COVID19
The toilet paper shortage, every-(wo)man-for-himself, hand sanitizer hoarding, no rice on the shelves mania seems to be simmering down. We hope.
My kids have been asleep since Sunday, so Bill and I are ready to institute a schedule that requires more than the doorknob of one's bedroom opening so you can pee or the cascading of Honeynut Cheerios tumbling into melamine bowls. Nor do I want to find said melamine bowls crusted to the table in the living room, camouflaging the remote that needs to be sanitized.
I don't need the articles, posts, memes, and virtual field trips plastered all over social media and CNN to keep my kids busy. Bless those with young ones who are now their kids' own educator for the days to come. Perhaps society will gain a new-found appreciation for teachers after this pandemic. We shall see.
In fairness, I admit that I am blessed to have two fabulous kids who inherited their mother's deep, deep, deep, deep fondness for sleep but who are also interested in firing neurons to spend their time fruitfully. Rose continues to outline her speech for class, Marty ordered the Harry Potter books in Spanish so he doesn't get rusty, we haven't had to nag them to walk the dog, yadda yadda yadda. But we want them to cut their sleep down from 12 hours a day to, oh I don't know, eight or nine? And put your damn spoon in the dishwasher.
Last night we played Codenames. We love this game. It's similar to Password and it reminds me of Taboo or any other language games where you learn very quickly if you are in sync with your partner. Or not.
My friend Nadene and I were in such sync during Taboo that our husbands were convinced we were cheating and grew angry as we played. Codenames is similar. One must examine a grid of words and find as many connections between words to get your partner to guess as many words as possible. For example, I saw the word HEAD in row 1 and LEMON in row 5. I said, "SOUR 2" in hopes that Bill would guess both. He did. But oftentimes you have to find the connections between the words Atlantis, pour, Beijing and gloves. Not so easy. "HAND 4." Yeah. Nothing.
The fun wanes. Rules are discussed over and over. Partners are changed. A dram of Bushmills is added to hot chocolate. Spiked hot chocolate during social distancing is pretty tasty.
Today I sit on my laptop dutifully available for office hours as I am instructed. The news is changing by the hour on what the future of our school year looks like. As of 10:00 a.m. today, ISBE has labeled these days Act of God days; my school has a terrific eLearning system in place, but if these days are Act of God days, we cannot count any of the assignments towards students' grades. You all remember being a teenager, right? I don't think I need to expound here.
eLearning is fabulous for science classes. If I were a teacher I could easily post, "Pour some baking soda in your macaroni and cheese and tell me what happens." Was your hypothesis correct? Did it taste like shit? Good job! Add that to your datasheet. What happens when you sprinkle it on the cat?
Shit show 2020.
Unsettling. Isolating. Scary. Whatever words one chooses, this is awful. I have nothing prolific to say. We are learning about ourselves, our limitations, and our strengths. We keep setting goals for ourselves.
"Bill, I say we watercolor as a family! I found this great kit and the four of us can all paint foxes!"
"Sounds great, Greg."
For this week our kids are used to walking past their mom and dad sitting on their laptops like pilots, dialed in on conference calls, headsets on, clicking away, waiting for the water to boil.
Stay sane everyone. Thanks for reading!
My kids have been asleep since Sunday, so Bill and I are ready to institute a schedule that requires more than the doorknob of one's bedroom opening so you can pee or the cascading of Honeynut Cheerios tumbling into melamine bowls. Nor do I want to find said melamine bowls crusted to the table in the living room, camouflaging the remote that needs to be sanitized.
I don't need the articles, posts, memes, and virtual field trips plastered all over social media and CNN to keep my kids busy. Bless those with young ones who are now their kids' own educator for the days to come. Perhaps society will gain a new-found appreciation for teachers after this pandemic. We shall see.
In fairness, I admit that I am blessed to have two fabulous kids who inherited their mother's deep, deep, deep, deep fondness for sleep but who are also interested in firing neurons to spend their time fruitfully. Rose continues to outline her speech for class, Marty ordered the Harry Potter books in Spanish so he doesn't get rusty, we haven't had to nag them to walk the dog, yadda yadda yadda. But we want them to cut their sleep down from 12 hours a day to, oh I don't know, eight or nine? And put your damn spoon in the dishwasher.
Last night we played Codenames. We love this game. It's similar to Password and it reminds me of Taboo or any other language games where you learn very quickly if you are in sync with your partner. Or not.
My friend Nadene and I were in such sync during Taboo that our husbands were convinced we were cheating and grew angry as we played. Codenames is similar. One must examine a grid of words and find as many connections between words to get your partner to guess as many words as possible. For example, I saw the word HEAD in row 1 and LEMON in row 5. I said, "SOUR 2" in hopes that Bill would guess both. He did. But oftentimes you have to find the connections between the words Atlantis, pour, Beijing and gloves. Not so easy. "HAND 4." Yeah. Nothing.
The fun wanes. Rules are discussed over and over. Partners are changed. A dram of Bushmills is added to hot chocolate. Spiked hot chocolate during social distancing is pretty tasty.
Today I sit on my laptop dutifully available for office hours as I am instructed. The news is changing by the hour on what the future of our school year looks like. As of 10:00 a.m. today, ISBE has labeled these days Act of God days; my school has a terrific eLearning system in place, but if these days are Act of God days, we cannot count any of the assignments towards students' grades. You all remember being a teenager, right? I don't think I need to expound here.
eLearning is fabulous for science classes. If I were a teacher I could easily post, "Pour some baking soda in your macaroni and cheese and tell me what happens." Was your hypothesis correct? Did it taste like shit? Good job! Add that to your datasheet. What happens when you sprinkle it on the cat?
Shit show 2020.
Unsettling. Isolating. Scary. Whatever words one chooses, this is awful. I have nothing prolific to say. We are learning about ourselves, our limitations, and our strengths. We keep setting goals for ourselves.
"Bill, I say we watercolor as a family! I found this great kit and the four of us can all paint foxes!"
"Sounds great, Greg."
For this week our kids are used to walking past their mom and dad sitting on their laptops like pilots, dialed in on conference calls, headsets on, clicking away, waiting for the water to boil.
Stay sane everyone. Thanks for reading!
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