Week 3 Recap: The Planned and the Unplanned

Do you ever wake up and have a lot of energy - physical and mental? It doesn't happen to me very often. I'm relatively slow to warm up. But this week? This week I was fully engaged.

Our School Board started posting daily learning activities at the end of week 2. These resources in combination with everything else I'd found, prompted me to spend some time on Sunday prepping a miniature learning plan for E, with lots of flexibility built in. I also spent time printing and prepping activities from the Easter Round-up I posted earlier so they'd be available for our Learning Time when T is having quiet time.

So I planned a busy week of fun and learning and then the unplanned happened, starting Thursday.

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

Sunday March 29th

This was the first week we got the boys set up for Sunday School so they could watch the video together and do a colouring page while we listened to the sermon live online.

While I prepped the learning plan in the afternoon, Andrew and E spent time cleaning up our basement. This gave E a space to spread out for some crafts and imaginative play without having to tidy up every time he left the room or worry if T would get into it. Before bed, I set up a Playmobil set in the basement as an invitation for independent play for E for Monday.

Monday March 30th
T's preschool teachers started posting videos of them singing songs and reading stories as well as possible activities. He really enjoyed seeing their faces and singing along. Both boys worked on their 3-D shapes (E in French).

The first Learning Time with E went smoothly and after it was done, he made up his own game for us all to play and hid his Pokemon cards around the house for the rest of us to find. This gave me a few hours to do some virtual administrative work that I needed to get done.

E's Otters typically met on Mondays. This week they sent out some instructions for a virtual meeting next week and a Badge Challenge - to grow some vegetables! We took an old romaine lettuce bottom, put it in some water and placed it in the window to grow.

Tuesday March 31st

Since the rain had destroyed our Chalk the Walk from Week 2, I planned out a really fun sidewalk activity game that E and I worked on while T spent some 1-on-1 time in the morning with Andrew doing puzzles. E also spent some time creating joke books from Chirp magazines while T worked on identifying letters.

Tuesday's Learning Time was really fun! We did the Scholastic Pond Unit and then E and I spent an hour exploring a nearby pond. The weather was fairly chilly and very misty and there weren't any people around!

Wednesday April 1st

APRIL FOOLS DAY! Brown Ees for breakfast :P

Took it pretty easy in the morning. Delivered E's joke books to a few friends' houses, E worked on a fun Sticker Activity book and Dot-to-dots while T read books with me and had lots of snuggles.

Learning Time was something new for both E and I - French jokes! He also started on a Palm Sunday palm branch craft. After quiet time T played with kinetic sand out on the deck while E had his Zoom Music Class.

I found a grey hair before bed - seems an appropriate time to start going grey.

Thursday April 2nd

Spent the morning listening to more of T's teachers' songs and doing our own versions of them. We also watched Erick Traplin's dance party hosted by our local library. Then we had some independent play and E worked on highland dancing and T, some pretend cooking.

For Learning Time E did the Scholastic Space Unit and then played with his Playmobil Space Set. He also did some gem mining and colouring of Easter Eggs. I got the chance to lay out the flying geese borders for a quilt top I'd put together a few years ago.

AND NOW COMES THE UNPLANNED.

After nap, I noticed something unusual about T's body, Andrew agreed. While the boys played in our backyard Andrew and I had a telephone call with our family doctor and determined what it likely was. (Feels like it's better not to share specifics on the internet.)

This meant we had to access in-person health care services on Friday including an ultrasound at a clinic (not hospital). I spent the rest of Thursday pacing around our house with thoughts flitting/spinning/cycling around my brain. T spent 45 minutes voluntarily lying on the couch looking at books (not in his character). That evening we tried to distract ourselves by playing board and card games and then I took the dog for a walk around the block before bed. Needless to say, my anxiety was through the roof and I did not sleep well.

Friday April 3rd

Very much off our plan, we decided I would take T to all his appointments to minimize the number of people coming in to contact with people outside our family. So off we went to the first appointment. We were very thankful for all the precautions we saw in place. I am so thankful both my kids are great with medical stuff and T was easily distracted from not wanting to wear the mask.

After we came back, I was emotionally exhausted so Andrew took the boys for a bike ride. However, he got a flat tire after 30 minutes and I had to go rescue them. I really would have liked a bit more quiet time. The boys and I ended up doing some more chalk on our sidewalks while Andrew walked the bucket bike home.

Our Learning Time was shortened as I had nothing left in me and had to take T to his second appointment for 3:30pm. I'm fairly certain the tech had never heard such a rousing rendition of Old MacDonald (nor had the people in the halls or really any room in the whole building!).

E managed to finish up his Space activity from Thursday and do a Reading Challenge and Writing Extension by reading a book on the phone to his Gramma.

Day Sky (plus grass?) and Night Sky

We will hear about the ultrasound results soon, but it will require surgical repair at some point. So now we're just hoping to avoid the hospital as long as possible and that it won't turn in to an emergent situation. In an ideal world, we'd be able to have this dealt with at the same time as another procedure he has a consult for at McMaster Children's Hospital on April 17. So praying the consult doesn't get cancelled, and both procedures can be done under the same general anesthesia at a time when Covid-19 is more under control and in a children's hospital where it's less likely there will be many Covid patients (as few kids are being hospitalized due to the virus).

Saturday April 4th

One of our spring plans included purchasing a playset for our backyard. We'd originally been planning to try to find a used one online, but that's not in the cards right now and the wish for swinging and sliding has increased exponentially as we can't access the neighbourhood parks. We are very fortunate to be able to shift some plans around and that we've found one that's somewhat reasonably priced. We found a spot in our backyard we hope will feel tucked away and like their own secret hideout space. Over the next few weeks we'll be spending some time getting the area ready (removing parts of a garden and maybe doing some minor grading.

The rest of the day we enjoyed the sun and fresh air, Andrew did a bunch of bike repair and the boys read books with each other and on their own. E has also started taking videos of himself for his "website" which are quite hilarious but will require some editing on my part. I'll try to post them next week. We finished our week with a mini-movie night and watched Dragon Rescue Riders: Hunt for the Golden Dragon.