Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Catching up

 Since the last post, way back in January ... 

  • We've skied. Literally every weekend since January 8 at least one member of the family skied for at least one day. Terry ended up going for the 10 weeks of lessons, and when that ended I started the 4 week spring ski lesson course. Sadly, tomorrow is my last lesson and given how melt-y everything is getting, likely our last time on the slopes until next season. I know most slopes have been closed a month already, but it is a little sad to us. I guess we go back to hiking.
  • We have two new additions to the household: Nikita and Flicker (née Harlow, but nobody liked that name and Flicker suits her). We had been talking about getting cats since before we went to Germany and it was beyond time.
  • Alex is prepping for high school. In Canada high school starts in 10th grade. She applied to, and was accepted at, a charter school that we expect will give her the support and challenge that has been missing in middle school.
  • Terry's been prepping for gardening season. We have a bunch of little baby plants under lights waiting for the right time. Which, in Canada, is way past Mother's Day (normal planting time in PA).
  • I had a short work trip to Dushanbe, Tajikistan!  For three days! 

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Gratitude 21-24

 #21.  In a very generalistic, vague picture of reality, I'll explain that most of my days are spent trying to teach, coach and convince colleagues that disability rights is an important topic in foreign policy, and that physical and communications accessibility is worth the effort and possible inconvenience.  That often takes form as reviewing and editing speeches that senior diplomats will make to large crowds and to intimate gatherings.  I am grateful and even joyous every time I open a document to review and either the points I would have added are already in the original remarks, or that some other ally has already added them.  Over the last two years I have seen tangible progress and I am so grateful to be in this position, doing this work.

#22.  I am thankful that we were able to score the last, frozen, free range turkey from the butcher we frequent; local Thanksgiving was 6 weeks ago and Christmas turkeys aren't full size yet.

#23.  I am so grateful that Zoltan fits so well into his new school. He's thriving. And even more grateful he gets to stay.

#24. I am grateful to Terry for building me two bird feeders during the first COVID summer, one I can see from my desk and one in the back yard. It is such a delight to lift my eyes from the computer screen and watch the chickadees grab a bunch of seed and move through the pine tree bough, caching it (for the magpies later to steal. Circle of life.The feeder is too small for them to perch so that is also entertainment when they try.)

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Halloween 2021

 Things felt relatively normal this year - fewer than half the kids wearing masks and a sense that kids weren't being kept at home due to COVID.  This was also the first year we let the kids go off alone (albeit together). We thought we had a good grasp of what the neighborhood would hold, trick or treat-wise. We bought candy like we still lived in NE Philly. I advised kids grasping at whole handfuls that they really needed to take only one so other kids could be sure to get some candy.

Oops!

We overbought by about 100.

Other interesting tidbits are the two different business cards we got from two very different businesses - one was handed out at a house and the other was actually taped to the treat. That was something new! And the candy the kids discussed not liking that we discovered were Baileys Irish Cream truffles.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Vancouver = Mushroom Town???

 In a conversation about how awful we are as parents for forcing her to go on vacation, Alex gave an example of a small town where there is nothing to see or do but a few mushrooms.  I told her that in 20 years I will remind her she compared Vancouver to a small mushroom town and she will apologize and buy us drinks.

Friday, July 2, 2021

Fridge battles

Alex likes having a particular place in the fridge to put her things for the next day's lunch, so she can just grab the stuff, pack it up and go.  She put a little note at one small corner but the sanctity of the space was often violated. So she put up the fridge equivalent of an orange cone.



Thursday, May 27, 2021

Cake for dinner

 One of the birthday coupons the kids got last year was dessert for dinner.  Zoltan used his on something relatively mundane. Alex, on the other hand, came up with this gem.

She and Zoltan each made cakes.  

 She made the chocolate and graham cracker cakes. Zoltan made a plain white cake.  He made chocolate chiffon frosting. She made marshmallow frosting. It consumed 2 containers of Fluff and still the "marshmallow" flavor got lost in "frosting" flavor. Next time it needs less butter and powdered sugar.

She stacked and frosted the layers.  She decorated the top and sides (Zoltan helped made some of the design decisions).

This thing is both amazing and terrifying. Our slices were about 1/16 each and it was too much. I was impressed how it all came together.  The graham cracker cake is the same recipe our chef friend had used when making Alex's birthday cake 3 years ago in Frankfurt and I doubted that Alex could pull off something as moist and flavorful. I was wrong.


* Note: Terry had nothing to do with these photos

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Raising children

 This is what it is like to raise children. 


The Scene: just after lunch, at Zoltan's room

Me:  Zoltan, go downstairs and put away the mac and cheese.

Zoltan: I didn't leave it out.

 Me: Then who did? Nobody else had any.

Zoltan: It's not out.

Friday, December 18, 2020

Boom Shaka-laka-laka


Saturday we were up and out the door to a well-recommended hiking trail - Boom Lake. It was our longest hike as a family - over 10km. Terry feared Zoltan's sluggishness would keep us from ever cresting that hill, but with the incentives we'd put into place the weekend before he was more than happy to keep trekking ahead. There also were no really huge climbs, so that helped too. We didn't want to throw too much into one experience!

At one point the trail narrows with snow-dusted evergreens on either side, which Alex called the enchanted forest. She's so grouchy and teenagery, and then comes out with things like this! Also, a lot of the snow was more like crystallized flakes. Neither Terry nor I had ever seen anything like it and we've certainly been around plenty of snow. 

When we got to the lake, it was time for lunch. A gray jay thought so as well, and we had to defend Alex's sandwich from it several times (the rest of us kept the sandwich in the bag in between bites). We had done a great job keeping Zoltan's blood sugar up and although it was the longest hike, it was also the least fraught. It felt weird telling my kid "you may not feel hungry, you may feel anxious or angry or grumpy. Just eat." when of course mostly we're supposed to be telling our kids to notice actual feelings of hunger before chowing down. But I digress.

After eating we wandered down towards the far end of the lake, where we could see waterfalls high up in the mountains. We knew that parts of the lake were avalanche territory so we didn't stray too far. The return was pretty uneventful except the trail was definitely getting busier and the parking lot was packed when we left (plenty of spots when we arrived). The one regret of not doing the hike later was that the sun started to peek out and the skies got a bit bluer, which is always nicer for the photos. But avoiding crowds is a worth goal.

After all that exertion, we had a few quiet hours at the hotel and off to our favorite Banff restaurant, Park Distillery. It was as delicious as always, and one funny note is that the table next to us turned while we were there. The first couple had been speaking French and when the second pair started talking, I understood them so my mind said "French." Until Terry leaned over and said "Hey, they're speaking Russian." Oh yeah, they are.



Thursday, November 19, 2020

The family's first COVID test

 Zoltan complained about his throat feeling weird on Sunday. On Monday morning he had a bit of a fever, lots of sneezing, and congestion. Absolutely positive it was a cold, I checked the Alberta health care system's advice and discovered the fever puts him in the category of a core COVID symptom. He could quarantine for 10 days + feeling better, or have a COVID test + feeling better, before being allowed to return to school. We chose the test.

The system found a testing location relatively close by (in an old Greyhound bus terminal!) and there were plenty of open slots. I chose a time that had more openings, figuring fewer people would be showing up then. It was a very orderly process. When we walked in, we sanitized, were given disposable masks to put on, then sanitized our hands again before being sent to the intake area. The lines moves quickly for the number of people. At what was once a ticket counter I provided Zoltan's health info and received some paperwork, then we got into the next line. He ended up with a back-of-the-throat swab as opposed to a up-the-nose one, which probably felt better. We were advised the text informing us of his results were processed through an automated system and could some through in the middle of the night. Well warned.

Of course by the next day his temperature never rises to "fever" level and he's basically bouncing off the walls in perfect runny nose, coughing health. Waiting for the results. 

The next morning I come down to a text on my phone "URGENT from AHS." My heart was pounding as I had never even considered he'd actually have COVID but URGENT sounded, well, urgent. Nope. It was negative.

Still kept him home that day due to lots of Kleenex and coughing. More bouncing off the walls, decided keeping him home was a bad idea. Sent him to school the next day with a box of Kleenex and a bag of cough drops.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Dinosaur Provincial Park


In every adventure we have had since arriving in Calgary, we've left the city and headed west - to the mountains, towards British Columbia. For the first time ever, we went east. For two and a half hours it was a flat and boring as Kansas (not my observation, but the observation of colleagues from Kansas). But then, as we drove to the park's parking lot, the terrain opened up to a surreal, Martian-like landscape. Hoodoos!

I knew the park was large and that we were allowed to climb the hoodoos, unlike in Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Fun fact - so many people don't look at maps before heading out that scores of tourists find themselves at Dinosaur Park, thinking they can just pop down the road to Drumheller and are very sad to learn they are more than 2 hours away from each other, that the Provincial Park home page for Dinosaur has a huge notice explaining this fact. 

As the name of the park suggests, many dinosaur fossils have been found and continue to be found on the grounds. Protocol for finding fossils is to leave them alone and absolutely no removing them from the park. We did not find any. There are two fossil displays: in one, the bones, mud and other artifacts of nature are preserved exactly as the first explorer found the skeleton and the second is a replica of a dig site, with the tools, bones, and detritus of human presence (mostly old water bottles). We climbed and descended, lost a member of the party and found him again, and finished the day with ice cream, about an hour later than we had expected to be at the park.

As we drove in, we grumbled that we would never return. An hour into the day, we resigned ourselves to definitely coming back at least once.

Monday, October 12, 2020

Adventures in baking

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, a much preferable holiday to celebrate than Columbus Day, although the coincidence of the dates is food for thought. 

We were invited to an outdoor, socially distanced Thanksgiving dinner.  The kids have been really rocking their baking game, so we set them to be in charge of our contribution, dessert. They decided to bake it today, rather than on any of the other three days that have passed since they last attended school (they do go to school on Fridays, sometimes!)

They were preheating the oven and came to me to see if I could figure out why it wasn't warming up. I tried a few things, then called in the actual engineer-type in the family. He also could not discover the reason, but we did confirm there was nothing that was easily troubleshooted (troubleshot?) We had a couple of options and had to decide how to proceed. The broiler would turn on, so whatever the problem was, it was at the bottom of the oven. We didn't want to disturb our landlord on Thanksgiving, and no repair person would be working today anyway.

One option was to ask a friend to use her oven. I would be driving her to the dinner, so figured if there's any risk of COVID or transference we'd already be taking risks with her. We decided to hold that for last resort.

What we did do, and didn't seem to go too badly, was to use the broiler to our advantage. We'd turn the broiler on to heat the oven and placed the oven thermometer where it was easily visible (note: the extra chore Zoltan did a month or so ago to clean the oven door was definitely paying off!) We put the cookies in and stationed one family member to keep an eye on the cookies/the oven thermometer, turning the broiler off/on or opening the oven door as the temperature wavered more than 10 F degrees in either direction. A few cookies got a bit browner on the top than ideal, but nothing burned and they all tasted as good as ever.

Creative problem solving for the win!

Friday, September 4, 2020

Frank Slide, Lundbreck Falls, and Beauvais Lake

We had an adventurous weekend planned, and it ended up being almost idyllic.

First up: packing the car. We realized packing for just an overnight camping is a whole lot like packing for 2-3 nights, perhaps even more. Tents, sleeping bags, a cooler for food, etc etc are all necessary no matter how long you're gone. We did avoid using the roof rack, largely because the roof was already in use with our new (to us) canoe!

First stop: Frank Slide. Back in 1903 Turtle Mountain basically broke off a huge chunk and in 90 seconds it slid down, burying everything and everyone in its path. Luckily it was on the outskirts of town, so fewer than 100 people were killed vice closer to a thousand if it had been through the center. There is still debate today on the role the mining operation going on under Turtle Mountain played in creating the elements that led to the Slide. Hm, sounds familiar.

These days there is a very informative interpretive center with lots of information about the town, the geology, and the event. There is also a vast expanse of rocks to climb. It is as close to the Felsenmeer I think we will ever get without going back to Germany.

From the Slide we ventured to Lundbreck Falls. What started as wading around no farther than the knees became full-on dunkings by the kids. The whole waterway around, under, and by the falls is relatively shallow, with varying heights that include some rocks sticking entirely out of the water and with a current that can be some work but not dangerous. In sum, a great time was had by all, although it would have been better if the kids were in their bathing suits. Alex actually got within a couple of feet of being right under the falls.

Knowing that setting up camp takes time and that Terry wanted to try some fishing in the afternoon, we aimed to get to our site as close to checkin time as possible. Thus, my drenched and dripping children, and I, walked the 7 minutes to the campground while Terry drove the car.  When we saw our site we were delighted. Our spot was just steps away from the Crowsnest River, and the back end of the site opened onto a riverbank path. We watched a hawk across the river. In the getting settled stage, we had ample opportunity to try out our new, stronger tent stakes that supposedly work well even with gravel pads. And they did, superbly. 

The campground isn't even in a particularly "dark sky" area, but as the sun now sets at a reasonably hour we watched stars appearing, and then flooding, the sky. We could see the Milky Way with our naked eyes. Terry tried a second round of night photography by the water and then from a field in the campground.

As we fell asleep, I thought to myself "This was practically perfect. We need to come here for a longer stretch next year." 

Then the first nighttime train came whistling and roaring through at 11-something-ish. I thought "we are never coming back here." The next train was what felt like 3am, but I didn't open my eyes so who really knows. At the 5:30am train I got up to use the bathroom and also to curse my life. Probably fell asleep a bit before 8am, to get about half an hour of sleep.

Sleep deprived tempers were not on best behavior that morning. We changed plans and instead of a lazy morning we headed out to take our inaugural canoe paddle.  We had been deciding between two places, and ended up settling on Beauvais Lake - which has horsepower restrictions and I don't think any motorized vehicles was there while we were.  The kids were very disappointed when we told them they could not jump from the boat and swim around, but we promised to find a spot where we could dock the canoe and get out. We found a peninsula (weren't actually sure at the time, could have been an island) and Alex hopped up and ran into the woods. Because, of course, hiking is the worst torture on earth but exploring is fun! I did not share with the children the fact that the very fresh looking pile of dung on the path looked exactly what bear scat is supposed to look like, but I did make sure to chatter nonstop as we followed the route. Happily we never saw the source of the scat.

While paddling around, in addition to the ubiquitous Canadian geese, we also saw and heard a loon with a couple babies, sea gulls, and enormous bright blue dragonflies. The kids swam until they got cold or tired. Terry and I enjoyed the paddling. Had the trains not run through the night, we would have called it a most perfect weekend.

Monday, August 31, 2020

Summer Vacation Part 2: Lake Louise

The day was absolutely not over yet! Due to our several stops, we managed to get to the hotel just a bit over check-in time, which meant we could go straight to our room. The hotel is old and kind of dumpy, but the room was BIG and the hotel was basically right on Lake Louise (we did feel a bit smug as we drove right into the hotel parking lot while others on the same road were turned back due to the full public parking lot).  The Fairmont hotel next door has a couple of somewhat more casual dining options, so we put on nicer clothes and wandered over in the blazing (80 degree) sun. Things feel a lot hotter here, I am going to blame altitude.

I bear a massive grudge right now against the Fairmont, because when I called to see about reservations the automated line said they only took walk-ins for those who weren't hotel guests. But at every possible entrance to the Fairmont grounds, there was a sign saying only hotel guests were permitted. By the time we got back to our hotel we were very hot, very hungry, and very grumpy. At check-in we had been told the hotel restaurant was booked but we could try walking in. The server who waited on us was very surprised when we told her that. There was no problem with the seating. The dinner was surprisingly delicious.

Feeling much better, we decided to see if Moraine Lake was less hectic in the evening. It was around 8pm or so, still an hour before sunset, when we headed out.  It was an awful attractive nuisance, all those fun-to-climb looking rocks and all the signs saying please don't climb on the rocks because of the fragile plant ecosystems living on and among them. We hung out for a bit, hoping for sunset colors that never materialized. By the time we got back to the hotel it was way past the kids' bedtime, but Terry was feeling fired up and after the kids got to bed he went outside for his first taste of nighttime photography. 

We had planned some hiking for the next morning but hadn't decided what. I really wanted to try the Lake Agnes or Plains of Six Glaciers tea house hikes, but after our Emerald Lake experience we realized we did not want to venture towards touristy places in high season. We instead chose a short hike that roughly paralleled the lake to a beautiful viewpoint. It was a nice little walk in the woods. But it was the return trip that really sparked the joy. Rather than return down the trail we took up, we made it a loop by taking a different path down to the lakeshore. On the way down we hit a rockpile the kids could climb on - which was the highlight. Although Alex wants to be very clear that she did not enjoy any minute of the hike. 

After a return to the hotel and packing up, it was time to head home.

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Summer Vacation Part 2: Revelstoke


We discovered when we arrived in Revelstoke two hours before check-in time - a set-in-stone time that would not be amended - that most of what we wanted to do in Revelstoke centered around the outdoors, but we also didn't want to get back in the car to get to any of the hiking trails. So we ended up doing this roundabout wander through residential and industrial parts of town. It was a unique tour.

When we did get into our room, it was time for a quick meal cobbled together from what we'd brought and a change of clothes, because we were heading out to our sunset kayak adventure. We found Natural Escapes somehow online, and it has a perfect 5 stars. We were the only group on this trip out. When the owner Terry heard we were essentially novice kayakers, he led us through a quick lesson and gave us a few options of where we could kayak that wouldn't be too daunting. We had left all electronics and things that could go overboard in the car, so the only photos we got came from him (note, Natural Escapes uploads all the photos from the kayak trips to their site for each group and they can be downloaded for free. A very nice touch). One highlight of the trip was when we looked far into the distance and saw something we thought was an eagle. We paddled as quickly and quietly as we could and saw that yes, it was a bald eagle!  Looking as regal as they do, it watched us a bit then flew away. Magical.

Next day was our (Terry and me, not the kids) much anticipated day at the Meadows in the Sky park. Totally by accident, our trip coincided with the height of wildflower season and we were excited for the beauty and possible photo opportunities. Things started off OK and we even got some family photos. Then they rocketed downhill, right around the time Terry and I ate lunch but the kids said they weren't hungry. (but the grumpiness didn't have anything to do with being hungry and we know nothing. Tween.) We decided to try dinner at Mt. Begbie Brewing Co., even though we weren't thrilled to get back in the car. But, the beautiful view from the well-spaced outdoor seating, the tasty but limited food menu, and the wide selection of cold frosty beverages turned things around for everyone. Terry and I each got a flight of beers, although mine was truly just for tasting as I drove home. Things turned around so well that we stopped at the Sugar Shack for ice cream all around when we got back to town.


Wednesday, August 26, 2020

At least I like logic games

 Disclaimer: this is not a complaint. I am thrilled that my children's schools are doing what they can to start the year off slowly and safely.

The first week of school is going to be massively confusing, especially for people who have left the house at regular times, or not at all, for the last six months.  Return to school activities are to be staggered for small group interactions as they get things off the ground. This is awesome. 

However.  

One child's school is working off an alphabetical-by-surname schedule. One is working off a grade-level schedule. One school is all or nothing - the kids come in for a full day or not at all. The other school will have all children present on Day 1, just at different times.

It's like a logic game ... so it's good that we like logic games.

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Troll Falls: the difference 6 months can make


One of our summer plans was to revisit the frozen waterfalls we hiked this winter now that they are flowing. We finally got around to visiting Troll Falls this weekend.

In the winter, the little one complained incessantly about the bulky winter gear and being so tired he needed to stop and "snowbank" practically every 10 meters. In the summer, it was mosquitoes and the heat that absorbed his negative energy. On the flip side, the "hike" took the practically no time at all I was pretty sure was its true nature.

Something unhappy must have happened in the last six months, because there were a ton of downed trees on the sides of the trail and clogging the stream (river?) There were bridges that had not been there in February as well as a barrier between the lookout area and the falls itself. Signs warning of rock falls and the closure of the route to the upper falls completed the sense of doom and gloom.

Acknowledging that it was likely quite foolhardy at lunchtime on the Saturday of a long weekend, on the way home we decided to try checking out Barrier Lake.  Silly us, there was no way to get to the lake with anything less than a mile's walk. Meh. We turned out attention to any picnic area where we could eat our lunch outside the car, and thus stumbled onto the Widowmaker Trail.

Parking lot practically empty? Check. Picnic table that stood in at least a sliver of shade? Check. Bathrooms that didn't smell? Check!

After a quick lunch we decided to find the source of rushing water we heard from the other side of the trees. And there it was, a stunningly blue patch of river with small whitewater peaks and a few little "coves" of calm water. It made me really regret not having acted on my impulse to leave a few beach towels in the car through the summer, although Zoltan was happy to have brought his water shoes. Glacially cold, but refreshing in the relentless sunshine. We merely dipped our feet and watched the water flow, while also keeping an eye on the group getting rafts prepared to launch (Zoltan wanted to watch the rafts launch, but they seemed in no hurry so we eventually gave up).




Friday, May 15, 2020

Fresh air and exercise

Terry likes to play around with woodworking projects. As previously mentioned, wooden pallets are routinely available for picking. The three-tiered planter featured in the last post is one such pallet creation.

Before one can start working with pallet wood, one must first disassemble the pallets to free the wooden planks from all its other wooden plank neighbors.  Crowbars and hammers play a role here.  All the nails must also be removed.  It is a bit tedious when you are talking about removing five planks from each of a dozen pallets.

We have an accumulation of pallets. The weather is beautiful. The kids have a day off from school today (that sounds weird to say, I know, but it means that had they actually been in school they would not have gone today, and the child who does get daily assignments didn't have any for today). Put that all together and we get - Workforce Friday!

Friday, May 8, 2020

Garden!!!

We were lucky enough to get a spot in one of the two community gardens we applied to. Then, after we got that notification Terry found a few spots in the back yard where he thought we could grow a thing or two (it is so shady back there we wrote it off at first).  On Canada's version of Craigslist - called Kijiji - there are often pallets available in peoples' yards for free. It is an entirely contactless experience, if also sometimes a disappointing experience when someone else grabbed the best wood just before you get there. Terry picked up a few and made this awesome planter, which will eventually be mounted into the fence! We're planning a row of lettuce, a row of various herbs, and a row of spinach because one of the children will actually eat spinach (as opposed to chard or kale) ... as long as we refer to it as lettuce. The sacrifices we make for our children's health.

The community garden had a socially distanced tour Saturday morning and Terry went, as this is definitely more his thing than mine and we had a hunch there would be some good tips shared and local gardening in general and the mechanics of this community garden in particular. He came home as close to elated as his stoic self ever is.

After dinner the whole family went down to be introduced to our garden bed - they are all raised beds and each is named for a flower, ours is Aster. Terry and I measured and planned and planted the few cold-weather direct-sow seeds we had - radishes, beets, snow peas, and lettuces. The kids played in the adjacent field, creating some kind of disk golf game that involved their fleeces as "home bases" and Alex's shoes as markers of where the disk last landed.

Look at Terry's super fancy "saddlebag" system for his bike!  He designed it himself, and the buckets handily hold garden tools, seeds, and as necessary - dirt.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Kids and COVID-19 new normal

The kids and I started our isolations at the same time and we're finishing our third week at home together.  We do get outside most days; during the first couple of weeks the many scavenger hunts offered online were a great way to give them something to do while outside. The first week of isolation, when all this seemed a bit of a lark and tempers were even, Zoltan even taught Alex some soccer and Alex taught Zoltan some fencing.

The kids wear street clothes about once a week. Normally they just go from pajamas to pajamas - usually daily but let's be real, sometimes it's every other day.

Last week was "disastrous spring break." Trapped in the house with working parents and no set schedule resulted in more yelling, screaming, stomping and hitting than usual. It took until the middle of this week to have our first day without fighting.  It was also Wednesday of this week when their teachers sent out the first assignments for them to do. The schools have been wonderfully reasonable - Zoltan will have about 5 hours of assigned work per week and Alex will have about 10 hours - the difference between elementary and middle school. The daily schedules we set for them when this all began, and what we're roughly keeping, include:
  • 1/2 hour daily for math - Khan Academy or whatever the teachers send home
  • 1 hour for social studies/writing - any English Language Arts schoolwork or doing the curriculum that came with their U.S. History in a Box sets, there are a lot of "read this and write a paragraph on it" type exercises
  • 1 hour daily for programming - we got them each Raspberry Pies last year and a growing stash of Python books and figured it can't hurt to let them play with coding each day
  • 15 minutes of music practice - Alex plays trumpet in the school band and Zoltan started piano lessons last fall. There is some computer program her school uses where she can play the music and it tracks whether her notes are correct and whether the timing is too fast/slow or OK. He is continuing his lessons via Skype. This is one of those "thank goodness for technology" moments.
  • Two 15-minute "chores" sessions - the kids do a large chunk of the dishes and laundry these days
  • Two "be outside" and/or "be active" sessions
  • Lunch and two snacks
  • 1 hour of "science" which has been either (1) doing some of the science kits their wonderful aunt got them for Christmas, (2) baking, or (3) watching documentaries. Nova has 47 seasons!  We started with episodes on things we knew they were doing in science class, like the outer planets for Zoltan, but now we're pretty loosey-goosey.
  • There are also blocks of time for reading, for doing "maker space" (projects, some examples have been Lego building or writing and recording poems they have been sending out to the extended family), and a daily period that will become their "catch up on whatever assigned schoolwork they didn't manage to finish during the allotted times". 
There's a lot out there on the web about letting the kids be kids and not having any schedules, routines, or expectations. We tried that during spring break. If that kind of thing works for others, awesome!  Did not work for us. Some kids need to know what to expect, what comes next, and find comfort in the stability of a schedule. 

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Corona in Alberta

COVID-19 has not made the same deep inroads within Alberta that it has in other places. We have been watching the rest of the world, making plans, stocking up on food and books and waiting for The News. Kids' spring break was supposed to be at the end of the week and of all the places in the world we could have planned to visit for the very first time ... Seattle. So we cancel those plans and instead think about where else in the neighborhood we want to hike. Outdoors is pretty good for social distancing and keeping sanity.

My home office in DC is down to skeleton crew and I started teleworking this week. It's a little funny because of course I telework every day, but from an office rather than my house.

The kids' school was finally cancelled Sunday afternoon, along with all other schools in Alberta, so together with my telework we need a plan to keep the kids from fighting outside the door to the study between 7:30am-4:00pm.We've put together a schedule that includes everything from Khan Academy math to practicing their instruments to doing chores, getting outside, and reading. And a documentary every day - it's TV time, so they are pretty happy about it. Day one went spectacularly well, and I was reminded of how much my children crave structure and predictability (some experts will say all children need this, some parents will argue not their kids). In any case, Alberta Board of Education is doing a rollout of how learning is going to go for the next three months that starts with high school, then middle, then elementary last. Alex got some assignments when she went to school to clean out her locker - all students has certain days and times to go, based on their last names, to avoid a crowd. We're heard essentially bupkis for Zoltan but he's still in elementary and Khan Academy has 5th grade math all ready for him.

On day 3 of learning from home, the kids baked chocolate crinkle cookies for "science".

We are so incredibly fortunate. We can telework, and if we can't we have leave, and if we run out we have savings. We are healthy and secure in our jobs. Our kids are old enough to not need our constant supervision so we can actually work while working from home. We have internet, heat, clean water - and sufficient toilet paper for about a month - and we can easily get outside even if we can't get near other people.