At Home: Week 2

Well, week three of distance learning was a freaking hot mess. So right now, you can hear about week two. Which was still not pretty .. but I have good stories.

We have officially ceded a corner of our bedroom to third grade. The upside is that Quinn keeps her desk spotless. It is picked up and organized at the end of every single day. However, several drawings are now taped up on the wall in her corner, she has a collection of hair and beauty accessories ... and we don't think she's ever going to leave. 

Also, in another glaring example (there are so many) of how far the bar has been lowered in 2020, our third grader is drinking her water from a stemless champagne flute. On her freaking virtual class meetings. Her teacher is awesome - and is probably only judging us a little.

Declan had a rough week at school. Three straight hours every morning of Google Meets is a lot for the buddy. He's hanging in there, but between long virtual class meetings and piles of worksheet for independent work time, he's pretty much over it. After doing a really good job one day getting his stuff done, we pulled out a favorite Lego set, took it all apart, and he spent the afternoon rebuilding it. God Bless Legos!

We also pulled out Mike's old hot wheels and hot wheel city, which provide several afternoons of cooperative play (sometimes including Mike) and only resulted in a few yelps from stepping on cars. Dec's favorite were the "crack up cars" that can spin to show dents. Quinn's favorite were the color changing cars - and several times I found hot wheels in my freezer. Even Fiona enjoyed them!

Fiona has been working very hard at music class while in distance learning. Fourth grade music curriculum is the recorder - so she is learning to play recorder in the basement. She's actually getting much better and we are proud of how hard she is working. We do pray that there is no music class during important work meetings.

Being stuck home all the time and school on screens means that there is often a lot of energy at the end of the day. I had the great idea that we could play family Twister to get some of it out. You guys, I remember Twister being less painful when I was a teenager. Oh my goodness! Mike, Quinn, and I often found ourselves quite tangled up! The good thing was that it got both energy and giggles out. So much so that Quinn wanted to play it again the next night!. Our poor backs ...

Thursday night, we went outside for a family soccer game, to be followed by a neighborhood walk. The game was going well. Mike and Dec were playing Fiona and me, while Q played goalie. We were close to the end of the game, so Mike started teasing Quinn and pretending to interfere with her. Dec has not yet learned the finer points of teasing, so when he tried to do the same, he was all up in Quinn's face. She was not having it and gave him one warning. He thought he was still joking like Dad was. Quinn did not. So she pulled back and punched him right in the eye. 

Luckily she was wearing thick gloves - or he might have had a black eye. While admittedly a bit of a gray area on whether he deserved that punch or not, Q and I had a talk about how we don't punch. Dec and I had a talk about fine tuning the teasing. Then we joined Fiona and Mike to finish up the walk, because even though the acts were not their finest, we are giving grace for moments of frustrations. And getting out in the fresh air was probably the better long term answer anyway. Plus, cold air is good for swollen eyes!