Homebound and Homeschooling

On occasion, I have thought about homeschooling my kids.  Not all at once, and definitely not with only a weeks notice, and yet here we are.  Currently Peter and I are in the living room listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while he plays nintendo and I get some emails finished.  I've unsubscribed from so many list serves that want to tell me how their company is handling the COVID-19 crisis.  Technically this is a grace week for school with real distance learning beginning next week.  We're learning how to navigate a day where we can't really go anywhere but still need to get school work done.  So far we are concentrating on typing club, piano, reading, and trying to get along with each other.  Some of that is easier than others!

I've talked to the kids about how this effects their day to day and Peter & Lucy seem to understand.  They haven't asked once to go visit a friend and they're only mildly disappointed that many of their activities are canceled.  I'm a little sad that we will likely not have a baseball season this year, we really loved Peter's team and he seemed to be enjoying it.  After a year of being scared and nervous of getting up to bat he has tackled that fear and crushed a few hits into the outfield and has grinned from ear to ear while running the bases.  We incentivize him by paying him to different outcomes at the plate and I can't decide if this is good parenting or not, but he loves money and $2 seems to be enough to get him to stay in the batters box and swing instead of hoping for a walk.  John also started teeball with Brendan and Allen Peacock as his coaches and he adores it.  We are very sad his season is likely over too and watching 4 year olds try to play baseball is some of the most fun you can have on a Saturday morning.

 We did get to go on the 4th grade field trip to St. Augustine - I had a great time with Peter and his friends and had many memories of Edna running around buying as much candy as she could.  Peter and his friends bought cheap brass rings with their names on them and Colleen Tenney and I joked that Peter and Dylan will exchange theirs with each other. :)


We were also playing soccer at XL soccer before the shutdown and everyone enjoyed that.  Lucy & Peter love being goalkeepers and shout out how many goals they stopped the other team from scoring and Addy races down the field to be the first one to the ball but then backs off when someone else arrives to the ball.  John loved his coach and gets annoyed to see that he is also coaching several other teams.  We liked it because it was inside, served french fries & drinks and basically kept the other kids entertained while we watched games.

The girls are also doing art classes at Creative Jane Orlando and they both seem to love it but I especially am happy for Lucy to have that outlet.  They bring home really fun projects and I'm glad to have found something that fits into our schedule that is just for Lucy.  Addy goes too...but mostly because she doesn't want to be left out.  Addy's in Kindergarten finally and she loves it.  She really never enjoyed preschool and always thought she was too old to be in a class with any of her preschool classmates - she LOVES being at school with Peter especially.  Her teacher is Mrs. Downing who we all really like. 

John is still our baby and decidedly not a baby anymore.  He would like to have all the privileges that Peter has, including biking to Yay Yay and Grand Dads house on his own.  It's always, I'll to it myself, go away! Until he realizes he really can't live without me and then he wants me to do everything for him.  I'll tell you what I won't miss...wiping bottoms and pushing people on swings.  Colleen Tenney is John's teacher and I'm thankful because we are good friends and she takes great care of John with his dairy allergy.  We had a scary event with him this year and were in the ER for more than observation which has made John scared of shots and doctors, but he has a great attitude about what he can and can't eat and the big kids are pretty good about it too.


I just filled out the 2020 census and am feeling pretty productive this morning!  Brendan is canceling flights we had to a few weddings in the next couple of months including his sister Theresa's.  She got married last week and we will celebrate hopefully this summer.  During COVID-19 I'm entertaining myself reading internet memes about this not being a motherhood competition about who is the best homeschooler and what everyones schedules are - we will get to a routine soon, but for now I like not having to rush out of the house in the morning or force them to do their piano in the 10 minutes we have before we race off to someone's practice somewhere.

I know there are no real details in here and it's not an exciting post...maybe I'll get back to it while we are stuck at home - but I wanted to get it done in March!

Some of our most fun memories this year have been our trip to San Diego to celebrate Uncle Bale and our most recent trip to Greenville for the baptism that wasn't yet :) and we squeeked out a fun week in Pensacola Beach before the beach was closed for the next few weeks / months?!  Here are some of my favorite pictures!