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

Popular posts from this blog

Get into the Groove

Same Old Well, we certainly have fallen into a groove. M & L were really good today, watching their three “classes” on CILC and then playing LEGOs. They made so many creations. Played more chess, watched more Pokémon, are too many snacks, and balked at going outside. Did their mandatory 30 minutes post lunch quiet/reading time. We have been watching movies at night, but I’m trying to break the habit. Boys wanted to go to the Purple Park (Lino Park), but I’m hesitant to go with all those germs. Monopoly instead.  The problem is, we are in a rut   funk  groove. We are stuck only playing with each other, calling grandparents and cousins, trying to get outside. While most of today was great, L threw some chess pieces, so M threw one at L’s face. Neither wanted to change out of PJs. We eat the same things for lunch. We need something to change things up. But preferably one that doesn’t take Mommy and Daddy away from work for too long and doesn’t need a ton of superv...

We Got This!

End of Week Two I saw  THIS VIDEO  in a Facebook group and I think it pretty much sums it up. I love how Ms. Kelley states it, whoever she is. Gonna go grab those tissues now.  We have Friday off because it’s Western Good Friday. Signed the boys up for CILC morning. That at least gets me 1.5 hours of solid work time.   Stay safe everyone!

Senselessness and Atrocities

I have struggled with the senselessness of this past week. I have not had the words to express my sadness, anger, frustration. How can a man be dead when he complied with officers? How does NOT ONE officer in attendance step in and say, "Enough?" How does one who has so many complaints against him still patrol the streets? What has allowed this behavior to continue? How does it take so long to arrest the offending officer? I have so many questions and no answers.  And then the rioters. I believe in peaceful protest. Yes, Ma rtin Luther King Jr said, "A riot is the language of the unheard." But he also said, " Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”  How does burning down local businesses, restaurants, and looting further the cause? Rather than focusing on the truth of what happened, those who are violently protesting are distracting from what happened....