School's Out (well, sort of)

Our fears were realized on Monday. The Governor of Washington and the State Superintendent announced that both public and private schools will remain closed for the remainder of the school year. Taylor and I both cried. Matty and Brayden were visibly upset. Taylor cried because she has now seen her last day at Newcastle Elementary. I cried for all of them... because they all have amazing teachers and they are being shortchanged. I truly love and admire each of their teachers: Mrs. Blackburn (Taylor), Ms. McCrory (Matty), and Mrs. Thomas (Brayden). But I really really love Mrs. Thomas, and she has been so very instrumental with Brayden this school year. Online learning will continue. The kids have spring break next week (haha - what are we going to do?) and then new materials will be introduced the following week. I am hopeful that the teachers will find creative ways to keep the kids engaged. Sitting in our dining room for school work and zoom calls is getting really old.

For the past few weeks, the kids have had multiple zoom calls a week for school. They each have weekly check in meetings with their teacher, and then Taylor and Matty have had small group calls for reading, writing, and math. These calls are 30 minutes each and include their teacher and a group of 4-6 students. Just listening to the kids talk to their teacher and classmates on the call makes me realize how much they are missing at school. The other day, I heard Mrs. Blackburn ask Taylor what sort of "reading conventions" she thought the author was using in an article, and I thought to myself, "What the heck is a reading convention?"

Taylor is currently enrolled in five dance classes a week. In lieu of going to dance, her studio is sending out online classes. In addition to the online videos, Taylor is supposed to watching and dancing to, there have been online quizzes and live class check-ins. I can hardly keep up with all of the zoom calls. I am thankful that dance has kept her busy and active.

Yesterday, I was working and the kids finished most of their school work for the day by lunchtime. Brayden was begging to play Roblox on his iPad, but I challenged him to build me a train trussell first. Well, thank goodness... he spent the entire afternoon building an elaborate train track. I am so happy to see him using his creativity on something tangible and not using an iPad.

Matty appears to be the most bored. He has a daily zoom call with his buddies at 3:00, and I know that he looks forward to that each day Yesterday, as I was working, he pulled a chair up to my desk to use my laptop for writing while I was on my work computer. His writing piece is titled, "Why the Seahawks are the best football team." He sat next to me for about 20-30 minutes, and he kept goofing around. When he announced he was finished, he had written a total of one sentence. ARGH. Thankfully, the weather this week has been nice, so Matty goes outside to hit baseballs or play basketball in the afternoons. How I wish the kids could play with friends!

Annie is pooped. She is tired of all the attention and all of the walks. The past three times I have tried to take her for a walk or a run, she has pulled back on her lease and refused to go. Lazy dog! I laughed last night when Annie got her first zoom invitation. Her "friend" Rosey (my friend Amy's dog) turns one today, so there is a puppy birthday party via zoom at noon. Haha! This is our new normal.

If I sound like I am complaining, I am not. I am beyond grateful that we are together and we are healthy. We have several friends who have been personally affected by the coronavirus. Our hearts and prayers are with them. We take time daily to talk about all that we are grateful for. I am especially grateful that we did not start our home remodel in March because I cannot imagine what this would look like if we were in a small rental house or apartment during this crazy time. There is so much uncertainty during this pandemic but I am taking things one day at a time. Today, I will celebrate the sunshine!