Dear Kiddos,
I had built in chores time in our schedule with every good intention of knocking them out of the way before we start our PJ school every day, but realistically, we probably get to it 2 out of the 5 days we have school. Not a big deal, but I'll take it because 2 days x3 people doing chores (with 1 little one un-doing them) comes out to about 5 days of short chores.
Hailey is deathly afraid of any vacuum cleaner and Hannah, you still claim to be afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so Nathan took over the task of vacuuming while the girls helped put away things.
Some more interesting things that we did this week include building with biodegradable packing peanuts. with the invention of "texas air" these little peanuts are a rare find these days. I ordered a new pot for my 10 year old rice cooker and it came in a box full of packing peanuts. Gold mine!
The initial look that I got from the three of you when I ate one of the peanuts was one of shock and disguist, but then Hailey, picked one up and asked me, "eat it?"
I then showed you all how to "lick it and stick it" to build things and then gave you a challenge to build some thing that someone could take shelter in. Nathan, you build Rapunzel's tower.
And Hannah, you built a car, with built in seats inside and little wheels. You finished rather quickly, so you decided to build a car wash for the car too.
Hailey, you didn't make much, because you never got past and pretty much got stuck on the licking part.
In the afternoon, we went outside and had rolly polly races. I had you guys trace the path of the rolly pollys for 30 seconds and then Nathan measured the distances that these guys traveled. Math and science: check.
It rained so the next morning, we went to check to see if the creek behind our house had water flowing in it. With Oak pollen levels being so high, I had everyone pick a hat to wear while we went hiking. We just had hair day the day before and it was my attempt at avoiding another hair day.
Lo and behold, there was water! We stuck around for a bit, and you guys threw rocks into the creek and after a few too close calls of Hailey falling into the creek, I decided that we should go explore somewhere else. But then Nathan started to feel itchy and Hannah needed to go potty, so we just decided to call it quits and go home.
One day while I was cooking dinner and the big kids were playing, Hailey, you were really begging for my attention. I set up a bunch of things for you to bang and you were so happy! You sat there for a good 15 minutes just playing the "drums." When I felt your interest waning, I turned on some big band jazz music and that bought me the time that I needed to finish preparing dinner before Daddy could come and help. You really love music. Music lesson: check.
Another morning, we spent the time inside and we watched lunch doodles with Mo Willems. I had paper for each of you to follow along and after we learned how to draw Pigeon, Piggy, and Gerald (the elephant) the big kids, you were all very inspired to create your own Pigeon books. So you two worked on your books while Hailey went to town coloring the pictures that we drew together. You did a really good job coloring in the lines (no kidding). You literally scribble inside the lines.
After lunch, we had you guys read your stories to us.
And then we went outside to make mosaic chalk art on the fence.
Trying to juggle the needs of all three of you can sometimes be a bit tough, but I have learned that I need to relax my parenting standards, and overall, I think this has become a good thing for me too. For example, I was helping both you big kids with something and Hailey, you wander off. After awhile I hear ripping of some sort in the background. I choose to ignore it and continue to help the big kids. I even come over at some point and I encourage, "rip it, rip it good!" when I had realized that the folder was in a state that could no longer be saved.
So then Nathan comes over, you find your piano lesson folder shredded by the hands of your little sister and you start to drama cry. Words like "it's so special to me" and "I need it" come spurting out of your mouth. I look over at you Hailey, and with a concerned look on your face said,
"Nathan crying." I then solomnly explained,
"You ripped up Nathan's folder and now he is sad. Should we rip folders?" and then you made me proud by saying,
"No." You walked over, gave Nathan a hug and told him you were sorry. I then explained to you Nathan that this is how we teach Hailey right from wrong. She's going to do a lot of things that are wrong because she doesn't know what's wrong and I'm going to need you guys to help teach her those things. Nathan, I was so proud, you tantrum stopped instantly and you moved on. Not sure if it's the adenoidectomy or if me grabbing another folder helped you de-escalate, but this was a good change.
On Friday, I decided to change up my curriculum to doing project based learning. I decided to start on a smaller scale and we made honey marshmallows. Before we made them, I had Nathan sumarize the procedure and write them down on paper. (This was my sneaky way of getting you to work on sumarizing and handwriting) And then Hannah, I had you copy down the list of ingredients (which was my sneaky way of having you practice writing too)
Afterwards, I set out all the ingredients and I let you both loose, you guys measured, poured, and surprisingly did so without making too much of a mess.
I did the boiling part and during that time there were temper tantrums thrown over not getting to do as much as the other person, but after a couple of threats of no marshmallows, it quickly stopped. We made a huge pan of marshmallows along with a dozen cute little purple piggies. They turned out good!
Hannah has been wanting to remake a TV so I had you draw out the 10 frame storyboard and had you build the long strip of paper where you will be putting your images on to create a filmstrip (if you even know what those are) type movie. We are still not done with it, but it's a work in progress.
While Hannah, you were working on your TV, Nathan, you and I played a new game: 7 wonders. It's really cool to see how good of a strategic thinker you are for a kid your age. When I play with you I hardly have to play down for you to win.
Hannah, the more time I spend with you, the more I really am realizing how much of a mini-me you are. I love how you are so creative. This is a perfect example of something that I would've done (if I was allowed to) when I was a kid.
You are also very curious. I've come to the conclusion that the reason why you break so many things is because you are trying to figure out how things work or how they are put together. I think I kind of did that too, but to my knowledge, I wasn't as curious as you are.
Hailey, you are now becoming just a silly little girl who loves to accessorize and show funny faces. I love seeing your little expression of frustration or sneakyness, the little sideways glance that you do just always melts my heart a little.
You are very interested in animals, counting (in both english and mandarin). You can count up to 19 in both languages, skipping 14 and 15 in English.
It looks like Zoom meetings will now be a norm for communication and education in the next few weeks...who am I kidding, probably until the end of the school year. Today was our first time with zoom for Chinese school. As a parent we tested it out and it was still chaotic for me. Mind you that Nathan's zoom meeting started at 1:30, Hannah's started at 1:40 and Hailey usually goes down for a nap around those times. When I thought both kids were situated, I brought Hailey upstairs for book before bed. I was trying to read to Hailey when I hear Hannah calling for help. I come down, show her the pen feature and then go back up. After Hailey goes down, I come back down and I find Nathan writing words on a napkin and Hannah's asking to eat a snack. And then for the next 20 minutes, it's a constant stream of, "mommy, I can't see anyone," "What happened?" "What do I need to do?" It was probably the most hectic15 minutes that I've had in a long time. (Steve couldn't help much because he was in the office participating in his own Zoom meeting for his Chinese school class).
I know this was the first time, and with more practice, it will become less novel and more routine.
Well, that's all I have for the recap of the week. The Oak levels are extremely high so I'm definitely staying in for awhile. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so hopefully that will knock the pollen off and we can go outside again.
This week I'm going to extend our project based learning onto a week-long scale as we tackle: stop motion video! And Hailey, we are going to try to do the potty training thing so that you can be better at knowing when you need to go. Hope it works well, because it might encourage Hannah to have less accidents.
Anyways, I'm feeling sooo blessed that this COVID-19 situation has been a good thing for me to connect with you all more. Overall things are kind of inconvenient, but it's not life changing for us. The most stressful part about this experience is going grocery shopping. The tense vibe at the stores really get to me and then when I get home, I feel way more relaxed. It's weird, but times are weird nowadays. I know that many families don't have this luxury of getting to stay home from work and completely putting work on hold, or if they are working, are still working full time and taking care of kids. I admire their strength and perseverance.
Ok, so I'm sure we'll have some fun things to share from the upcoming week. Until next week,
Love,
Mommy
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