Today is the last day of THREE WEEKS of online school…at least for now. As I type that, I sorta can’t believe we just made it through three weeks of Skype and WhatsApp calls and tracking homework…three weeks of the boys home EVERY DAY…ALL DAY. (And they have been on my laptop most of the time that I want to be on my laptop, so no blogging for me.)
Time has both expanded and collapsed…at times seeming to drag, but then at other times suddenly flying by. Somehow we just made it through what at the beginning seemed daunting. As I reflect back, I think the rough schedule we established helped to put structure to the days. Mornings were generally filled with teacher calls and home work. Afternoons were spent at the pool, reading, playing poker or doing homework. And, every day the boys had to move their bodies. Sam has favored doing workouts with Matt. See Matt’s Instagram. Gus has preferred to go on short runs by himself in the evenings, once it is a tad cooler. Several evenings, we watched movies as a family…which is one of my favorite things to do. I reviewed multiple “must watch” movie lists on the internet digging deep for new movie ideas. It’s hard to find something that Matt and the boys will both see…and that is age-appropriate for both boys. The most successful viewings thus far have been Pitch Perfect and Moneyball.
Overall, the online school thing went pretty well, but it took a fair amount of involvement from us. If we both were working right now, it would have been much harder and would not have turned out as well. So, I guess I am grateful for that, but I can so easily empathize with other parents who are struggling trying to do both. It’s super hard y’all to be productive while making sure your children are too. We are also fortunate that our boys are older. If, for example, we had gone through this with a 4 and 7 year old, I might have lost my mind. Sam was generally on task and followed the schedule. Gus was not a fan of the schedule and lobbied hard this last week “to run his own show.” After some deliberation and a whole lot of reluctance, we decided to let Gus give it a go. We had tried this sort of “hands off” approach to Gus’s school work last fall, in the hopes he would start taking more initiative. Let’s just say that the outcome was not great, thus our recent reluctance. But, we told ourselves, he’s got to get the self-management thing eventually so we gave it another try. I am thrilled to say that Gus did it! He got everything done by the deadline we set and all his teachers confirmed that everything was completed. It was a little rough at times, especially when he seemed to forget about whole classes and could not remember a couple teacher’s names. But in the end, he pulled it off and exhibited real pride in his success…and, I am sure, in proving us wrong.
Now we are looking at two more weeks of having the boys at home, but there will be no school. Their Semana Santa/Spring Break starts tomorrow, so that’s gonna be different. I scheduled private Spanish lessons for one hour each day during the week for the boys in an attempt to give a tiny amount of structure to the days and I think they each have one project to do. We will rely on the successes from the last three weeks, but bottom line, there is going to be A TON OF TIME to fill and not a lot of options to fill it with. It would be easier in some ways if we were at home in Portland. We have lots of games and puzzles there and I can certainly think of some home projects that I would love to do. But, alas, we have none of that here. They of course would be happy to fill all the time with screens. While I am accepting that there will be more screens, I WILL go crazy if that’s all they do. <sigh>
I feel a bit nervous. I hope we can get through it without totally driving each other crazy. Like everyone, we have never done something like this before, but here we go!
Another great post from you. An hour of Spanish a day is a great idea. I really like your goal of moving the body everyday and have been joining Clark on his daily walks. Are y’all having any issues with getting groceries?
So far, the grocery stores have been very well stocked. One occasionally might be out of something like club soda one time, but then they will typically have it the next time we go. And, so far, no problems with buying toilet paper. Maybe they are not having issues with stocking things since all the tourists have left. I am sure they were planning on selling a lot more than they are now.