It was absolutely impressive at how quickly the schools worked together to get an online curriculum built from scratch and up and going. The teachers even had to work by video conferences to figure things out because of the no large gathering thing that recently was reduced to no more than 10!
Our first day of home school started with a bang! An earthquake (5.7) hit Magna Utah at 7:45 that morning! You can read about that in the next post. But the kids hopped right on and got to work. I was constantly running between the 3 older kids entering passwords, getting them on the right website...etc. It was exhausting! But somehow we survived the week. We had to have the same conversation about 100 times about how they couldn't go to parks or to friends houses or have play dates. So hard for them to understand while their lives are being flipped upside down too!
We escaped to Rush Valley of all places on a weekend afternoon to get out of the house! I've always wanted to get Molli'es picture by these train cars that say MOL on them. So we found one there and finally stopped for a pic.
We drove through the tiny old town and came to a park! It had all the old "dangerous" playground toys. No one was around so we decided to go play! (I think at this point parks hadn't closed yet). The kids played for an hour on the merry go round!
On Sunday we dressed up for home church. We hadn't had the sacrament for almost a month by now and we decided it was time. What a precious spiritual thing we never would have gotten to experience without this trial. Chad blessed the bread and water and Carter got to pass it! What a treat to have that special spirit in our home!
We needed to get out another day so we went hiking along Dark Trail. So many people were out walking, hiking and fishing. It was really neat to see people being human again and enjoying the outdoors as families. We spotted the park from our hike and trudged down the mountain side to play at the park, again before it was closed.
Rylee's primary teacher has been so kind and brings her the sunday lesson often. She brought her a missionary tag and she wore it for days. She is so proud of that thing! What a doll. I'm sad for her too because her preschool was cancelled and she doesn't get to have her preschool graduation. I was really looking forward to that and she loves the Buff's program so much.
Diet is still going strong. Here is our cauliflower pizza I made. It wasn't too bad!
Hair do's have been a popular time waster.
As weeks passed, the teachers were able to organize video chats with the class. This was the biggest smile I'd seen on Carters face in a while. He has done really well with all of this and is loving being in his PJs all day and not combing his hair.
One of the biggest disapointments I've had was losing my workout classes. I exercise for my mental health mostly. It was how I started most every day. But I was so happy when a popular zumba teacher started holding video chat workouts! Hallelujah! It's not the same, but it's gotten me out of bed a time or two.
Don't worry, we've implemented P.E. at our house too! The PE teacher is good about posting suggestions to do to keep moving. Today was run around the house as many years as you are and then do sit ups and pushups.
One night Carter was determined to learn to make alfredo! I coached him but he did it mostly on his own! He even made a menu and served everyones plates and drinks! Fun! See? If we were in our normal schedule there is no way in the world we'd have time for something like this.
And if all of this wasn't crazy enough, we woke up to snow a few mornings! Well I loaded the kids up and we went sledding. Can't keep us inside even if its 20 degrees out!
We all had fun and wore ourselves out!
Through all of this, restaurants have had to close their dinning rooms and have drive through and carryout only. We've picked up dinner a few nights and had movie nights at home. In Mollie's dinner one night she had a heart shaped chicken nugget. We took the pic to sent to grandma reed who collects heart shaped rocks. She was pretty pleased. Mollie is the one who has struggled the most so far. She really misses her friends and soccer especially. She went from being super busy to having nothing. I often felt guilty about how busy she was at 9 years old. But it's helped our relationship (some days) too. We were able to get most of her friends on kids messenger so she can video chat and message them. That has helped too. Her coach has even held a few zoom meetings so the girls can catch up and her piano has been online too.
The blessing of technology is incredible. It is allowing so many people to work from home, order dinner, exercise, have game nights, chat with friends and family and so many great things! Life has been interesting with this virus, earthquakes, and a new normal. But so far, so good!
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