School continues on. The kids are staying on top of their work. Ryleigh has had more than RJ most days, so trying to balance out their days can be a challenge. But, if one of them is done before the other, I try to have them do additional math using Redbird (Redbird measures and tracks math ability and places the kids where they need to be, so they both are doing math a couple grade levels above their current grades, and I'm more than fine with that.) or playing a word game or doing some coding.
The adults in my kids' lives continue to find ways to reach out and establish routines. And Mom is trying to be creative, too. Our local pottery place has a curbside option, so I picked up a pre-drawn canvas for RJ to paint and Ryleigh and I some pottery to paint. We then dropped the pottery back off and they'll call us when it is ready for another curbside delivery.
I had the kids make me a stained glass window with tempera paint I had on hand. Who knew that my overstocking craft and art supplies would come in so handy?
The kids' gifted teacher emailed us a fun game called Maths 24. I printed it out on card stock (again, thank you to me for overstocking supplies) so we could play away from our electronics. Four numbers are on each card and you have to figure out a three-step math problem to equal 24. Some are really easy, some are not so easy. They are fun when we need to get our brains going.
Dance classes and gymnastics conditioning continues via Zoom.
RJ ran his Shamrock Final Mile at home since the real run got cancelled. This was going to be the first year he could actually run it, as it finally didn't overlap with the William and Mary gifted workshop. The run organizers mailed the shirt, bib, and medal, so we did our best to make a big deal in our cul-de-sac for him. Hopefully next year, kiddo.
The kids have rediscovered chalk and their bikes.
We celebrated Easter with a couple baskets for the kids and a ham and cheesy potato dinner for the grown-ups. The kids helped the neighborhood put on an Easter Egg hunt by putting their artistic eggs in the window.
Jip took Friday of Spring Break off to hang with the kiddos. We lucked out with some lovely weather, so we decided to support a local farmer by visiting his farm. He had it set up so people would pull up, give the staff a list of what you need, items get put it in your trunk, pay without making contact using a Square reader, and then leave or go park to pick strawberries. I bought a grab bag of veges and fruit, extra strawberries and blueberries, lettuce, and poundcake. We also bought a basket that we used to pick our berries. We wore masks and stayed away from everyone. Everyone there was doing a great job of staying in their own spot, and we had a lot of fun. I then had the makings for a wonderful salad and an amazing corn and potato chowder. I'll eat the squash and zucchini (without Jip) this week. And some strawberry-banana bread baking is the planned after-school activity tomorrow.
School resumes tomorrow. I'm going to try to exercise my brain a little and do a webinar this week. The kids have dance and gymnastics and coding. And we'll keep finding ways to stay busy and help make that tunnel feel shorter and make that light brighter.
Until next time, cheers!
