Skip to main content

Connections

Little Hermits

The most challenging part of social distancing has been the inability to keep our kids connected with their friends. At 7 and 5, M and L have not yet mastered phone conversations. The few FaceTime calls we have had have been more random craziness than connecting. How do you teach phone conversations in a world where texting is king? They most certainly know how to send emojis! M's call with G from school primarily consisted of showing of different toys and rocks. L's call with W was just full of silly faces and nonsense language. Both ended with me having a longer conversation with their moms. 

Enter "Little Hermits with Fr. Benjamin"! Today, fourteen families joined a Zoom call to listen to a story of St. Romanos and sing songs with Fr. Ben. It was hilarious! Thank goodness for muting the audience. M discovered you could change the background and we ended up on a beach. It was so good to see our friends, including the Ealys from Ohio! Not only did it keep my kids busy for almost 30 minutes, but they connected with their church family. This will be added to the schedule every MWF!



Parent Connections

But social time isn't just for the kids. How do WE stay connected with our friends? In case you didn't know, I'm a bit of a social butterfly. I love to be involved in regularly have a full schedule. This keeping in has been good for me to slow my life down. But I still miss talking to my friends. And I prefer talking to texting. So, I set up a Zoom happy hour with the girls. We watched R make dinner and I envied her cooking skills. I had a Shakeology shake and roasted asparagus. The boys had pizza. I saw a meme that said something about how everyone will exit their quarantine with an immaculate house, master chef skills or a new talent. Definitely not the first two for me. Does writing this blog count as the talent? 😆 

Back to connecting to friends. I'm trying to find ways to connect to old and new friends. I want to start writing letters and setting up more Zoom connections. Send me a message if you want to connect sometime!

Learning Chess - Game Anyone?


The one talent the boys are learning are new games! M is working on his chess skills and the past couple days has been trying to teach L. It's slow with a lot of exasperated complaining of illegal moves. Today I was watching them and M was copying every move that L was making and really getting under his skin. But it is great seeing them play together.

Other games we have been playing are Monopoly, Uno, Sequence. I want to try to get a Zoom game night with friends. I think chess or Monopoly could be played that way. Battleship? We have to find ways to reach out to one another!

Tomorrow's Schedule

The CILC Classes this morning were a hit and we are signed up for TWO WEEKS for free! This took up a full hour and a half with little interruption from the boys. We hooked the laptop up to the TV and the boys sat and watched on the couch/laid on the floor. The last class had an art project that needed a little help. Each class was 30 minutes and took place at different locations. They learned about Sharks at the Texas State Aquarium, Dolphins at the Mote Marine Laboratory, and listened to Anansi's Hot Bean Soup and made a paper spider. Tomorrow is a STEM Day. If they can spend 1.5 hours listening to someone else teach them, I'll take it. Forget that it's screen time!

Also working is mandatory 30 minutes reading time after lunch. M is reading like crazy. He'll have to start books over or we will need to do digital books (more screen time 😩) if the libraries remain closed. 

We had Pajama Day today. Tomorrow is Crazy Sock Day. Not sure what this will get them, but they WILL get out of their pajamas first thing in the morning. Right?




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Protection of the Theotokos

The Cathedral's Patronal Feast St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral - at the start of Vespers (courtesy Fr. Benjamin Tucci) Tonight was just what I needed - a calming evening in church with the boys to celebrate the Protection of the Theotokos. "Calming" and "with the boys" don't often go together, but tonight they were both so well behaved and the singing was a balm for the soul. M decided he was going to stand the entire service. I told him he could sit during the Old Testament readings, but he refused and stood the entire time. L worked on crossing himself correctly and pointed out each of the plagues on the Egyptians in his Children's Bible.  Throughout the chaos of the world today, I just wanted to go to church. Yes, it was our feast, but something just drew me this evening. As we were driving down, we could see the storms rolling in with the lightning streaking across the sky. The first drops began as we raced into church. Once we settled in, a peacef...
Post a Comment
Read more

Orthodox Holy Week Streaming

I have always wanted to share the experience of Holy Week and Pascha with my friends and those who inquire about Orthodoxy. Words cannot convey the beauty of the hymns, the depth of the sorrow as we lead the body of Christ to his tomb, the joy as we celebrate His resurrection! It is a journey that begins long before the raising of Lazarus or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and culminates in a procession by the entire congregation around the outside of the church at midnight. Bells ringing, choir singing, candles, banners, censers with bells - a joyous cacophony greeting the Resurrected Lord! Oh, and then there is Paschal Vespers on Sunday afternoon that nearly everyone returns for, as well. How does one explain that to be in church and truly  experience  Holy Week is the only way to do it - all the services! A quartet (Fr. Andrew and three singers) is not quite the same. But it will still be beautiful and joyful and perhaps we will find beauty in the simplicity this year...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day One - COVID-19 School Break HELP!!!

It all started with my friend, Carrie, posting a list of things to do with kids at home. At the time, we had school called off two days. Nothing traumatic, but not awesome after having M and L home for Spring Break the past week. Maybe a good thing all those vacationers stayed home a couple extra days. Then came the announcement that school would be closed at least until March 27th. Wait, what? Our School Carnival was planned for a March 28th! (Separate issue) Sigh. What are parents going to do for at least two weeks? I’m supposed to be working from home. That does not happen efficiently or effectively with kids present. How on earth am I to keep them entertained?!?!? Enter a list of things to do. I was already doing one as church school coordinator for our church (now that church school and perhaps even Liturgy is cancelled for the foreseeable future). Why not add non-religious activities? Enter this blog. I’m going to do my best to keep the list updated with new resources for m...
Post a Comment
Read more