Just an Ordinary Week in Extraordinary Times

Dear Kiddos, 

We've been fortunate to have a mild winter so far. The past few days have even been T-shirt weather. But, cedar pollen is still kryptonite to the three of you, so we stay in and play. 

We've been garage skating almost every day this past week. 

Hailey has joined Hannah during martial arts and is doing fairly well. It's super cute watching you both: Hannah, you help guide Hailey along and Hailey, you just want to kick some butt. 

Sometimes we play hockey after dinner. Here, it's shirts vs. skins - but Hailey is the only one brave enough to be on the skins side. 

The 3 of you have been interested in guided draws lately. We've spent many afternoons drawing away. You girls have been interested in princesses and Nathan, you've been drawing Pokemon. 

We also watched a few movies this week. Charlie Brown has been a new interest among the three of you. This comes from one of the songs that Nathan could be learning: Linus and Lucy. Daddy showed the 3 of you a video clip of the song and the 3 of you instantly fell in love with those adorable characters. 

Towards the end of the week it rained, so much of the cedar was also knocked out of the air. We often take advantage of these times to emerge from the den and out into the rain-soaked earth for short walks, bike rides, or just to play in the driveway. You girls have been recycling small pieces of chalk into new chalk. 

One day we went out skating at the school grounds for about an hour. When we came home, Hannah, you pretty much declared that you were so tired that you couldn't take another step. I told you to rest on my bed and so you slowly dragged yourself to our bedroom to rest. It was super funny and cute. 

And then today Hannah, you and I both got 2 cavities each filled. You were super brave throughout the whole thing and when I asked you about your thoughts at the end of the procedure, you told me that you didn't want to do that again. 

Well, that's about it for now. This has been a relatively uneventful week, but everyone is happy and doing well. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy 
 

10 Months of Pandemic Living

Today marks 10 months of social distancing. I read back to the first few posts from the pandemic and little did we know back then that 10 months later, we would still be in this situation. 

For science this week, we learned about how we classify rocks based on how they are created. I resurrected an activity that I used to do with my students and I had you guys do it too. So teaching other people's children is so much easier than  teaching your own. I used to be able to go through the activity with 30 students in 30 mins. It took the 3 of you an hour and a half. I'll have to admit, you all are quite a bit younger than the students that I used to teach but there was only 3 of you, 3! 

simulating weathering to create sediments

Hailey, we've been keeping a food diary for you over the past week or so and I think gluten and you can be friends. Our ultimate test happened when you sneaked a roll and ate half of it before I even realized that you did. 

The snow from last week helped clear the pollen out of the air for a few days. We quickly took advantage of that and spent some time outside on wheels. 

We had a delivery of food arrive and it included a small piece of dry ice. That evening after dinner, I dropped some of the dry ice in a few glass containers, added some water and soap and you three were entertained for a good hour. 

Hailey, you are still absolutely in love with cutting. Our entire stack of recycling has been shredded by your own 2 hands. Nathan has been complaining because his paper airplane supply has been cut off. 

Hailey, Daddy made you a castle and you 3 spent some time decorating it. When Nathan drew a dragon on it, it really upset you. You did everything you could to cover it up. 

The birdhouses from last week are finally completed. We added the final protective coating and we will be hanging them outside soon. 

Hogwarts Houses

Pink and Purple Princess Birdhouse

Hogwarts Tower

After watching Nathan and Hannah whizz around the house in their rollerblades, you wanted to try too, so we pulled out Hannah's old skates and strapped you in. I actually had you practice taking your first steps on the carpet to get used to the skates. You had so much fun running around and just giggled so hard. Just a few more weeks and you'll be ready to skate on the tile downstairs and maybe you'll even survive the garage. 

I used to be really stingy with the tape, but I've learn to let it go and I even put a roll of it in the materials cart. I'm kind of glad I did because it has sparked so much creativity in you Hannah! You created a dress! Today you also created a belt, with a map holder and some other accessories for Hailey but she's not really interested in wearing those things yet. 

The dress was even one size fits all! 

Nathan, you have become quite the avid reader. I will often find you with your head stuck in a book in the morning before school starts. You have recently completed book 5 of Harry Potter and you continue to beg for me to let you read book 6. I've been very impressed about how you continue to be a rule-follower because the whole series is within your reach and you have not pulled it out to read. You have gained my trust. 

I wish I could say that we have exciting adventures coming up, but unfortunately, we don't. Our COVID rates are at record levels, but hopefully we will see the trend start to drop soon. For now, we will continue sticking with our schedule and try to make each day as fun as possible. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mom 
 

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? 100th Day of Homeschool and Hostile Toddler Negotiations

Life and Death of a Texas Snowman

On  Jan 10th we received almost 2 inches of snow. I know, for those of you up north reading, you are thinking, big deal, but to us Texans, this is huge! School was even cancelled (in person). Random thought: Does virtual learning this mean that snow days will now be a thing of the past? 

So when it first started snowing, you guys went outside to check things out. You were able to scoop up some good snow for a snowball or 2. 

By noon we had enough snow to make a mini-snowkid. 

In the afternoon, we went back outside. You girls worked on building a snowman with Daddy.

While I took Nathan to a neighbor's house for an outside snow play date. After 15 minutes, your gloves, pants and shoes were wet and cold. You wanted to go home, so we did. 

I took a picture of our backyard. I love the contrast of freshly fallen snow on dark bare branches. There's just so much beauty there. 

Daddy helped you both make an awesome snowman and called it quits with Hailey. Hannah, you continued to stay outside for about another hour before we also called you in. 

The next day, this was what was left of the big snowman. So we ended up repurposing the snow for a 

SNOWBALL FIGHT!!! The snow was perfect. Not too wet and perfectly ball-able. 

After about an hour of play, this was all that was left. Just a little patch of snow. RIP Mr. Snowman. 

 Ok, back to normal life. New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful. You guys did get to watch the neighbors play with some fireworks before bedtime but once you all went to sleep, all the popping and fireworks that was going around the neighborhood did not wake you guys up. 

School 

Hailey, you are still pretty ambidextrous right now. I am trying to set you up to be more right dominant, if that's even possible, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if you turn out to be a lefty.  

The cedar pollen levels were pretty high this week. We spent a lot of time inside. We even parked the cars outside so that you guys could have extra space to play in the garage. 

The few times we tried braving it by going outside proved to be disastrous. Itchy eyes and never ending nasal drainage is a recipe for cranky kids. But, Hannah got a pair of skates from a friend and really wanted to try them out outside. 

You guys learned about soil composition this week in science. We made edible soil by sifting oreo cookie sediments into sand, silt, and clay. 

added some chocolate hummus, I mean, humus (chocolate pudding) along with some chia seed matter to represent the rollie polly eggs. Delicious and educational. 

P.E. time was spent in the auxiliary gymnasium AKA the garage. Both of you big kids have decided that you prefer roller blades. 

Hailey, while the big kids are doing school you like use these mini windows of unsupervised time to explore all of the board games, especially the ones with many pieces. The satisfaction of hearing the ching ching ching of pieces as they strike the floor and ricochet off in multiple directions is very pleasing to you. And when I come to find you and suggest that we clean it up together, I get a very sassy, "No, you clean it up by yourself! It's boring to clean up!" You toss your head back and walk away. I'm usually able to convince you to come back to help clean up, but it does take a whole lot of mental energy to convince a 3 year old to do anything. 

So we've learned to pick our battles. You know how you love to cut paper? Yep, you also hate cleaning it up too. So, Daddy came up with an idea: your cutting corner. You get to go to town and cut all the paper you want. When finished, we simply shake you off and dump the contents in the trash. Win win. 

                                           

We also painted birdhouses this week. We each painted ours to represent a part of the Harry Potter story. Nathan, you created a tower from Hogwarts. 

Hannah, you represented each of the 4 houses on your birdhouse and I represented 6 different stores from Diagon Alley. 

Hailey, you wanted to make a purple rainbow birdhouse. We will have to show everyone our final products next week. We still need to paint a protective coat over them so that the Texas heat and rains don't ruin our hard work too soon. 

I feel like lately, we've all "let ourselves go". So you girls decided to give me a make-over. 

Hailey, you are one to speak...you are the one with the constant bird nest hairdo. I guess that's a thing these days? 

Hummus face is also a great accessory to blue ballgowns. 

Before I end this week's post I just wanted to share some cool things that each of you guys have done this week. Hannah, you planned our 100th day of school celebration. We had a special tea party and gift exchange at the end of the day. Nathan made Perler bead creations for everyone. Hailey, you made paper octopi for all the kids and Hannah, you made a white house model craft kit for everyone to make. I was super impressed with your creativity.  

Hailey, you have officially joined the conversation at the dinner table. Up until this week, you have been a casual listener who would occasionally laugh at funny things but this week, you have been demanding for space to talk. You would yell for everyone to be quiet and then say things like, "my turn to talk!" Nay nay, you stop!" "No, mommy, quiet. I want to talk." Oh dear. We have another kid who loves to talk. Watch out, Nathan.  

Nathan, you have been doing awesome at DDR. While the girls like to play sometimes, I feel like they are still too young to really be able to follow the beat and arrows. (They do like to pick the most challenging songs and then watch us fail at those) Hannah can do 1-3 feet-level songs and Nathan you can start to hit the triplet beats in the more simple songs in standard mode. This has been another outlet for you guys to get your energy out. This coming week, I'm going to break out the Michael Jackson Wii dance game and hopefully cedar season will be ending soon. 

Well, that's all for this week. We are approaching 10 months of social distancing due to COVID-19. The Vaccines are starting to be distributed and hopefully things will start to get back to normal-ish in a few more months. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy