Quarantine: Tues. 3/17
The day began with discovering the leprechaun's pranks: festive green hats on a bunch of Cabbage Patches and American Girls (we use these Dollar Tree specialties year after year), green leprechaun footprints on the kitchen counter, all the Maileg mice wrapped up in green crepe paper and stuffed into empty jam jars. The girls wanted to play with Mailegs after breakfast, so I let them, even though my schedule said we were supposed to be IN HOMESCHOOL. Whatever. My kids are smart and they will be fine. On the other hand, they won't be little forever, and I feel like this enforced home time with only us is a little gift as far as prolonging childhood is concerned. Without peers (Lucia's) to push her into tweendom, she can sink into all the familiar toys and playing and I am 100% on board for that. My kids won't get this time back. They will, however, pick up what math etc they miss whenever they need to. And there are so many fun things to tap into, newly inspired/revealed by this pandemic: Mo Willems's daily live doodling, streamed Met operas, streamed Broadway musicals, live streams from the Cincinnati Zoo and Monterey Aquarium, and more as I learn about them.
So: we'll be doing and submitting all the required schoolwork, but the focus of our days will be, as usual, on playing and reading and crafting. AND TYPING. I'm so determined that they learn to type. I guess I just solidified my homeschool philosophy! A perfect blend of rule following + unschooling. Yes.
Today kind of got away from me, TBH. The kids typed, worked on schoolwork, played a lot in the basement, watched a Mo Willems doodle, did more doodling inspired by Mo, and read for two hours straight. Greta's reading Pie (she finished it), which I think is about cats who bake? something like that? And Lucia's working on the first in the School of Good and Evil series, right up her twisted-fairy-tale-loving alley. We'd wanted to do a sewing project and learn a new board game called Zombi Kidz, but by the time they practiced piano it was after 5pm and it was on to ordering dinner from Coda and watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids (thanks, Disney+).
Don't be fooled by the comparatively cheerful tone of this post. I cry at least once a day, because of disappointment, because of fear and worry, because of some human kindness, because of the possibility of watching Broadway shows online, because of the heartbreak of needing to watch Broadway shows online. Usually it happens in the morning, as another strange day begins. I do my Morning Pages first thing every day, so maybe I should just accept this as Morning Tears. Acknowledge it, sit with it, and then move on with the day. We have lots to do and no time to wallow.
So: we'll be doing and submitting all the required schoolwork, but the focus of our days will be, as usual, on playing and reading and crafting. AND TYPING. I'm so determined that they learn to type. I guess I just solidified my homeschool philosophy! A perfect blend of rule following + unschooling. Yes.
Today kind of got away from me, TBH. The kids typed, worked on schoolwork, played a lot in the basement, watched a Mo Willems doodle, did more doodling inspired by Mo, and read for two hours straight. Greta's reading Pie (she finished it), which I think is about cats who bake? something like that? And Lucia's working on the first in the School of Good and Evil series, right up her twisted-fairy-tale-loving alley. We'd wanted to do a sewing project and learn a new board game called Zombi Kidz, but by the time they practiced piano it was after 5pm and it was on to ordering dinner from Coda and watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids (thanks, Disney+).
Don't be fooled by the comparatively cheerful tone of this post. I cry at least once a day, because of disappointment, because of fear and worry, because of some human kindness, because of the possibility of watching Broadway shows online, because of the heartbreak of needing to watch Broadway shows online. Usually it happens in the morning, as another strange day begins. I do my Morning Pages first thing every day, so maybe I should just accept this as Morning Tears. Acknowledge it, sit with it, and then move on with the day. We have lots to do and no time to wallow.
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