Maybe I'm a Little Too Relaxed

The enforced isolation begins to pall, but only slightly. I wish I could go to the library.

I upped my piano practice to five hours today and ate too many gummy bears (unrelated events). At this point in the shut-down, I have watched the entire six hours of Pride and Prejudice--the one with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle; many episodes of Anna Detective, The Simpsons, Boys Over Flowers, and numerous required driver training and Safe Schools videos.

We had Thai food for lunch today in an effort to support my desire not to cook support our local restaurants.

I went several times to go and clean my bus over the past couple weeks, but it was missing every time. Inquiries at the office yielded only confused shrugs, and the mechanics have been keeping their door locked (or they saw me coming). I was starting to worry my bus had been stolen and no one noticed. But it turns out that the mechanics do have it. Whew! And Boss Man said I can clean it next week and still get credit.

Little Gary has been very cuddly. He's like a long, lanky dog that used to fit so well in your lap and still thinks he belongs there, even though he's now way too large. Little Gary's and Joseph's schedules haven't changed because they were homeschooled already, so the shutdown hasn't been too difficult for them (the earthquake and the noticeable aftershocks have done a lot more damage to Little Gary's psyche than anything else), but I've seen a lot more of Elannah and Sophia. Sophia got another job a day before the school district finally sent out an email yesterday stating they would pay substitute teachers during the shutdown, but I think it was an announcement that came too late. The district was already struggling to get and keep enough subs, and not making this decision a couple weeks ago won't help them retain many of the subs they did have.

One of my preschoolers sent me a Polo yesterday because she missed me. Awww! I sent her one back.

I'm gonna be honest: I'm pretty relaxed and I'm not minding it. I love that I don't have to watch the clock or set alarms or stress about so many things that it turns out were superfluous.

I do need to get outside more.

I hope things are going well with you and yours. If I can offer any advice as a parent who has gone through years of various iterations of homeschooling, it's this: quit trying to make home into a school classroom. Quit doing conveyor-belt teaching (Math at 8am for an hour; Social Studies at 9am for an hour; lunch; etc.). You'll only stress yourself and your kids out. Let things relax, and then find natural teaching moments. Encourage fun ways of learning about things they are already interested in. Little Gary has been using a mapping program for months now because he loves history so much that he's been fighting all of the world wars in different configurations by imagining what would happen if different countries had made different decisions. He is very knowledgeable about the history of wars, but if I forced him to read a dry textbook and memorize dates, he'd probably hate history entirely. He will often regale me with facts about various conflicts, and they're usually things I did not know at all.

So let them sleep in a bit and engage in extra play, but make them help you cook and clean. Those are also learning experiences. Who cares if your kids know all the steps of mitosis if, when they're old enough to move out, they can't boil water or do their own laundry or sweep the floors? Or change a tire or check the oil? Or use a lawn mower?

I'm done talking now. I think I'll wander down to the kitchen and figure out what I'm cooking for dinner. Or not. I might make the kids cook tonight.