COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 18

By request, today is Game Day. Maybe also Puzzle Day. I've spent much of my daytime hours over the past few days sewing masks and mostly letting my kids work on their own, so today, I'm putting off my own stuff and just focusing on them the whole time. Since I'm not working at my regular job, I have the good fortune to be able to spend the day just being with my kids. I understand that not everyone has that privilege, but if you can - even if it's just a half day, even if it's just an hour - try to spend some time just being with your kids. My kids are pretty resilient and low-anxiety about the whole COVID-19 thing, but they're still dealing with all kinds of changes and social withdrawal, so they could use a day of just being with Mom. And I could use a day of just being with them, and not letting my brain focus on twenty other things that I "should" be doing.

Here's how we spent today - and some of this is approximated, since I didn't even allow myself to take notes and pre-write this blog entry as I sometimes do, but instead recreated our schedule from memory at the end of the day:

7-8:30am: I woke up early this morning, as did my son, so I came downstairs and sat on the couch with him watching the funny vloggers he so loves. My daughter eventually wandered down to join us and I took a break to make breakfast. We ate slowly and really enjoyed our waffles! We took our time getting dressed and brushing hair and teeth.

8:30-9am: Sum Swamp. We played with four players: the two kids, me, and the hamster. The kids took turns rolling the dice for the hamster. The hamster was not particularly appreciative, but did enjoy getting passed around from lap to lap for lots of running around time.

9-9:30am: My son actually asked if he could check his Google Classroom page for any new assignments. His teacher had posted an audio book, "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park so he listened to that with his headphones on while my daughter played Twister (I was in charge of the spinner; I played Twister with the kids and couldn't walk upright for two days, so I opted out this time).

9:30-11am: My daughter needed a good scrubbing, so I offered her a "daytime tubby." I ran her a nice warm bath then set her up with bath crayons and a boat full of LOL dolls. I made sure she scrubbed her whole body and washed and rinsed her hair before she got out. She listened to stories on the Alexa while she soaked. My son chose to play a series of online design/engineering games.

11am-1pm: Lunch break and free time.

1-2:30pm: Movie! We watched Clue. Well, mostly I watched Clue while they puttered around playing with the hamster and half-watching Clue. But it was a nice break.

2:30-4pm: Free time. My daughter chose to re-watch Incredibles 2 and my son went off somewhere and read for a while. Later he came back and asked me to play an online game with him. We tried a couple that I didn't get the hang of fast enough for his taste but he was endlessly amused when I took to slither.io - especially when I told him I was good at it because a very early grayscale version of it was on the first cell phone I ever owned (remember the Nokia brick? Yeah, I had that).

4-5:30pm: My daughter had her first virtual dance classes via Zoom! We cleared out the living room and connected my laptop to a webcam on a tripod and our large SmartTV, so she could see her teacher on the big screen and so her teacher could see all of her. Tap was a little tough to do on the carpet, but she managed, and jazz worked just fine. She's already looking forward to Friday's ballet and hip hop classes.

5-6pm: Cooking. While my daughter was finishing up her dance class, I got my son to help me cook dinner. I made honey-garlic stir-fry chicken, served over rice. It's a great starter recipe for kids, with not a lot of prep or fancy techniques, just measure, add, and let cook. And even though it's heavy on the vegetables, my kids will actually eat some of it - of course, in their typical Jack Sprat and his wife style, she only eats the carrots and he only eats the broccoli, but at least they're both getting some vegetables. It's the small victories.