her own like a duck to water. Thankfully. She still needs me for things, such as doing her reading fluency worksheets with her or making sure she stays organized. Thankfully, she is a mini-me anyway so having a to do list is right up her alley. She highlights what she finishes as she finishes it and moves on to the next thing. The hardest part for her, we think, is not being at school with her teacher and friends. The morning meeting and the 10 or so minutes she logs back into the video chat each day before her teacher signs off are definitely the highlights of her day. She is so social and this has been difficult for her. We have noticed that she has gotten very attached to her doll lately. It's a doll she has had for years, but lately the doll has to try to match clothes with her and she carries her almost everywhere. We think she is trying to make up for some of the interaction she has lost with her classmates. Her school held a teacher and staff parade last week to wave at the kiddos because just like we miss them, we know they miss the kids. It was emotionally overwhelming, for sure. 90 cars, 110 staff/faculty members, and a lot of tears from all sides of the parade. Kenzie was doing absolutely fine seeing teachers she knows including her kindergarten teacher, but became so emotional when her teacher drove by and called her by name. She hid behind me the rest of the parade and cried. It was tough. On a bright note, we were provided virtual report cards this week and Kenzie earned straight A's again. Now, let's hope everything can stay on track for her through these last 9 weeks and she can earn the same again while digital learning.
Will has been the hardest part of all of this. He is in VPK. He misses his teachers, school, and friends. It's also difficult for him because, unlike Kenzie, he doesn't have the schedule and "need to do" type of work to keep him busy. He's also less mature (obviously... since he is not even 5-and-a-half quite yet). Instead, I am trying to find ways to keep him busy that don't involve non-stop screen time. Though I would be lying if I said he didn't get way more screen time right now than normal or if I tried to downplay how much he gets. I'm giving myself grace on that one. We signed up for a month of Hooked on Phonics because it was $1 for the first month. He actually sort of loves it and we started him with Kindergarten skills because he blew us away when we sat down to try to figure out what he already knows. He has learned that he likes color by numbers. He likes to use play-doh or kinetic sand. He tries to sneak some extra PBS Kids shows (and I let him) frequently. We have read together, played catch with a foam baseball while sitting in on the floor of the playroom for a full 30 minutes the other day, and I have spent numerous minutes convincing him he doesn't need to see what his sister is doing every 10 minutes. We let him open a remote controlled car that he got for his birthday (now is the time that we are thankful we don't let them open every gift they get immediately and instead put them in their closets to open randomly for the next year or so).
We now take a daily morning walk/bike ride for 2 miles. Some mornings we are all tired so we switch it to afternoons or evenings. We play outside with chalk. We spend a lot of time in the pool. We had no idea last summer when we decided to officially have the pool built, how much of a lifesaver it would be. The kids are obsessed with Drawing with Ms. WendyMac on Instagram. We watch Kenzie's school's daily morning announcements and participate in whatever the specials area activity of the day is. We watch the daily video her school puts out with a mystery reader. Kenzie and Will play "daycare" together almost daily without too much arguing (ah, the joy of being the little brother to a big sister), build forts, play the floor is lava, make a general mess of our house, argue about needing to clean it up but eventually do, play cars, put together puzzles, play card games, and all the other things siblings do together. I, personally, have noticed less arguing. I think they both understand that this is going to be our normal for a while and they need to get along as much as they can so they can play together. I don't know that Steven thinks there is less arguing, but since he typically works outside of the house, he doesn't always see as much as I do. We eat dinner together at night. For us, that is usually a less common activity typically because of the crazy schedule we normally keep with activities and Steven's work schedule. On Sunday mornings we watch our church service together casting it to our TV. The kids do their church class's activities and we watch the full service (which Steven helps prep and record on Thursday nights). We absolutely love watching "Tucked in Tuesdays" as our pastor reads through the Jesus Storybook Bible with his family. The kids think his kids are the best entertainment out there. It's a slower pace for us, for sure, but we are making the most of it. Kenzie is taking dance class virtually right now. Her teacher does it live so she can interact with the students. Her class will start working on their recital dance again next week. The recital is not until late June so there is still hope that it will go off as planned. We are talking about setting up a virtual Girl Scout meeting soon.
I know this post has focused on positive things and that is my intent. When I read about this in a year or more from now, I want to remember how this pandemic slowed our life down, but did so in a way that made us appreciate the time we have together more. How it might have made us sad because we lost out on activities like baseball, girl scouts, and dance, in addition to school, for a while. However, in the grand scheme of things, we haven't lost anything. We understand how scary this time is. We don't take it lightly. We are being very careful about going out of our house. We have always washed our hands frequently, but we are doing it even more so now. We are being careful about interacting with anyone else and maintaining 6 feet of social distance. We are not making unnecessary visits to places and definitely not as a whole family. We have gotten take out a couple of times, but are careful how we do it and are mostly cooking at home. BUT... when our kids think back on this time we don't want them to remember just the fear and anxiety. We want them to remember that although it was a scary time in the world, they were safe, loved, and cared for.
Comments
Post a Comment