Week 7- Quarantine

 We have now completed 7 weeks of remote learning/teaching. Wow!! Only 2 more to go and then school will be over. I can't believe we are almost at the end. Here is what went on this week.

During church on Sunday Josie retold the Bible story of Noah. She has been doing this each week with her little book. She loves it! (Yes, church in pj's. )

 This Bitty Baby has been getting a lot of attention lately.

 Jillian starting her school work (with a creative hair-do). 

She has been trying to finish all her work before noon...and she meets her goal every day.

 Josie learned about opposites. This was hard for her at first, but she got it!

 Jillian's teacher had an online scavenger hunt. Jillian was the winner!

 She got a CFA gift card in the mail from her teacher for winning! So fun!

 One night Tony surprised us all and made a Jamaican dish for dinner. Yum!!

 It was teacher appreciation week and one of my students sent me flowers!! Soo sweet!

 Jillian has really gotten into cooking and baking. Josie and Jill made sugar cookie sticks with chocolate and sprinkles. They did a great job and didn't need any help.

 Jillian had 2 back to back zooms for dance this week. 

 Mrs. Martin drove to our house and delivered a gift for Jillian! Inside was pop rocks, a rock to decorate (and share on zoom) and more.

The middle school had a virtual awards ceremony.

 Both girls made the A/B honor roll. 

(They were so mad that they made 1 little B in math and it knocked them off the all A honor roll) 

We were very proud of them. They worked very hard this year.

 They were both nominated for the Soaring Eagle award. 

Only these select students were nominated for the highest award. 

 BOTH girls got the "Outstanding Band Award."

 And Kennedy got the Art award for 7th grade.

Tony got a teacher appreciation gift from the High school admin. 

We have really settled into a routine here. Our weeks are very full of sitting at a computer, but the kids' work seems to be getting done faster. Josie just jumps around from person to person (whoever is not on a zoom or working) and spends time with that person. She is also great about playing by herself.  This week I'm going to try to get more pictures of my "hermit children"....Kennedy and Kaitlyn. I noticed I don't have one picture of them this week. Ha!

Not pictured activities:

*Trixie playing with the squirrels every morning in the backyard. Too funny!

*Online piano and lots of piano practice

*Making Mother's Day cards

*Kennedy baked a strawberry pie and chocolate chip cookies from scratch! (She is not a fan of box mixes)

*Lots of lesson planning, grading and video making

*outside time
*We are down one fish. Muffin died. Jillian now has 4 happy little fish instead of 5. 

Up next: Mother's Day fun!

Week 6 -Quarantine

 Well....we are still hanging out inside. We are continuing online school, lessons, church and we are just being creative with things to do. Kennedy and Jillian asked to paint a picture on the fence in the backyard. Sure! Go ahead. 

Kennedy hard at work painting her sunset. 

It started raining on her, but she continued. I love how it turned out and I love that I can see it out the window of the dining room.

 Isn't it pretty?

Jillian painted on the opposite side and she did an excellent job as well!!

 So fun! :)

 One morning, while I was working, Josie played with the magnetic shapes. She did a good job!

 This was too sweet....it was late afternoon (Yes, she is still in her pj's) and she fell asleep on Tony in the hammock in the backyard. It only lasted for about 15-20 minutes but it was cute. 

 Jillian went back out another day and painted a couple more pictures. ;)

 Kennedy made cookies that we all enjoyed!

 Josie and I played tea party (yes...no clothes and wild hair)

 Jillian had to build a fort for science class and send a pic to her teacher. So....here it is! Nice and large!

 How many Jillian's do you see on the screen?? She is zooming with herself. Oh my. 

Honestly, she is checking her computer's sound because her last zoom her teacher wasn't able to hear her. We fixed the problem. (user error!) 

 I took a picture of what the table looks like pretty  much every day. This is my workspace for teaching. 

 Here's another shot of my video set up. I put the phone on top of the random pile (book, boxes etc) in the middle to shoot my video lessons for my class. No one even knows how crazy the table looks when I video.... or that I'm usually in comfy pants! But I do have to change my shirt and jewelry after every video. (They only see the top half of me!)

Some new little pets entered our house! Josie's fish is named cupcake! She is in love. She has a cute little light up fish tank in her room. (And yes, she is dressed with her hair fixed. Yay!)

 Tony and Jillian went to the pet store together.  Masks and all! 

We already had the fish tank that Jillian is using...we just needed some fish. 

(Again....quarantine restlessness)

 Jillian chose 5 tiny neon fish. 

Names: Sprite, Cheetoe, Pee-wee, Muffin and Corona. 

Ice cream has been the official quarantine dessert for sure. They look forward to this every day. Kaitlyn was sweet and colored and sounded out words with Josie while the rest of us played Scattergories one night. Such a sweet sister. (Josie is doing awesome at sounding out cvc words! She will be reading in no time, I feel. 

Not pictured:

*multiple zooms daily

*lots of playing: toys, wii, outside

*online piano

*long work hours. (longer than ever as a teacher)

*rearranging furniture (master bedroom)

On to week 7!

Week 5- Quarantine

 We are still distance learning/staying at home and in quarantine. We wear masks to the store, and basically try to stay away from other people, sadly.  (Social distance) School has officially been cancelled for the rest of the year (not the learning part...just the school building part) and that made everyone sad. We had hoped we could go back to school. BUT...we are having some nice family time. We are staying in comfy clothes all day and sleeping a tad later than usual. (ahhhm...Josie)..and no rushing around, which is nice.

Lots of snacks are being eaten in this house! I try to offer the healthy ones first! A common phrase from all the girls..."I'm hungry". 

 Don't mind the messy playroom (it's getting a lot of use) but I caught Trixie on top of the doll bed during online church last Sunday. Silly pup!

 Our Elem staff sent a message to the kids that we miss!!

 Josie's working on her ABC's (upper and lowercase)

 Tony took the girls (2 of them) fishing at our neighborhood pond one afternoon. Didn't catch anything, but it got them out of the house for a bit, while still social distancing. 

 Mrs. Sandy (high school algebra teacher) came by one afternoon and delivered Bahama Bucks to the girls and also gave them cute bubble animals. Sooo sweet.

 More learning going on! (and snacking!)

 Puzzle time

 Gymnastics on the trampoline to burn off her endless energy

 PaPa and YaYa sent the girls games in the mail!! Josie got Pretty Pretty Princess!

 And the big girls got Wheel of Fortune!

 Playing and having fun

 Oh my...she IS a pretty pretty princess

 Josie has been loving playing on the keyboard. She has learned how to play Jingle Bells!

 After school bubble time! (With the gift from Mrs. Sandy)

 The animals are getting a lot of attention. Chester got playtime with Jillian while we cleaned his cage.

The ice cream man came by one day and the girls all got ice cream...no picture of that, but I did get a cute picture of Miss Josie serving us ice cream with her cart. She is an expert. :)

The girls are all doing a great job with their assignments. We are getting used to all the zooms and the new way of learning and teaching. 

On to week 6!