Dog Days.

 We've got two weeks of school under our belts, and some of the kinks are starting to work themselves out. I had intended for the kids to sit at the dining room table with me, but there was a lot of griping about the system, and it's harder now that they're doing more synchronized learning via Zoom. Ellie in particular was giving me a big upsell, telling me that her teacher said she MUST have a desk in a private space in order to work. Which I get, but your dad doesn't even have a private space - your teacher can't order me to build you an office - what if we lived in a little apartment? 

But, I am a nice mean teacher mommy, and I managed to find two kids' desk on Facebook market place and pick them up in an afternoon, so now everyone is set up in their own space. It's nice for me because Ellie does a lot less complaining and a lot more independent work, and Adam isn't right up in my grill. However, he wants way more supervision than her, so I often threaten to move him back to the dining room table. Example - he watched a video about the brain and how you learn, and there was an emphasis on how you have to practice to get better. At the end, he named easily ten things he's been at now that he's practiced them. But when it came to having to write two sentences, he didn't know what to write and started to throw a fit at me. He's a delight. 

I had told the kids that the cats are not their classmates, and I don't want them dragging Taco onto every single zoom call, but Taco obviously feels that he should do some math projects. He's also taken to sitting in Ellie's room with her during the day, which is fine by me, as long as he's not yeowling in the hallway. 

They're done by 1:30 in the afternoons, they let Mean Teacher Mommy check their work for the day (so that we don't have to redo things, or make more work for their teachers) and we've been continuing with the outdoor PE swim classes while it's warm. It's been just wretchedly hot the last couple of weeks, and for the first time the ocean was warm enough that Adam didn't come out shivering at any point. 

In person instruction via the hybrid program is tentatively set to begin on September 21st, but we are home until Thanksgiving. I'm really hoping for everyone's sake that the numbers continue to drop in our area and the kids can go to school and be safe in school. 

School Again!

 Here we are again, doing our distance learning, trying to keep sane and moving forward!

If you were wondering how our first family bike ride went last week, it was awesome, A+. No one cried, no one fell off their bike and no one got hit by cars. I was really impressed with Adam, pedaling away like crazy on his fixed gear bike (while Ellie pedaled slowly and complained - change gears and make life easier for yourself, kid!) 

We had a good last week of summer. Lots of swimming, another couple of trips to the beach. Buying the beach parking pass has been the best money I've spent all pandemic. If my kids look back on the summer of quarantine and remember all the great times they had at the beach, then I really can't ask for anything more. Their acrobatics training in Grizz's pool is also going well. 

So anyways, on to school. Both kids are in combo classes - Adam's is 8 second graders and 13 third graders. Ellie is one of 21 fourth graders and I think 9 fifth graders? The nice thing (for us) is that they don't tend to teach the kids together during the distance learning, so the kids are with a much smaller cohort. I think it will be especially good for Adam (who has Ellie's teacher from last year.) The downside is that those poor teachers are on Zoom all day, switching between classes. Thus far, no complaints. A technology snafu here and there as we get used to everything. Ellie did some serious sobbing about having a problem with a Zoom room - chill out chicken, it's not like you're going to fail fourth grade because you missed a lunch time check in! Adam hasn't had a ton to do yet, but he's getting the hang of the schedule. 

It's a lot right now, as we work out how the routine needs to go. Emotions are running high, from excitement to sadness to annoyance (mostly at technology.) In some ways, I feel like I have toddlers again, because I'm back to being their alpha and their omega and am responsible for everything, versus being able to fob them off on the teachers and follow up later, or like this summer, when the TV and Minecraft got to raise them. But I'm thankful we're all here together, and safe, and the teachers seem great and are doing their best to make this weird experience a fruitful and positive one. Two days down, 178 to go. 

August Mini Break

Not to much going on around here. The A/C is fixed, and the our solar system is in process, so this place should be pretty perfect in a few weeks. We've continued to hit up the beach almost every week day, and after a long wait, our bike rack has finally arrived and the trailer hitch has been installed on the car. Once Tim finishes lunch we're going to borrow Grizz's bike and head out for a family bike ride. Let's all hope for the best - Adam still hasn't done much outside of the school grounds on his bike. However, I got a great used bike a couple of weeks ago and that's been awesome for me! 

School starts a week from Monday, and due to state restrictions, it'll be fully online (I wouldn't have sent the kids into a classroom at this point anyways.) The biggest downside is that learning is set to start at 8:30, and I am not pleased about the idea of having to set an alarm again. Since our first Zoom of the morning in the spring was 10:30am, we had very leisurely mornings. The plan for distance learning for the new school year is that the kids will do live learning at several points throughout the day, and then complete work on their own (versus in the spring, when Ellie's class did twice weekly Zooms, more about checking in, less about going over new concepts and being taught.) We'll see how it all goes. I feel for the teachers to have to get all of this figured out, and to try to control a bunch of new, rowdy nutbars over video learning. 

We spent last week up in Northern California with Tim's college roommate Bob and his family. Ellie and Adam are thick as thieves with their two oldest, Amelia and Bobby, and are addicted to playing Minecraft and facetiming together. We didn't do much outside of hanging in their house (we went to get gelato twice, was the sum of our adventures) but the kids had a blast gaming together, doing water balloons and scootering. For the adults, sometimes it's just nice to have another set of hands around, and someone else to play Bananagrams and have a beer with after the kids go to bed. We're trying to plan a bubble trip where we can get an AirBnB someplace in between our houses. Being in Northern California made me very grateful that we can go to the ocean so easily, and that we have the deluxe membership package at Thiel Resort and Spa. 

Tim and I also celebrated fifteen years of marriage at the end of July. We had to cancel our planned anniversary trip back in March, but still had a really great day - spent the morning at the beach with the kids, and then for dinner we got fancy take out, and ordered cake from the same bakery that made our wedding cake, and had dinner with our maid of honor and best man, and our neighbor friends. I told the kids I wanted once nice picture of all of us for fifteen years and got....

I'll take what I can get. 

July.

Is the corn knee high yet? We remain mostly in our quarantine bubble, though can't complain too much, all being happy and healthy and fortunate. Just some days a little more sick of each other than others.

The other day I was so frustrated with the kids and how chippy they were being to each other and to me that we headed back to the beach, and invested in an annual parking pass for the state beach lots so that we can escape to the ocean more this summer (hashtag vitamin sea.) And it's working out well - the kids are both LOVING going in and boogie boarding, and Doheny hasn't been crowded, with easily ten feet of space between us and other parties while sitting on the sand (Adam has to come out at regular intervals to warm up his scrawny body.) The upside to his lack of body fat is that he hardly even needs to make an effort to get taken into shore by a wave:

It's been really nice. We've already gone twice, and are getting the hang of preparing to get out of the house and playing together on the sand. This is the first summer that I feel comfortable going with the two of them and the one of me, though Ellie would definitely like for me to quit watching her and let her paddle out to sit with the adult surfers, seeing as she thinks she's people. I hope that as the summer goes on we can check out new and different beaches too.

We've also been doing our bike riding. Today Uncle Jake mapped his route by our house so that the kids could ride with him for his birthday. When I told them what was happening, they were so excited that they started jumping up and down and screaming with joy, which was super sweet.

So that was a really fun treat to have on a hot Sunday.

Speaking of - the only thing we can truly complain about is that our air conditioner has breathed its last. Gigi brought over some box fans, which are seriously saving our lives in the afternoon hours before the house cools down. It's not totally unbearable - having a single story house helps, and our ceiling fans are doing their best, but I do not enjoy when my house is over 85 degrees inside. We're going to end up replacing the whole system, including the 40 year old, asbestos-laden duct work (for the best, obviously) and are getting quotes on solar. Who knows - we may still all be in this house quarantined next summer if the country can't get its shit together and stay inside/wear a mask, and by then I may want to just blast the AC at 62 degrees and lay on the floor in despair, so having a new, energy efficient, solar powered system may be just what the doctor ordered. Meanwhile, after our excellent afternoon swim at the Resort and Spa yesterday I went in to find that Grizz was running his AC for the first time in who knows how many years, just to taunt me. Joke's going to be on him when we all come and sleep over if it gets any hotter.

June.

Whoof, it's been awhile. Everything is pretty much the same, and not the same.

For example: the yellow mustard has died out on the trail, but the thistle is blooming!

The kids finished third and first grade, and both apparently passed.

After all of the nagging to have them complete their work, and then go back and re-do work that was substandard, the end of year grading simply registered how consistently they had participated in the online learning, not what their scores were overall. They both got a slew of C's, for "consistently." As they say, C's get degrees!

I gave Tim an amazing hair cut! (you get what you pay for)

We've ridden bikes almost every day - Adam is finally steady and confident on his bike, and able to start himself. Ellie has gotten strong enough that she can ride her bike to and from the school, which is especially nice because it hardly fits in the car, and our bike rack hasn't arrived yet. I am usually following fairly close behind her, but once Adam is good to go, I'm definitely going 1980s parent and just locking them outside and saying they can eat whatever berries they find and drink from the hose.

And of course, using our membership to Grizz's resort and spa many days a week. Adam loves being a shark boy, even though he has no front teeth.

How It's Going.

Not much to report, just some new pictures for your updating.

Scenes from outdoor PE

Butterfly rearing as part of hands on science class

Star Wars Rebels viewing during break time

Lost teeth as part of anatomy teachings, Tooth Fairy as part of our course works on myths and magic

Doing our best to be grateful for all of this time together

Six Weeks.

Well, here we are! Six weeks of home schooling in the books, six weeks until the end of the school year. I'm unsure how they'll handle the last little bit - the final days of school always seem to be a lot of parties and fun stuff. Will I have to source random art supplies so we can do projects? Will they have us doing math until the bitter end? WILL WE ALL SURVIVE? Who can say, but I'm feeling like we'll be able to manage. My least favorite things about home schooling is how Adam always has a science video he has to watch, and then he has to do some writing and put down one or two facts he learned from the video. Except, he always tells me he didn't learn anything, he already knew everything that the video contained. He'll sit there for a half hour pouting and when I ask him to write something, he screams at me that he's thinking. I've asked him, maybe just put down two facts that were interesting to you, even if you already knew them. Nothing is interesting. How about two silly facts? None of this is silly. How about two stupid facts? JUST WRITE SOMETHING DOWN FOR THE LOVE. Meanwhile, Ellie's class has more grade-based homework, and she has been real ornery when I make her go back and revise failing work. She's like "I DID MY BEST!" You only answered two of the ten questions, that's not your best work! You didn't write in complete sentences, and I can tell from your answer that you didn't learn any of the material. This week has been better in terms of her not having a fit when called back to re-do a task (her teacher lets them correct work for higher credit.) Last week one of the questions was "what was the Paul Revere story about?" and she wrote "the things he said and did." Check minus on that, kid.

Our routine is still working for us, for the most part. It's amazing how adaptable the kids are to something like this. They know that COVID is bad and we have to be safe. They're amused by the idea of Tim and I wearing masks when we go to the store. I think they're enjoying the sleeping in portion and the Overwatch before bed portion, for sure.

Having our lunch meeting al fresco

Afternoon reading time

Adam making himself comfy for online learning

Lucky making herself comfortable across both of the baby beds turned cat lairs