Here we are, now on Winter Break! It's hard to get here but I'm making it a goal to stay caught up, especially before some other big news I need to explain on here. 2020 will surely go down as a year to remember for a long time, if not always!
Let's talk about the 2nd quarter. It went exactly as I was afraid of. Meaning, schools began to collect many COVID cases and students began to bounce back and forth between home and school. The schools never closed as our district members changed their "requirements" to fit their "agenda". Despite our high COVID counts, making us meet all metrics to ideally close down, then it was decided a certain percentage of the school would need to be positive in order to shut down. In other words, this will only continue for the rest of the year. The district feels pressure to remain open. I feel confident this will remain a ping pong game so we have decided to keep the boys home the rest of the year (this time, a decision had to be made for the semester versus quarter). Good news: a vaccine has been developed and has started distribution. Bad news : it will take a while before it reaches everyone, especially kids who have not been tested on yet. I am nervous about having to make a decision for our fall semester in the coming few weeks. Like the rest of the year, it has been so hard to know and predict how things will be like with counts and the vaccine being distributed. I WANT to send the kids back in the fall. I WANT Nathan to have some kind of a junior high experience before he goes to high school only the following year. Aaron has done better the 2nd quarter with online learning, but ideally he would do better in person. Definitely. I will need to continue to monitor and keep on top of him going into the 3rd quarter. Things remain stressful in making those decisions.
The kids got awesome grades in 2nd quarter. They are really doing very well with adapting and figuring out this "new normal" of ours for the time being. We have the highest counts of COVID we have ever had this year, however, so we are still being very mindful of being out and who we are seeing and what we are doing. Unfortunately I see this only continuing until at least the end of the school year.
Let's review our 2nd quarter in pictures, shall we? It was busy. I am glad to be documenting this time to look back on and to think how we did this all.
Sensory Bins
We learned that Preston likes sensory bins, so I have pictures of a few we've done.
Grandparents Day Technically in the 1st semester, we worked on our playhouse outside and revamped it a bit. Once it was completed, it happened to be around Grandparents Day so we had a little celebration. At the time, we also wanted to use it as a "school house" ( I hoped it would help better with Preston's concentration, alas he did not want to do school in there). Now the boys use it to hang out in.
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| Cookies from Magnolia in Waco, Texas |
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| Apple cider is the best |
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| A special board from Modern Brie |
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Games and stories with Nana and Pap Pap
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Kucenski Book Fair
The boys typically have a book fair in the fall at school. I decided to have our own. Not being able to purchase $500 in new books, I mixed old ones with some new ones that they had to hunt to find. At checkout, each child received a free gift. We had Nana who came over to read stories and bagels for breakfast.
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| Aaron's gift |
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| Nathan's airplane tea |
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| Nathan's book store purchase |
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| Preston's playdough |
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| They both "bought" their own bookmarks ;) |
Disneyland is still closed (and more than likely will be for a long time, well into next year I am sure). I decided to make our own Disney Day using food, decorations and a single ride ;) we would see there.
I decided to do the ride on Its A Small World. We made mint juleps, had soft pretzels, "bought" mac and cheese kids meals, went on the "monorail" for the famous pineapple ice cream- Dole whip. It was a bit odd but I think they appreciated the effort!
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| The ride begins.. |
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| Even themed play dough and book to match |
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That night, we played a Haunted Mansion game with the older kids.
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School Pictures
Yep, they still got done! ;)
Friendsgiving
School typically has a Thanksgiving type meal where the kids dress nice, lunch is served with Thanksgiving fare by student council. For lunch one day, I made a smaller version and we had our own special lunch.
Not pictured : we had days in December that we built a gingebread house and watched the Grinch with Grinch punch. We had a "Jingle Around the Block" little run in place of the holiday run that school would typically have. I made it a special occasion and took the boys out to lunch outside to see our downtown Chandler Christmas decorations. Our city parade and lighting of the tumbleweed tree did not take place this year.
Other School related pictures
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| The scientist |
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| His first Grabber earnings |
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| Aaron's sweet teacher from last year paid us a visit |
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| Grabber exchange |
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| Let's learn about bodies |
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| How to vote. |
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| We have loved our different subscription boxes |
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| Pie and coffee bakery day |
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| Acorn donuts |
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| One man shop |
I'm sure I will continue to drizzle in the fun this semester, but I will be a bit busier myself. Given the last almost year of teaching/helping the kids with school and my experience as an ESL teacher (almost at my two year anniversary!), I have decided to go back to school to gain my teaching certificate. I can "fast track" through a 2 year program to gain my teaching certificate with having a Bachelors degree already. This means, after my certificate I can teach kids in America, in particular grades K-8. Thankfully, the program is online as well as any field experience needed (for now). It is to be run like Nathan's program in that I do the work on my own time, as long as things are done/turned in by the designated due date listed. If all goes well, I should be starting around January 11. I'm not sure how it will factor in to everything else going on, but there's never really a good time for things, are they? If I begin now, I can be completed by the time Preston is in Kindergarten. My ultimate goal is to have a career/job when Preston is in school. I have felt this urge to work full time for a long time, and basically want to be ready to jump when it is time. It will certainly add to the stress of having the kids home this current semester, but I've managed everything so far! What's one more thing?
