Week 1 of Social Distancing: Check

Dear Kids,

During a time like this, I'm really appreciating our amazing neighborhood. This week has flown by and it's actually been so enjoyable. After the first day, I felt pretty good, but I was sure that the enthusiasm for PJ school would die down, but a week later, we are still enjoying each other's company. 

Here's what we've been doing with our time: 

Hiking

We have an amazing system of hiking trails that run through our neighborhood. Almost every morning, we head out and walk a new trail. Nathan's not a super enthusiastic hiker (takes after Daddy) so I bribe you with some Pokemon Go along the way. I'm actually super excited about exploring the creek behind our house that will be flowing from the weekend rains. 

 We even found a fish fossil by the lake in the neighborhood!

 You see what I mean about the Pokemon?

 For now, it's a good carrot to get you outside. Hannah and Hailey both love going on hikes and finding cool things along the way. Hailey, you get so excited about birds, butterflies and wildflowers. Hannah, you just want to collect all the snail shells and cool leaves on the ground.

 

Cooking

One day, we made chinese bao-zi. 

 You all measured out the ingredients and helped mix things together.

 And you all did all of the wrapping while I couldn't roll out the bun dough fast enough to keep up with you all.

 I'd say, for your first time making bao-zi, you both did a great job! They tasted great, and that's all that really matters.

 Crafting

 We were talking about the corona virus and really just how germs get transmitted. This left Hannah and Nathan a bit nervous about these things called viruses, so we made corona virus monsters to kind of take the edge off a bit.

 We used sprinkles to create the "crowns" and apparently viruses have lots of eyeballs.

 Chalking
Auntie Momo sent us a new box of chalk, just in time because we were running pretty low on this stuff. We've decorated the driveway twice so far, and will probably do it again this week because the weekend rain washed away all of our hard work. Nathan, you outlined the bubble letters all by yourself and Hannah helped you color in the letters.

 Hannah, I love your princess drawings.

 And this kitty cat is pretty cute too.

 This week I'm going to try this mosaic chalk thing that I'm seeing all over facebook. I'm sure I'll post the pics here.

Skating
Hannah and Nathan, you love going out to skate everyday and Hailey, now that you can push yourself around on the scooter, you beg to outside with your scooter whenever you get bored. This is also great for me because I get to practice my footwork and juking skills as the 3 (sometimes 4) of you zip around me.

 Dancing
I broke out the Michael Jackson Experience for the Wii and we've been dancing at least 45 minutes each day. I have some pretty amazing videos that are wedding slideshow material.

Schoolwork
Now, things are not just fun and games over here. During the afternoon, while Hailey naps, I have you guys work on a little bit of reading, writing, and math. I discovered that both of you could use a little more practice on your penmanship so, I am telling you that I'm teaching you cursive to encourage you guys to practice writing your letters. So far, it's working.

I've also started to read Harry Potter with Nathan and you are absolutely loving it.

Hannah, you are on lesson 85 out of 100 in your reading lesson book and you are actually becoming quite fluent. Gone are the days where I'm practically dozing off as you are reading. So I think things are going well here.

Comments about the schedule
I have a schedule that I've created for us to follow, but I have been using it as just a guideline. If our walks take a bit longer, or if you guys are really interested in something that we are doing, we just follow the flow of things and adjust our schedule accordingly. On the first day, I stuck to the schedule to the T, and found myself very exhausted and slightly stressed, this less rigid approach is way better...for all of us.

Doughnuts! 
This morning, we made doughnuts at home. I had made the dough last night and this morning, we rolled it out, fried it and decorated it.

You must be wondering, how did they turn out? Well, they were pretty amazing. Easily the best doughnuts that I've had. I don't think I could go back to store bought! We'll be making these again soon!

Tomorrow we go back on our schedule and I look forward to seeing what we explore next.

Love,
Mommy