Thursday in isolation

It was a pretty average day of COVID19 isolation for us.  

I worked for just over an hour in the morning, then at 8, got the kids started on getting dressed and having breakfast.  My goal is to be starting school work about 9am, after the kids have walked the dog and fed the cats.

School work went a little quicker than usual and we were done in the early afternoon today.  I had a teleconference meeting at 10am and another at 3pm today.

Nathan cutting up for a selfie with me, while we work on an online leveled reader for him.

Thursdays are math and science for Paul and Julia, math for Petra, and Nathan had a bunch of little tasks on various subjects.  We just got our educational hotspot from the school so that the competition for our scrappy little internet bandwidth is a little bit relaxed.  It's a little frustrating, because the educational hotspot has blocked certain websites, like YouTube.  But the kids' teachers sometimes use YouTube for content, which is where we have the most struggle for bandwidth.

The kids miss their friends and "normalcy," but this daily routine is beginning to feel more normal (I think.)  Petra has started doing the online Google Meets with her teacher each afternoon, even though she mostly understands the math material.  She likes seeing her friends and showing off her pet rabbit to them.

Today the boys had peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and the girls had baked potatoes with cheese. Each day we have a little outdoor recess after lunch, preferably outside, unless the weather is awful.  Monday the cold, cold wind persuaded me to let the kids play sports video games instead.  Recess today included a running, tackling, wrestling game until I was afraid that one of us was going to get broken.

Petra, tackling me, while Nathan sweeps in to steal my hat

Julia enjoying being outdoors in the sun

Julia realizing that I am taking her picture

The kids were done with their school work early today, which allowed me to get back to work earlier in the afternoon.  Otherwise, I'm struggling to get my 6 hours of work in before 6 in the evening.  Today they walked their Easter baskets back to grandma's house and stayed to watch a movie.

Steve came home and made dinner.   I've discovered that he's a lot more comfortable with making meals if I plan things that don't require the cook to make up the recipe as they go along.  

After dinner tonight we had game time rather than TV time.  Steve has been playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids.  It has led to Steve talking in a sort-of Scottish accent as a dwarf cleric and interesting discussions like this - 

Paul: Vive le Revolution!

Mom: Wait, you're a bunch of wondering adventurers.  What's your motivation for starting a revolution?

Julia: It was on Paul's bucket list.

The family had time for DnD after dinner