The Accidental Boilermaker

Today was kind of boring. It was raining so not much to do outside. Evelyn’s school uses a math app called DreamBox and as parents we were told let your kid play for 30 minutes a day (we don’t do that) and don’t help them. The app will advance them as they master the concepts. Ok great so when Evelyn does DreamBox I don’t help or pay much attention. Well she got to a point where she was really frustrated and didn’t want to do it anymore so Nate reached out to her teacher. Through the app, Mrs Ulsh can see what every student has been doing and I guess Evelyn had just been practicing one kind of standard and had worked herself into more and more complex standards, past the point she was really ready for. Another example of why e-learning is maybe not a great long term solution. Anyway, Mrs Ulsh assigned Evelyn some work within DreamBox so we did that today. And Jameson took a picture to see whose braid is longer. Evelyn’s gym teacher had posted some fun workout videos so we did th...

Another beautiful day. We went for a run in the morning and did some school work. I checked my email and saw that Nate had forwarded me an email about the Air National Guard flyover to thank all the health care workers. It started at 11:10 on the Southwest side and ended at 11:15. It was 11:12, so I quick threw everybody outside. 11:15 passed and I was sure we missed it even though we hadn’t heard any jets and trust me you can’t miss the sound when they fly over. At about 11:22 I heard them and they flew right overheard. It was pretty cool to see. Since we were already outside, Evelyn and Jameson asked to eat lunch out on the deck.  After lunch we needed to pick up our monthly coffee subscription and I thought it’d be nice to walk and relax along the river front at the new Promenade Park. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the nice weather but for the most part people maintained proper social distancing. 

For a Monday, today was a pretty good day. We didn’t do much school work. Evelyn had a couple online activities but we only did one.  She wanted to do some worksheets and I thought that was fine. Jameson gave Penny some love.  We made biscotti in the morning. I’ve never made biscotti, but it really wasn’t very complicated or time consuming. And they taste very yummy.  We played outside, pulled up weeds, and went for a bike ride in the afternoon.  After dinner, the kids finished up a paper airplane launcher . It worked  pretty good. 

Yesterday was a good day.  Evelyn finished an online homework assignment on community helpers. She wrote about service dogs, police officers and counselors. I don’t know if Evelyn is supposed to just write and spell everything phonetically or if I should spell words for her (which I usually do - it seems like that’s what most parents are also doing). We also made earth day paintings, an idea from her art teacher. Evelyn actually asked for quiet time yesterday so I put on some music and Jameson fell asleep. We woke him up after a bit and read a bunch of books. They played together for a while and then separated and played alone. No one wanted to go outside but I guess that’s ok. We bought a new iPad with our stimulus money so maybe just the excitement of a new toy made yesterday feel like a good day too.  This morning as we were working on online homework, Evelyn said she was cold. I was cold too so I thought I’ll turn up the thermostat. Well it said the house w...

Not a big school work day but we did find pockets of time for Evelyn to do some math and reading practice. Today was their friend Natalya’s birthday so they sang happy birthday to her. As the afternoon wore on people got bored and grumpy but no one liked any of my suggestions so I just kinda let them figure it out themselves while I worked on my Bible study. Jameson fell asleep on the couch and woke up with some pretty good bed head.  Even though it was cold and windy I finally got them outside for a walk with Nate after dinner. 

We had a nice weekend. It was warm enough to go outside and play both days. Nate made a domino run for both Evelyn and Jameson.  Saturday night they stayed up to watch a virtual campfire with a park ranger from Yosemite.  Today went pretty well. Evelyn had new online activities to do and I managed to convince Jameson to sit at the table and do his paperwork too.  I try not to pressure him too hard, but if he isn’t working on or doing his own stuff, he has a tendency to distract Evelyn. After lunch they played well together up until a point so I mandated quiet time. Jameson fell asleep and Evelyn did own thing and then we played outside.  Yesterday Jameson tripped and fell on the driveway; that’s why his nose is kinda scraped up. 

Wednesday was like a lost day.  I'm sure we did some something, but nothing memorable.  Although I do remember the day felt like it went by fast because Thursday took forever.  It was like the day that wouldn't end.  I went outside at one point and thought wow it's really not that cold, we need to go outside and do something.  So I let Evelyn and Jameson open the bubble guns they got in their Easter basket while I sat in the sun, trying to read a book while repeatedly asking them not to shower me with bubbles.  Evelyn had a zoom meeting with her class, so Nate maned that while I ran to the store.  Based on the amount of fresh fruit and yogurt I buy, you'd think 2 additional people live in our house. Then as a special treat, we let them stay up and watch the Disney sing-a-long on ABC.  Evelyn thought it was great; Jameson hated it until about the second commercial break and then resigned himself to the fact I wasn't putting something ...

What to say about yesterday and today. We did some stuff and the weather was cold. Monday, we met Bella and Millie for a parking lot lunch. We ate in our trunks and talked. Or really Maryca and I talked and the kids were goofy but it was nice to be out of the house. Jameson fell asleep on the couch and Evelyn covered him in stuffed animals. Today we went for a run and then our church coffee shop opened today for curbside service so I got a coffee, the kids split a mango smoothie and we went for a drive in the country. Evelyn didn't have any new e-learning activities from her teacher so we did a lesson from her art teacher about Vincent Van Gogh.  Oh and we could get snow the next three days which is fine, whatever, I’m not going anywhere, but really snow in April?

It’s Easter!  We got dressed up to listen to our church, then listened to the church I grew up in, and then went out to take pictures. Yesterday we dyed Easter eggs.  After lunch today Nate got Evelyn and Jameson to play in the basement while I hid eggs outside. 

It’s been a whole month. Yesterday was a little low key. I had a Zoom chat test run for Bible study that starts next week. I have found it is getting harder to stay committed to doing table work in the morning. With almost no scheduled anything the temptation is let things slide and think oh we can do it later.  I let Evelyn and Jameson finish the episode they are watching on TV whereas if we had somewhere to go I would pause it and tell them you can finish it later, we can’t be late. Or if they are playing well together I think why should I interrupt them, playing and using their imagination is important too. But by the afternoon, they are tired and focusing on school work is harder.  They did build this impressive Lego town yesterday.  It took them all afternoon. We watched our church’s online Good Friday service. Evelyn fell asleep on the couch. Jameson managed to stay awake. 

A cold windy day but I forced Evelyn and Jameson in the jogger so I could go for a run.  We did some school, listened to a story time, and then drove to school to pick up lunch. It’s kind of a nice outing once a week to see what food the district is handing out. After lunch we did a few more activities. I made a letter matching game for Jameson. He found the matches for the letters he knew right away but then it was like it was too much.  I separated out capital letters from little and then gave him one at a time and that helped. Then it was time to play with some new toys that came in the mail from Mimi.  Tonight Evelyn had another zoom chat with her class. It’s kinda a free for all, but at the end parents could ask questions.  The gist being do what you can, it will all be okay, your child will still be in 1st grade next year. 

Another beautiful day. Our first activity was an alphabet scavenger hunt for Jameson. He enjoyed it but I don’t know that it helped him learn his letters. Then we did an Easter egg float experiment where we tried to sink the eggs by filling them up with different items. It was fun but also required a lot of focus. I wanted them (Evelyn) to make a hypothesis for every item and think about why is the egg still floating, if we add more can we make it sink, etc. They mostly wanted to fill up eggs, drop them in the water, and play around. Which is ok too, but some of our learning has to be structured right?   After the egg experiment I was done and they were done so they played and that was good. Evelyn did a few activities on her Seesaw app but it really felt like today was not a day to push school too hard. So after lunch we went for our bike ride and played outside.  The Cincinnati zoo chat today was Fiona again and the home activity was learn how to draw ...