Distance learning officially started in our school district on Wednesday, April 15th. Jay and Rose had video meetings with their teachers and classes once a week, and a list of mostly online activities to choose from and work on for 60-90 minutes each day (Rose, grade 3= 60 minutes; Jay, grade 5= 90 minutes). They use iReady and Kahn Academy to do reading, science, and math, and their teachers give them writing prompts to work on their writing. And their militant mother is still pumping them through those YouTube cursive lessons. The adjustment to official online school was a bit rough because the age guidelines had the kids doing more schoolwork than they had been on the parental regime, but Jay and Rose are adapting.
Of course Amber wanted to join in on the extended screen time, so we logged her onto teachmonster.com, where she completed all of the alphabet and reading activities three times before losing interest. Her current learning website is starfall.com, which seems to have a good amount of activities for her age group. The girl is a computer guru and will sit doing phonics and kindergarten math online for as long as we'll let her. She is not a performer, though, so it's very hard for us to assess how much she has actually learned from all of this. It's more for her to feel included in the school routine than for her to have information shoved down her throat, though, so we don't worry too much about retention.
Meanwhile, Jeff has been plugging away at recording video after video in French: reading stories, talking about the weather, showing how to make a sandwich, taking a walk outside, etc. Both Rose and I have filmed Jeff do his excursion-based French videos. Jeff also has designated live video stream office hours for each of his French classes, where students can log on and talk with him. Nobody had used that feature yet, but Jeff still sits in front of his live webcam for his office hours. We have had to banish Amber from the room several times for dancing in the background, watching herself on Jeff's live stream screen. When Jeff records himself reading French stories, he does the BEST voices, and if I'm in the room, I usually start laughing (as quietly as possible) off to the side.
Even I have found a digital pastime. On Friday, April 4th, I dove headfirst into writing an actual full-length novel for the first time ever. I have always wanted to "write a book," yet it still took some courage to get started. For years I have been keeping a running list of story ideas, but I realized that I was so attached to those beloved much-thought-of ideas that I was too overwhelmed to try actually writing them as my first attempt. So I plucked an idea out of thin air and started writing that story before I overthought it or developed too high and mighty expectations around it. I am viewing this story as a prolonged practice session rather than the "book of my dreams," and that shift in viewpoint has taken the pressure off and helped me just go for it. It has been a fascinating learning experience so far!
As of last night, I have written 38,000 words (68 single spaced pages in Microsoft Word). The average novel is 60,000 words, so woot! I know there are some cute fun parts, and I know there are some horribly lame parts, but I'm still forging onward. It is a love story (I know, who am I?) based on what might have happened if Jeff and I didn't meet until ten years after college. Fun silly alternate reality starring an almost-Shaina and an almost-Jeff. I have no plans for this book beyond pure personal learning and entertainment. I'm sure I'll let my family read it when I'm done since I've told them so much about it. Basically, though, writing this story is an extremely enjoyable, absorbing project that I am always either typing on or thinking about.
That's the latest update on our virtual life.
Distance learning. Jeff's penchant for building computers is really paying off now--this is the first time I have felt un-extravagant that we all have our own computers.
Beginner's cursive! Jay's is on top, Rose's is on bottom.
This is a sample of Jay's print handwriting, from a writing assignment last week. I have hopes that eventually he will maybe switch to writing in cursive because his cursive is so much neater!
Two mornings last week, Jeff and I went running together. Jeff has been running twice every weekday, so he slowed way down to run at my pace and then ran at super-Jeff-pace in the afternoon. Jeff likes to get up early and run before breakfast, though, so this plan was not sustainable for me since I struggle to even walk across the house before eating breakfast, haha. We run together when we can, and when we do, it's the best kind of date.
I couldn't see a thing in the bright sun when I was taking this picture.
I got tired after reading Amber several books one day, so Jay took over.
The apple blossoms are already mostly faded into leaves. This picture was taken during my run on Monday, April 13th.
When I went to Costco on April 10th, I got a big box of macarons in six flavors. We had fun reminiscing about our trip to France while we ate them over the next few days.
Last week the kids also started up virtual piano lessons. We prop our old iPad on the edge of the piano, FaceTime their teacher at 10am on Tuesdays, and she gives them their lessons. I'm sure it's harder for the teacher not to be in person, but I love that I don't have to go sit in the car for an hour during piano lessons!
My sisters and I have started a fun Marco Polo video message group and it has been a blast staying connected with all of them in one place. One day I got behind in watching their messages and my watch informed me of what I had missed.
Post-run sunshine selfie!
Playing some Mario Kart after dinner.
Our landlords have been doing some major land improvement, grading and leveling several gravel roads out around the fields behind our house. Jay sat in the dirt pile and listened to an audiobook for his "outside time" one day. Since then, I have mandated that all outside time must be spent in motion, not sitting around.
Busted! I was out walking on the new road working out plot difficulties for my story, and I passed Jay lounging in the dirt during his would-be active outside time.
Current food fave: Asian salad mix with chickpeas and snap peas. Protein, fresh, healthy: yum.
Amber is adamant about bedtime stories these days. Jeff and I alternate who reads to her each night. Bedtime stories have always been super hard for me because I am always totally maxed out and DONE by bedtime. Amber gets one story per night. That's all I have to give, and even that feels exceptionally difficult.
Amby Amby
We tried using Jeff's work laptop to FaceTime the local Grandview relatives during Grampa Dan's Saturday morning pancakes, but they ended the call before we could even say anything, so we called the other grandparents (my parents) in Denver.
The kids teased, tickled, and shrieked for most of our grandparent FaceTime.
I love this long swooping road on the west side of town. I ran long on Saturday and enjoyed this view.
Looping back through town before heading back out to the country to our house on my Saturday 9-miler.
We moved Amber to the next size up in bikes this week. Rose's old bike needed a bit of TLC before it was ready for riding.
The kids ride fast tight loops on the oval of gravel that circles our house and yard.
Rose!
Another nourishing lunch: hashbrowns, eggs, salsa, and guac. My metabolism took a sudden jump last week and I was scrambling to add a fourth meal to my day to keep up. My stomach does best if I only eat meat once a day, so finding three other meat-free meals has been a definite challenge. I confess to using baked goods (of the chocolate chip variety) to fill one of those meals more than once. It can be such a pain having a high maintenance stomach and high metabolism!
Two sisters, playing Barbies on the couch.
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