Week 2 Quarantine Life Recap: Why I Do Home School Themes, Lessons in Patience and Carrot Cake Oreos
Yup, even with 1,000,000 filters applied to this selfie, my imminent need for Botox is impossible to hide.
We have officially wrapped up the second week of life in the time of the Coronavirus Pandemic- social distancing, self-quarantine, forced family time and so on. The weirdest thing I have noticed is how used to the new normal I am starting to feel. We went for a drive the other day, and there were all these people walking (not something we see often in Westport, CT), all distanced 6 feet apart, and it didn’t phase me. Barely any cars passed by, but it didn’t strike me as eerie as it did a week ago. The girls are getting used to doing their dance classes via Zoom, and no longer need to be reminded to wash their hands every time they walk in the house. And while I miss hanging out with my friends in person, I actually may speak to them all more now than we did before. Phone calls are back in vogue- and everyone always picks up for a change!
Perhaps my favorite unexpected element of this is all the live streaming content popping up- we watched Dave Matthews talk about about plumbers and performing new music from his home, I have done a few incredible workouts via IG Live, and watched so many fun candid moments with celebs, journalists, food bloggers, comedians and so on. Have you guys been tuning into anything cool?
School Theme Days…
We are still going strong on the theme days for school- it makes my life so much easier by helping to narrow down all the printable worksheets and podcasts and such out there around a common idea. Some are gimmicky, some are convoluted, but regardless, they all make my kids excited and keep me focused.
Monday: Superhero Day- the girls wore capes and came up with their superhero powers, Alexa called herself LaLa and her power was distracting people by going LALALALALA in their ears, Goldie’s power was helping people. We took the cardboard toilet paper tubes and made wrist cuffs (inspired by THIS), and I found tons of free printable Superhero themed puzzles and worksheets at my favorite site right now.
Tuesday: Tasty Tuesday- everything was themed around kitchen stuff- the girls learned new age-appropriate cooking skills, we made “DIY puffy paint” from pantry ingredients, listened to a podcast about taste buds, etc.
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday- we wore wacky outfits, drew wacky pictures, started school after “breakfast for lunch” so they got to be in pjs all morning (while I finished up my newsletter, so it was a win win in theory- however I will say, it didn’t turn out so well, the girls got so antsy by 3pm it was hard to keep them engaged!)
Thursday: Princess- This one was Goldie’s choice (Alexa is over the princess thing big time) but we went with it- they did karaoke to princess movie songs, “read like royalty”- as in, I made them tea and put a couple cookies on a plate while Alexa did her reading/Goldie pretended to, and over lunch we listened to a great episode of “But Why” answering kids’ questions about dreams- when the eating portion of lunch ended, I extended the listening time by giving them paper and crayons to draw the last dream they remember having.
Friday: Free Choice Friday- I was too wiped to come up with much by the time I got to my desk after the girls bedtime routine on Thursday night- it was a doozy- so I went with “Free Choice Friday” and time blocked things like “Play a Game”, “Story Time” and “Outdoor Activity”- Lex and Gogo each got to choose one thing to do together for every category. And I let them have whatever they wanted for lunch.
I am not trying to win any “home school newbie of the year” awards here (nor would I, for many many reasons), but in my mind, all this hoopla is really about getting the kids off their screens for a chunk of the day. Within the course of any given hour on any given day, most likely one (if not all) of us will scream an obscenity, slam a door, throw a book, threaten to never speak to the others again, and then some- but equally possible is a spontaneous giggle session, proud sister moment or a sweet unexpected hug.
The Hardest Lesson of All: Patience…
I mean, teachers deserve $1,000,000 a year and a no-questions-asked monthly delivery of Xanax. I have NO clue how they do it. Granted, I am confident that when the teacher is mom, behavior is not consistent with that seen at school, but still!
Patience has never been my strong suit, and I get very overwhelmed by lots of noise coming at me at once. So when Alexa is screaming at me to give her the answer to 4 X 7 before her math session times out, and Goldie is simultaneously howling for me to pass her the red crayon she can’t reach to color in her latest masterpiece, and our dog Norman decides to start barking to go outside at the exact same moment, I often lose my sh%t. Reality hits minutes later when Alexa can’t figure out how to log in to something on her Google Classroom app and proceeds to spiral into hysteria- a mirror reflection of my own short fuse that feels like a ticking time bomb for us both if I don’t start working on it myself so as to be able to model the power of calm for my daughters. Another thing to add to the to do list, right?!
5 Other Discoveries To Share…
-Carrot Cake Oreos are SO GOOD. I rarely like spin-off snack foods (don’t get me started on the Chocolate Pudding Peeps!) but these are epic.
-Obé launched kid-friendly workouts with Kidz Bop- most are around 10 minutes a pop, and a great way to get your kids to sweat with you! Click HERE and enter the code JENN30 for a free 1 week trial and discount if you join.
-Tiger King on Netflix gives us a glimpse into a world so weird, it makes this current reality almost seem boring. Which feels sorta nice, to be honest.
-I am still finishing this book because I love it so much I want to pause after every page and underline things and read it all over again- such a perfect book for right now, too- everyone seems to be talking about it, and I totally get why.
- No Crumbs Left Marinated Red Onions are my new favorite condiment- so easy to whip up, this recipe has a cult following for good reason- add them to ANYTHING (I put them on eggs, over cauliflower rice and on top of sliced steak, for starters) and they are EVERYTHING.
Hope you all are staying healthy, making the best of being safe at home and finding memorable moments (memorable for the good reasons!) amidst all this madness. XO JF