One More to Catch Up

 

I wanted to do one more catch up post to show what the other kids have been up to during this crazy time of Covid-19. I tried to upload the pictures in order, but instead they uploaded backwards. So from most recent to March this is some of what we've been up to. 90% of the time we've just stayed home. The kids have played a lot of baseball, taken walks around the block, and spent hours and hours playing with LEGO's! For the most part I think they've done really well through our stay at home time. Nathan was very sad in March when his Maker Space and Science classes were cancelled. The kids have also asked multiple times if we could just go play at the park, play with our friends, go to the store, or go back to church. Even after 4.5 months of not doing those things they still ask all the time if they can do those things but also seem to understand more when we tell them we can't because of the virus.

Here's some evidence of when we did leave the house and other things that have been going on during this crazy time: 

July:

Nathan surprised us all and lost his very first tooth! One morning near the end of July he woke up and told us his tooth was loose. We were excited for him but didn't expect it to come out for a few days.  Later that night during dinner he told us his tooth had come out! He was so excited! He wrote the cutest note to the tooth fairy and was super excited to get a dollar the next morning. But he also told me he was bummed the tooth fairy took his tooth because he wanted to check it out more! Haha!

We went on a hike on the Johnny Cash trail in Folsom. The kids did awesome! We walked for 1.8 miles and they all did great! No complaints! It made me excited for next Summer when we can do more, longer hikes!

We walked around the temple one morning just to get out of the house.

Swimming at Aunt Karen's is always a favorite!

The kids made their very own bread in a bag and it turned out delicious!

This was at the end of the day on the 4th of July. The kids loved getting sprayed by the hose by their dad!

He loved the fireworks we did in the back yard!

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays! It was a weird one this year. We had no race to get up and run, which meant no breakfast to go to after. We also had no baseball to watch. Instead we made cookies and did sparklers and pop its in the back yard. It was not the usual celebration I would have liked, but it turned out to be a pretty good day anyway.

California started mandating everyone wear masks in public. The kids do pretty well keeping them on. Except that Katelyn's face is a bit small and they're constantly slipping off. This was one of our rare outings to a store.

May: 

A walk around the temple is always a nice way to spend some time out of the house.

A walk by the creek near our house

A walk to the park

First year of home schooling in the books! I loved it at times and was very frustrated by it at other times! It was so incredible to have a front row seat to watch Nathan's progress throughout the year. Especially with reading! He went from knowing the names of the alphabet to being able to read entire sentences. And recently (this Summer) he has been reading a lot more fluidly and has even started reading chapter books! It is so incredible and so exciting to watch him progress! I loved doing art and science with the kids and I loved the structure and routine that doing school at home gave us. It helped me feel very connected to my kids and I loved being able to spend that time with them. 

Before covid-19 hit and every body had to home school there were some really hard days (mostly days when we were doing math . . .) and several days when I was just so tired and worn out that I'd wonder why on Earth did I want to home school.  After the virus hit and kids were sent home to do school on the computer I felt very grateful that we had already been home schooling and that there was very little disruption to their day to day routine. It's been especially nice through the uncertainty of this summer knowing that my kids are secure in their place at the charter school and we have everything we need to continue on in the next school year.

Easter at home. The kids had fun doing our usual egg hunt in the back yard and this year we did a church service at home as well.

March:

Walk by the creek

Springtime!

Nathan's birthday was at the end of March. We had planned on touring the firehouse and having cake with friends. All of that was cancelled. But instead we had an awesome Harry Potter birthday at home and did several zoom calls with family to help him still have a special day!