COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 9

Every other Thursday, we have professional cleaners come in and clean our house. Obviously, we're not having them come today (or for the next month or so), for their own safety and ours. So instead of our usual homeschool lessons, today we're going to learn exactly what they do. In other words, today, we're going to learn to clean the house.

7-7:15am: Trash patrol. Before we even had breakfast, I had my son get a big trash bag and had him empty all the trashcans in the house into it, then put it into the big wheeled bin and roll it out to the curb. My husband has been cleaning out our study, so there were two big extra trash bags that also had to be carried out. They were quite heavy so my husband helped with that. I also transferred our recycling from the smaller bin on the porch into the larger wheeled bin and my son brought that out to the curb as well. My daughter - who rarely sleeps late - was still sleeping, so she managed to escape this particular chore, but her room is much messier than his so she'll make up for it when room cleaning time comes. We all scrubbed our hands really, really well afterwards.

7:15-8:00am: Free time. I enjoyed my coffee and caught up on emails while my son played video games and my daughter continued to snooze.

8-9am: Cooking. Since my kids requested pancakes for breakfast (as they very often do), I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach them how to make them for themselves. They measured out the mix, added the appropriate amount of water, stirred, checked the consistency of the batter, adjusted as needed, then carefully poured it into the griddle, watched for the edge to dry and the middle to stop bubbling, flipped it over, and finally flipped it onto the plate and buttered it, cut it up, and added syrup. Pancakes are their own reward. Brushing teeth and hair was required after they cleared their plates and put away the pancake-making supplies.

9-10am: Kitchen cleaning. We started with picking up and putting away toys and shoes that were on the floor and unneeded appliances that were on the counter (like the waffle iron), and moving dirty dishes from the sink into the dishwasher. Then we swept crumbs off the counters and scrubbed them with Clorox wipes, then rinsed with damp paper towels. (It was at this point that my son hilariously requested that we listen to the "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted while we worked.) We took the grills off the stove and scrubbed them in the sink, and wiped out around the burners and the front of the oven while the grills were drying, then put everything back together. Next, we swept and washed the floor. Then, we scrubbed out and rinsed the sink. We ran out of time to shake out the two floor mats, so we left them on the porch and we'll take care of them later.

10-11am: Break. My daughter watched a singalong live feed while my son watched the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Facebook Live feed. They both got really involved in what they were watching and went on to watch other similar feeds when the first ones finished, so I let them keep watching until 11:00. My daughter swapped over to an episode of Mo Willems' "Lunch Doodles."

11-11:45am: Bathroom cleaning. My daughter has been begging to learn how to clean toilets, so I gladly obliged. We learned to carefully shake Comet cleanser around the bowl and scrub the the toilet brush, especially under the rim. Then we wiped down the rest of the toilet, including the handle and behind the hinges, with Clorox wipes. Since she enjoyed that job, she got to do 3 toilets and my son just did one. My son was in charge of using Windex to clean the mirrors and more Clorox wipes to clean the sink and the faucets, and they both wiped out the tub and shower. My daughter swept the floors with a dustpan and brush and wiped them down with Clorox wipes. They also brought the bathmats out to the porch and shook them out really well, along with the mats from the kitchen that we didn't shake earlier.  (We had already emptied the trashcans in the morning when we took out the trash.) We did this for all 4 of our bathrooms (luckily, only 1 is a full bath and only 1 other has a shower that we currently use). We managed to finish them all by 11:45!

11:45am-1:45pm: Lunch and free time. They took a much-deserved break and outside time, since the weather is nice - sunny and a little warmer than it's been. My daughter found a bottle of bubbles and is happily blowing them for the little boy across the street, who's busily riding his Big Wheel in their driveway. She also got out her sidewalk chalk and drew some pictures. My son was a little less excited to go outside, so he ended up reading and playing games in the house for most of his time. They both took charge of preparing their own lunches. If nothing else, this situation is encouraging my kids to develop more self-sufficiency and to learn some practical skills.

1:45-2:45pm: Room cleaning. As mentioned earlier, my daughter slept late while my son learned to make pancakes, so she had to spend more time cleaning and organizing her room than he did, but they both worked on straightening out their rooms, including putting away their clean clothes and making their beds. They're both dawdlers, but instead of standing over their shoulders nagging, I just told them they both need to work for an hour and then they can play, but if there's more cleaning to be done they'll have to do it tomorrow during one of their break times. Hopefully that will be a better motivator.

And with that, Cinderella Day is over!