April

Remote learning began on Tuesday March 31.  It was definitely a learning curve for all of us.  Many teachers were making use of Google Classroom to post their assignments.  Finn had an "attendance" classroom, science, writing, social studies, and math.  And he was also asked to do a Reading Plus assignment each day. His assignments were due at the end of each week.  Kai had Google Classrooms and Canvas assignments (for math and robotics).  His teachers would record lectures and give out assignments each day.  Each week's newsletter would be provided so we would have a weekly plan.  And finally Bree had a first grade Google classroom.  Each day she would have a morning meeting, reading, math, writing, and either a science or social studies assignment.  Her last assignment of the day was always a "Flipgrid" assignment where they could record a video on the day's topic to share with their class.  Early one we had a lot of technical issues.  Some of the videos were only working on certain devices.  And then our laptop and desktop did not support zoom meetings.  For those meetings the kids were needing to borrow my phone or the iPad, which is what Bree was doing her school on.  Between helping the kids get their assignments done and then playing round robin with the devices during the day to make sure they could get to their meetings, school took several hours each day.  Our average was about 6 hours per day (including our lunch time).  It was certainly draining running a 1st and 4th grader through school work each day.  And at the same time trying to make sure that Kai was on task and getting his work done.  I found there wasn't much time or energy left for much else on our school days.  Luckily our district used Mondays as teacher workdays and school days became Tuesday through Friday.

Finn doing his work

Kai logging in for the day

Bree taking a movement break with a Go Noodle video

After studying animal adaptations Finn had to design his own animal with it's own adaptations and then write about it.

Rosie was an unexpected complication.  She loved that we were all home and definitely wanted to be in the middle of everything.

Here she has found a spot at Finn's feet while he worked.

As case numbers continued to rise, I was trying very hard to keep trips to the grocery store at once every 10-14 days.  Initially the food supply was a concern so I would search each aisle and grab anything that I thought I could do something with and then plan meals from what I found available.  During normal times I often end up at Walmart for groceries three times a week or more, so this pandemic shopping was very much an anomaly for me.  I'd never had a shopping cart this full.  But we always had food.  That's definitely worth another post.

My whiteboard calendar had never looked so empty.  Normally this calendar has something on it everyday--whether it's swim lessons, gymnastics, piano or church youth groups, there is normally something each day.  Having a calendar this empty is very unusual for us.

And of course, it was still April so that meant spring snow.  With the new school model, at least there were no snow days!  Haha!

For General Conference weekend Finn and Bree began working on these diamond art paintings.  We all quickly fell in love with them and needed some of our own.

I decided that after tackling bread making, I was ready to try cinnamon rolls.  These did not disappoint and the kids absolutely loved them.

There were as good as they looked.

Wearing my mask while waiting at Target for a prescription for Finn.

We began each morning with a walk and once we got masks the kids decided to take them with them.  They never went out of the house otherwise so they didn't have any other chances to practice wearing them, even though our walks rarely brought us even remotely close to other people. 

One of Bree's school assignments

After the success with the batch of cinnamon rolls, I decided to try the recipe that Disney released from their Main Street bakery.  These rolls were ginormous and delicious.  My kids loved these even more, if that is possible.

Dying Easter eggs

An email from the elementary school principal about remote learning

One of Finn's assignments for school was to take pictures of living things (plants and animals) outside.  He loved this picture of him and Rosie.

Finn continued to meet with the speech therapist and the school psychologist weekly.  This was either one of those meetings or a class meeting where he was showing off one of his stuffies.  He loves his Beanie Boos and stuffies.

After so much struggle with the technology at our house, we broke down and purchased two chrome books--one for each boy to use.  These worked so much better as each kid could do everything they needed from one device (no more round robin!).  Kai seemed to take up residence on our couch to do his work each day--despite me asking him to sit up in a chair at a table.

Bree continued to use the iPad for her school work.

Kai's diamond art choice

This flyover was scheduled for after the AFA graduations (it was moved up significantly due to the Pandemic).  We missed the initial flyover of the Academy at the end of the ceremony, and so I stood outside on my deck for a good hour waiting and watching for this flyover.  Eventually I learned that due to low clouds the Thunderbirds had skipped over Monument and headed out east to Black Forest instead.  I was incredibly disappointed to miss this, as by this point being inside was becoming overwhelming and incredibly difficult.  This was something I had been looking forward to, and unfortunately the weather did not hold up for it.

Dressed for church at home and goofing around with this crazy kid

In the midst of all of the uncertainty in the world, we finally were able to get our roof replaced.  We began the process in the fall after filing a claim for hail damage.  After a lot of back and forth with the contractor and the insurance company we were finaly ready for a new roof.  The workers stayed outside and we stayed in our home so that we weren't interacting with them.

The old roof

And then this happened.  And while it would seem that this was a sad thing, it really just felt like this was an announcement a long time coming.  There was only a month left of the school year anyway at this point and the transition of back and forth would have been too much.  And with the virus still raging, it didn't seem that going to school would be in the cards for Finn anyway.  So, this announcement didn't seem to have much impact at our house. 

The roof going on.

The new roof all done! While from a distance the color looks the same, as you get closer to the house there is a noticeable difference.  I like our new roof and am so glad we were able to claim it.  Replacing our roof lowered our home owner's insurance by $1,000 a year.  Definitely worth it.

Painting sight words on the sidewalk with water.  This dissolved quickly into playing outside with Finn.

A sweet friend anonymously left this box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts on our doorstep.

With the weather warming up it was getting harder to keep the kids inside focused on their school work. 

I'm not good at selfies but this girl has a strong selfie-game.

So excited for warm weather!

First watermelon of the season

Silly boy

After a disastrous week for one particular child in which no work was turned in despite telling me that all work had been completed, I whipped out the white board and made a daily checklist for the kids.  Some of the kids liked the list more than others.  But whether they liked it or not, it did it's job and let the kids know I was aware of what they needed to be doing.

A COVID-19 birthday!  We dropped cupcakes off at her friends' houses and some even left presents out for her. 

She was so excited!  Can't believe she's 7!

A new scooter from Grandma

A unicorn birthday cake for my girl

Zooming with her friends for her birthday.  This was mildly painful as the girls didn't know what to say and weren't super chatty.  If I had to do this again, I'd have some party games planned.

Facetiming with her friend Ella and showing off one of her birthday presents.

April was LONG!  The kids were good sports despite being inside our home for nearly the entirety of the month.  Remote learning was certainly a test of our patience with each other and our dedication.  But we persevered and were really happy to welcome May!