Three Kids and a Dog: Week 5 of Quarantine & Easter

Easter Treats from BB Donuts

Luckily last week was a short week of e-learning as the kids had Good Friday off. So this week we begin Week 4 of e-learning. Austen and Peyton are on more Zoom calls this week as the teachers are starting to teach again. Hailey has about the same amount of work plus an additional Zoom call. Many kindergarten parents agree that the kindergartners sure have a lot of e-learning and sometimes more than those in other grades. I guess it depends on the teacher but our principal confirmed that they may have more than others but do what you can. Of course that's not really reassuring if we want them to be ready for 1st grade. We're only half day kindergarten so there was already a lot crammed into such a short day that I'm sure our teachers are in a panic about what they won't know when they arrive in 1st grade. Hailey is growing tired of the routine too. My normally excited to go to school child now complains every day about e-learning (maybe it's the teacher!). She would rather play with Peyton or do her iPad even though I try to explain to her that this is a normal school day and just because she's home does not mean that she is allowed to do her iPad. She must get her school work done and if she needs to take breaks, that's fine she can go and play in her room for 20 minutes or so before she'll need to return for the next activity. She also has been very vocal about not enjoying her Zoom class calls. At first she was excited to see her friends now she's just over it.

Subtraction Smash with STEM Homemade Play Doh

The other two are trudging along. A few technical glitches where I had to play tech support and a few reviewing of items but nothing too crazy with the older ones.

We just returned tonight from Michigan where we spent the past five days including two days of e-learning. We have a lot less resources there for e-learning (like a printer and play doh) so I don't like to spend the entire week there but my car battery died as we were leaving last night causing us to stay one more night until we could get another one today. That's an interesting story in and of itself amid the Coronavirus drama. Our neighbors in Michigan tried to jump it but nothing would make it turn over. Luckily I had called AAA pretty much right when it happened while Tom and our neighbors kept trying to jump it (using appropriate social distancing especially because they are older). After about 90 minutes of trying the tow truck showed up to try to jump it to no avail so he ended up towing it to a local shop. This morning, the owner of the shop confirmed the battery was dead, ordered another, installed it and had it ready for pick up this afternoon. The only problem was getting there. It was 6 miles from our house. I didn't feel comfortable asking our neighbors as they were all taking the social distancing pretty seriously as they should so I recommended that Austen and Tom run together to the place. They did and did pretty well too even when it started snowing and was almost white out conditions for a bit. They got there only to find that the guy had closed the shop earlier than he had said. Tom had luckily taken my set of keys and was able to take the car but imagine if he hadn't and they had to run 6 miles home! Anyway, all good now.

It certainly was an eventful 5 days with Easter too. Tom and I came up with some pretty great Amazing Race challenges for the kids' Easter Egg Hunt this year since they are binge watching episodes of the Amazing Race. It took them over an hour to complete 6 challenges but I think they had a lot of fun and were happy with their Easter baskets they received at the end.

Alas, life has been anything but boring for us lately. Looking forward to some quiet time now that we are back in CH!