Week 7 of Summer: The Fancy Life

Dear Kiddos, 

Wow, I can't believe how quickly each week is flying by! Pretty soon COVID will be a thing of the past, right? 

So, I announced last week that we decided to keep you guys home from school this next school year.  I went ahead and ordered the curriculum that we will be using and I'm going to try to come up with more project based units for us to study. I am working on building a learning pod for you guys, focusing on how to keep it safe for all the families involved. 

One thing that Daddy helped me realize to day was the times I get stressed, or lose my temper is when all 3 of you are whining for my attention or help. Perhaps I knew this in my subconscious mind, but probably just shoved it away because Hailey is so young and I just know that she needs help. So, moving forward, I will have a new battle plan: When we are working together, I'm going to have you guys raise your hands and wait for me to come to you. We'll see how this works out. 

We've been having a lot of fun painting with acrylic this past week. It was a little stressful having you guys work with non-washable paint, but you all were pretty good about reporting splatters and spills immediately.  (Hailey, you don't know this yet, but you got tempera paint. There's no way I'm trusting you right now with Acrylic, please don't be offended!) 

Hailey, you actually really enjoy painting. Most days, you start out doing what the teacher asks you to do, but then most of the time, you go off doing your own thing on the paper, which then turns in to mixing all the colors on the palette. 

Upper: Cherry and Blueberry by Nathan.
Lower: Fig and Cherry by Hannah

Nathan and Hannah, you all learned about working with different values, getting more complex as each day continued. 
 

I can tell you guys really like this painting week better than collage week. When I call you down for class, it does not take any coaxing at all. 

Tulips by Hannah

Garden by Nathan

This is our COVID gallery. We've been adding the work that you all have been doing to this wall. MOst of the art that you have been creating isn't on the wall because I'm debating on whether we should keep it all in your notebook, or just rip the pages out and put them up on the wall. I'm actually even considering photocopying a few to put up just so you guys can keep the art in the journal to keep with you as your artistic talent grows. 

Hannah, you still love this dress! You have worn this dress to a tea party, to skating, to mopping and more! 

And Of course, Hailey, you can't let Hannah diva it up by herself! You've been wearing a dress 90% of the time because, why not! 

And you've absolutely love the crown that you made last week. You request it every day. 

Chinese lessons are going fairly well. I'm trying my best to get you all to be exposed to as much mandarin speaking as possible. I'm hoping to make an hour or 2 a day, mandarin only, so we'll see how that plays out in the next few weeks. 

"Fish" in Mandarin

 

Hannah, you have been so interested in helping out whenever you can in the kitchen. I really enjoy this special time together. You also have expressed an interest in running with me, so some mornings, we have been going on short runs together before breakfast. I remember that during our first run, you expressed that you love it because it's like we are on a date together. 

We made pizza from scratch the other day and it was the best! I've never had much success with the dough, but I think we've found the perfect recipe and it's so easy that I can't think of a reason why we would need to order out for pizza again. (Besides convenience) 

So the simplifying toys method has continued to work. You guys are playing with toys for a longer period of time and the upstairs can be tidied up in less than 10 minutes even after a whole week of not tidying up. 

Legos have particularly been the heart of everyone's interest this past week. Nathan and Hannah, you will just go into your rooms, build and role play legos for 2+ hours. 

Hailey, you will also sit and build with duplo legos on your own for 45 minutes at a time. I've really been impressed with the things that all three of you come up with. 

Our anniversary date night. 

A few months ago, our neighbors also celebrated an anniversary and the kids planned a romantic date night for the parents. You guys saw them setting up outside and immediately wanted to plan something for us. Well, we cashed in this weekend for our 11th anniversary. 

The only thing I really did was order the food and Daddy picked it up. But you girls helped me with my hair and make up, and you all also helped us pick out our matching outfits. 

Massage and Hair

Make-Up

The Final Look: Complete with pearl necklace and taco earrings.
Oh, there's also not 2, but 3 bows in my hair. 

Don't we clean up real nice? 

You guys worked very hard to create this beautiful "Happy Anniversary" sign for us.

The table was set with care by the bar. Hannah, you even set out your special petunias for us. 

We had our own little mixologist who kept our glasses full throughout the night. The wait staff brought us each course and were super attentive to asking us if we were ready for the next course. 

Dinner was delicious and Daddy and I were able to share with each other (loud enough for you guys to over hear) what we love about each one of you. You guys did a great job to make us feel special, so we thought we'd do the same in return. 

At night, this happened. 

And has continued to happen for the past 3 days. I'm actually ok with it, because you guys wake up early, but will play upstairs until 7:15 and then come down. Hailey takes a better nap when she wakes up earlier, so it's a win win. 

Hailey, your sense of humor continues to develop at an exponential rate. You are such a jokester and you make so many connections and come up with creative ideas all the time. I sometimes am so surprised at how you are not even 3 yet. 

Dinner time struggles still happen and for some weird reason, we've conditioned you to eat if we offer your food to someone else. Then, you will frantically open your mouth for the next bite. We decided to put an end to this and have been just feeding your food to someone else if you refuse it the first time. If you are still hungry, you throw a fit, and then you learn your lesson and will start eating without a fight. But if you are full, you are completely ok with it and then dinner is over. 

You are starting every prayer at mealtime. If we even say the wrong prayer, or say it before you start, meltdown. If you see something on your plate that you don't like, meltdown. If we tell you "no", guess what? Meltdown. 

Potty training is coming along pretty well. You are starting to slowly recognize when you need to go and most of the time still need reminders to "run to the potty!" You make this little grunting sound that I can seem to hear from a mile away, and immediately I'm conditioned to say, "if your pee pee is coming, run to the potty!" 

Well, that's about it for this week. We have 2 more weeks of art class, counting this week and who knows what lies ahead? 

Love, 

Mommy 

4 Months of Social Distancing from COVID-19

Dear Kiddos, 

This week marks 4 months of staying home due to COVID-19. By now, we are in a pretty good groove and I've come to accept that time alone will happen after you guys go to bed. I've started to embrace the  time that we have together instead of viewing it as an intrusion of my personal time. 

Hannah, you have now joined us in the evenings for downstairs time. This is the extra 30 minutes of time you get to spend downstairs before having to go to bed. We usually read a chapter of Harry Potter or play board games. This past week we introduced you to Settlers of Catan. You are really enjoying board games now and will ask to play more complicated games beyond Chutes and Ladders. 

Hailey, I've been trying to reinforce your ability to recognize numbers, letters, and colors with board games. You love Spinderella and it's neat to see you use problem solving to figure out the puzzle. 

We have not been going to the pool as often as we'd like, but when we do go, we go in the morning when there is maybe only 2-3 other families present. We usually claim a small corner of the pool and hang out there. Hailey, you finally agreed to get on a float! 

Daddy's birthday was also this past week and so we made a decorated a mint chocolate chip cake for him. You girls helped with most of the decorating. 

This week was Collage Art week, so we made different collages out of different types of paper and other material. Here are some of the masterpieces. 

Hailey, you still love cutting things up and will sit and cut up a piece of paper for 45 minutes. You occasionally will get so excited and show me shapes like diamonds and triangles. "Yook, Mommy, a diamond!" 

Collaging has been quite crazy. Everyday there is an abundant amount of scraps on the ground. You guys are usually pretty good about cleaning up, but I secretly think that Hailey is secretly stashing all of those little pieces of paper around. 

One day you guys made bee collages and then decided to make a stop motion video. 

Everyday we add onto our COVID gallery. We are definitely half way up the wall. I'm hoping for our sanity's sake that we don't have to fill up this entire wall with art. 

This past week I also reorganized the upstairs playroom. We used to have most of the furniture pushed to the perimeter of the room, so when you guys would play, everything ended up in the middle of the room. It was chaotic, overwhelming and simply not easy to clean. With this new arrangement, I've formed multiple zones for things to be played in, so it will be easier to see what goes where when you are finished playing. I've purged a lot more toys and put most of it in a closet. I will be switching the toys out every few weeks. You guys have already played with toys that you haven't played with in a long time. 

Another thing that has been going on this past few days is the decision to homeschool you guys in the fall. COVID-19 numbers are not great. I'm thinking AISD will be putting out a one-size-fits all curriculum, which will bore Nathan and possibly not be able to fill any gaps that Hannah may have. We are fortunate to be able to have a choice to homeschool, so I want to take advantage of that. 

I've been researching all sorts of curriculum and I think I've found some programs that will challenge you guys just the right amount. The tough part about curriculum selection is that many times you don't have the booklet in front of you to see what will work best. Thank goodness for Youtube reviews over the products. 

Another issue comes with finding your pod. We've been meeting up with some of Hannah's school friends (who happen to also live super close to us in the neighborhood) to play some mornings. I mentioned to the moms that I was thinking of creating a pod of people to partially homeschool together. Just like that, we have 4 interested families. And then I want to have Nathan be able to homeschool with your friends, but I don't feel safe if the number of families grows to be too big. I'm still going to have to work everything out and I want to make this whole experience enjoyable and memorable for everyone. 

I'm writing all of this knowing that we are extremely privileged to even have the choice to homeschool. So many families have essential worker members where homeschooling in a pod is not even an option. So the children don't have an option but to either risk their health by attending school on-site, or be educated virtually. I'm praying that the virtual options will be effective and will be able to support higher-needs students and their families. 

Week 5: Creating, Constructing, Cavities, and Cones of Snow

Dear Kiddos, 

This week was a fairly simple week filled with Chinese lessons, drawing lessons, martial arts, legos and too many snow cones. 

We decided to sign up for Arree Chung's creative art classes for the month of July. The first week has been illustrating. He does a good job helping kids practice seeing the shapes that are in the objects that they want to draw. 

This week the kids are making collages, and so far, they are having lots of fun doing it. 

We rearranged everyone's room last week and so I decided to tackle the organization of the legos that we have. First we are going to separate all the pieces by color and then within each color, we will separate into 4 categories: plates, bricks, slanty pieces, and miscellaneous. 

We've been sorting a little each day and we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Since we gave Nathan's birthday present early, we decided to give you, Hannah your birthday present early as well so that you could spend time playing with it this summer. We got you a 12+ year old lego set and we prohibited Nathan from helping you out with it because he usually ends up just building it. But now, you are almost 6, you are definitely capable of building the set yourself. After a week of working on it 2 hours a day, you finally finished the set. Now the challenge is to keep that set complete. I'm hoping that including you guys in the sorting process will motivate you to not mix up the sets. 

Hailey, you also did some building. After watching an episode of Daniel tiger, where they made a spaceship out of a cardboard box, you wanted to make one too. So, we got together some materials and built a spaceship. 

You spent about 45 minutes decorating it. 

On Monday, we all went in to get our teeth cleaned. I was very impressed with the dental office's protocols to keep everyone safe. I knew I had a loose filling that needed to be fixed, and then they found 2 cavities in Hannah's 6 year molars. They said that the tooth came out with the filling already there. On Thursday, you and I went back to get the cavities filled/fixed. I was so proud at how brave and still you were during the whole procedure. The dentist assessed that your cavity wasn't too deep, so he didn't numb you before drilling and filling. At one point, for a brief moment, I saw you squeeze your eyes tight and hug your stuffie tightly. You were in pain and my heart just dropped. But luckily it ended quickly and I saw you relax. Afterwards, I asked you how much it hurt, you said, 99 to 100. Again, so proud. Hopefully this experience will encourage you to continue to take your time when brushing. 

We also created meals for Hope Austin's food bank. Packing 5 meals made me realize how much packaging is used for processed foods! 

We normally go out for ice cream after shots, so I decided that instead of ice cream for fillings, we would do home made snow cones. We made enough syrup to last for days, so we ended up having snow cones for afternoon snack for 4 days in a row. 

4th of July was probably the most uneventful one ever. We went out to cheer on the neighborhood parade of 8 decorated cars, which lasted less than a minute. The next day, we went on a bike ride in the morning and took a picture with the balloon display that was still up by the pool. 

Hailey, you've been kind of grumpy sometimes, especially when we tell you "no." Just yesterday, as you were throwing a temper tantrum and you didn't like the choices that we gave you, you asked to go to time out. This threw me for a loop, but I carried you to my room, set you on the bed and then let you have some time to yourself. A few minutes later, you called for hugs and you were ready to compromise. Does this mean the terrible 2's are over? 

Nathan, you've been sleeping with Hailey in her big bed for about a week now. I think both of you like keeping each other company, and I like it because I've not had to wake up in the middle of the night for a week now! I've had the most restful sleep this week than I've had the past 3 years! 

Well, COVID numbers look abysmal right now. School will start in a little over a month. There are so many unknowns right now still. I'm trying my best to make things as normal for you guys as possible, but I know that 2020 will just be a weird year. Hopefully 2021 will bring about some more normalcy. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy