Tuesday, April 14, 2020

COVID-19 Quarantine

The last month has been nothing like what we imagined that it would be like when we started the year 2020.  With talk of COVID-19 entering conversations in a casual way and watching how it was spreading in China, we were still oblivious to the idea that it would mean a complete SHUTDOWN of life as we knew it by the middle of March.

People began working from home, schools and universities shut down, daily essential items were hard to find and overpriced, grocery stores shortened their hours and facial masks were required in all enclosed areas.  Restaurants and bars were forced to close, many of them permanently when they could not manage to make ends meet by simply offering take-out.

I began teaching my college chemistry courses online from my dining room -- recording lectures and modifying labs -- while homeschooling my four little ones.  Steve set up his "mobile office" in the garage (it worked out surprisingly well) and we all learned to adapt to the idea that we could not have any contact with people outside of our household.

We worked more puzzles than we have in the whole last year and even Jack is really into it now:



The kids did much better than I thought.  Sure, they missed their friends.  And they missed dance and they especially missed spending the Easter holiday (no Easter Egg Hunt at the park!) with family ... but we made the best of it.

We did a lot of Movie Nights and a lot of homemade desserts/meals where Sophia was my sous chef.



Homemade Carrot Cake to drop off for the grandparents before Easter:



It was also a great opportunity to practice more math (how many 1/2 cup measuring cups do you need for 1 1/2 cups of carrots?).



They boys dressed up in full Nerf Gun Gear and used each other as targets any chance that they got:



And we did lots of extra craft projects including painting:



Sam continued to practice her trumpet playing from home and learned to value structured school learning.  Her online learning experience was boring to her and she often completed her entire week of schoolwork within a 2-hr time block on Monday mornings.  We made several birthday posters while in quarantine so that we could do "drive-by" parades past her friends' houses.




Jack had the most "busy work," comprised of lots of math papers, spelling words, vocabulary papers and reading passages.  I tried to mix it up for him so that we did learning in the morning sometimes; and other times, we did it in the afternoon.  Often, we would work on his homework in the dining room, but I would also encourage outside learning too.



Sophia excels in all school subjects, especially in math.  Next year, we plan to have her do math lessons with the 5th graders rather than with her 4th grade peers.  For that reason, her teacher was generous to schedule an extra Zoom meeting weekly with her and one other student to give them extra math problems to work on.

Working on spelling words using my large teaching dry erase board in the dining room:



Outside learning in the fresh air and sunshine with sunglasses makes everything better.



Using my laptop to type her Compare and Contrast essay on penguins and flamingos:



Steve continued to cut the boys' hair, as he has done quite frequently the last couple of years.  Occasionally, I will take the boys to a barber shop (if Steve is traveling, busy, or it just plain works out in my schedule).  But, all salons and barbershops were shut down so we upped our game with a barbershop cape and Steve gave the boys a much needed haircut on the back patio.



As things continue to change daily here in Michigan, and the positive COVID cases continue to soar, it looks like the kids will be finishing out their school year at home.  They will miss end-of-the-year celebrations with their teachers and friends and graduations/sports/dance recitals will all be canceled.  It's sad and it's disappointing, but we all agree that we are lucky to be healthy and safe.

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