There’s no way I’ll be updating this every day, but for now, today deserves some documentation. It was our first of stay-home-school and from the sounds of it, it is far (far) from our last. As of this writing, social groups of more than 10 are being discouraged and last night the CDC recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for the next 8 weeks. I’ll be honest, we have NOT shared that tidbit with the children yet.

All things considered, today went well, but I feel a bit like I got run over by a bus. I can only imagine how we will all feel after weeks and/or months of this. And I even have my co-parent/co-teacher home with me all day. To anyone trying to make this float all on their own, I send all the mad respect I can your way because turning into a homeschool teacher over the course of a weekend is insane. Needless to say, none of us were prepared and that’s OK.

Also OK? Making plans and then letting them slide.

Ben and I made a schedule last night based loosely on one that my educator extraordinaire SIL sent me and we had our day broken up into chunks of time called “Creative Time” and “Explore Time” along with Reading and Writing and Math and Free Time and some Screens, too. The Creative and Explore blocks are meant to be flexible so we can do different art or Legos in one and science and outside play in the other. And I’m sure we’ll keep referencing it (and it did help to have snack times written down because that kept them from eating all of the snacks before the end of the first day), but to be totally transparent? The entire day was Lego Time. There was a little Kahn Academy for the Big 3 and a couple kids rode bikes for a bit in the cold, gray afternoon, but yes, Lego Day it was.

PS: If you have ever gifted my kids Lego, I extra thank you today because we are going to get a few good days out of this building frenzy and that is a huge blessing. THANK YOU.

I did a quick survey of the children at the end of the day and here are their standout thoughts:

HD: I liked the day. Legos and Kahn were good. I’m sad that we can’t have play dates.

RL: The day was okaaaaaay. (this is my girl who LOVES school). I liked the math, and Lego time, and free time (which was also Lego time). I’m sad to not go to school for two weeks.

LT: I liked Kahn Academy. (he was also one of the bike riders that turned into snowman attackers; whatevs.)

TJ: Playing ball with Lincoln (which is what he was doing in the living room when I asked him this question after supper).

WA: she didn’t answer the question but was really happy to Face Time with Grammy this morning, so we’ll go with that.

I personally had an up and down day because I already felt isolated in late February/early March thanks to our freaking Norovirus disaster, and now to realize that I’m really not going to see my people beyond the ones who live under my same roof for weeks to come is hitting hard. I’m not a huge social creature but even introverts have needs and this is hard. All together, I’m afraid this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m just praying that it does the job of keeping the spread from, well, spreading. Because of course that will make it all worth while, but it is going to take TIME before we even know if that’s the case and we’ve got to keep chugging along, alone at home, in the meantime.

How are you doing, folks? What are you doing to start off your lockdown? How are your kids? I send each of you some love and hope you have what you need.