Going into the week of March 17th we knew we had Monday off of school - little did we know that would snowball into school cancelled till then end of the month - now till?, and the state doing a mandatory stay at home order the following week - Goodbye Spring Break to Arches and Logan : (
Starting out we figured we'd occupy the kids with what we could and they'd just play a couple of weeks away till school, then when everything came to a halt and now is rolling into . . . we've had to shift and deal with new and unknowns.
The first week we did quite a few art videos online, the kids did paper houses and other paper crafts from an artist / illustrator. They enjoyed some Mo Williams art stuff as well. We had them doing reading and online math games for the first two weeks. We didn't do much for St. Patrick's day. We wore green and had green doughnuts.
That first week was decent weather, we tried to get the kids to go out and play. We've found it really hard - with no prospect of friends, bad weather, attitudes, we've had to force them to go out. : ( Casey took Kendal and Peter on a bike ride on the 20th, they ended up at Brett and Vanessa's house where the kids played and Daddy helped with yard renovations.
That night Casey and I left the kids with Pizza and a movie while we went on a car date night (Post social distancing / pre - stay home order). We picked up dinner and dessert and ate in the car overlooking the canyon. Saturday the kids made their pinewood derby cars with Casey and painted them. Peter wanted a shark, and Kendal's was a happy random design.
Last week Kendal started writing notes to her friend Addie Bingham. They've exchanged (door ditched) notes for a week and a half. Even Peter sent a couple of notes to her little brother Deacon. Now that school is rolling Kendal is able to email Addie and other classmates. (Poor girl is such a social butterfly, that no friends and no school is rough) (Peter's had a temper through this whole thing - he's set off by lots of things - poor dude - it's a lot to handle.)
Starting on the 15th we've had church at home. It's been a unique experience to have the sacrament be such a personal experience around our little table with just us and Casey presiding over everything. We've done simple lessons both weeks because we know the kids don't last long. Last Sunday we went on a kick on Family Search where we put the kids pictures and our own and found "face matches" with family and ancestors. We had matches going on both sides of our families. It was fun to see the connections and who looked like who. Kendal had stronger matches on Casey's side. Peter and Alice were a good mix, leaning toward my side of family. Kendal's top match was Elizabeth Susan Ottley (Darrington side); Peter's top match was Wilford Charles Cox (McAllister side); Alice's top match was DeVere Richard McAllister (My grandpa!)
This past week we started online school. I thought I was prepared with a good schedule and mentally, but it's been quite the roller coaster. Peter's teacher gave him quite the load to take on this week. He's been a mix of printed worksheets and online videos. Kendal's entire school load has been online (it's a battle with the laptop / tablet - who gets what - needs - doing what - when. . . )
We start school at 9 and have ended between 2:30 and 3 everyday with a lunch break. I wont lie - it's been hard. Kendal has had a lot of needs / figuring online stuff out, and Peter is a tough cookie to motivate, focus, and keep positive about things. I got frustrated too many times, and the kids were upset many times, plus the weather kept us inside a lot - just lots of emotions going on. Casey has been able to go to the school a few hours everyday to work on what he needs to do for his class / students. He's put videos and assignments online, and answered questions all day every day. (These poor teachers have such a load on their plate, and were stuck with a million parent / student questions, it's a lot.) We did indoor P.E. with paper airplanes on Tuesday, and salt art on Wednesday, we did Steam and made bath bombs on Friday. The kids' highlight was on Thursday when they got to video call their classmates. Kendal was so happy to see everyone. Peter was quiet for a bit then went nuts with show and tell around our house.
Kendal started off still going to piano, however when the stay home order came into play we've had to do virtual piano lessons the last two weeks. We've videoed Kendal's pieces, sent them to her teacher along with pictures of the pages in her lesson, then they video conference her lesson Virtual piano. (Let's just say this past month has made me grateful for many things - mainly technology!!)
We had an earthquake on Tuesday. (Technically the Stanley ID area did, but we felt it!) The kids were rattled so we watched videos and talked to them about plate tectonics and such. (Really I was thinking - are you serious!) I'm not much for pranks plus the world's already doing a great job at being a joke so we didn't attempt anything on April fools day. Poor Alice got the short end of the stick with home school. She's got to occupy herself while I'm helping the other two.
Grandma and Grandpa Loosle sent an Easter package to the kids. They tore into it on Friday and were thrilled with all their goodies! I think they've had non stop sugar this whole weekend. The kids have made a few forts over the past couple of weeks. They had a couple this weekend as well for conference. Conference was good. Saturday morning I made a table coloring sheet for the kids. They did puzzles and played as well. We played croquet in between sessions on Saturday. Kendal did really well and listened to almost every session of Conference taking notes. Now that the CDC recommends masks I spent some time making masks today between sessions. Casey also made some delicious cinnamon rolls! So much goodness from Conference - I'm coming out of it hoping to be more Christlike with my kids and being a light to others with hope for the future.
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