Spirit Week

Spirit week was actually fun this year and while my kids are more of the Gramma Tobler don't look at me kind, they stepped outside their comfort zone for a few things. Crazy hair day was a fun one. Duke wanted Chiefs colors.

We didn't get a non blurry picture of E but she had an octopus bun. I was amazed that she did anything at all! So fun!

While they REFUSED to wear their outfits to school they humored me and dressed up as little old people at home. Holy smokes they were darling! I couldn't get over how cute they were. They wouldn't let me paint their faces. But swoooooooon. I'm obsessed.

duke stole the show as a grumpy old man. My goodness I love these two!
 

Back to School.... Again

 At long last Duke is able to go back to school part time. He will do Hybrid school (2 days in person, 3 days at home) for the next four weeks and then he gets to go back full time. I can't even begin to tell you how excited EVERYONE is! This is a really big deal as most schools around the country are still not opening.

A picture from his teacher.

In person school is a bit different this year. And by a bit I mean they had to change every thing the kids do. The children are socially distanced in the class room and sorted into cohorts. Those 6 children in each cohort are the only ones that Duke is allowed to get "close" to. They sit together, eat together and play at recess together. That way if someone gets sick, they only have to quarantine those six kids and not the whole class. 

 

They also have to wash their hands every hour and sanitize every half and hour. They walk down the halls like zombies to make sure they keep socially distanced. They wear masks every day. To minimize the exposure to the specials teachers, the kids not have the same specials for the entire week vs rotating every day. And even with all of the changes, Duke is SO happy to be back. It is 100% worth it.

He's our Super Hero! So dang proud of this boy!

When he's not in school, those days are still hard, but we are finding a groove. He's becoming more independent and some days I feel like I can let him work solo for awhile. Here he is doing some service for the family for one of his assignments. 

The following week it was E's turn and oh man was she excited. It was hard seeing brother go for a week before she got to go. (Grades k-2 went first, then 3-6 went the following week.) 

Everything is so dang new but I am so proud of the way the kids have adapted to everything! They are AMAZING! Shine bright my my loves!

First Week of School

 Night before school sprinkles. This is happening people!

 We are officially back to school, four and a half days in an guys, I'm dying! Because of COVID-19 we are mandatory remote learning. We had elected to do in person learning. While we went back and forth debating the pros and cons (germs and Duke's viral induced asthma vs. in person, face to face learning) we decided that Duke needed an in class environment and attention that I just couldn't give him at home with a three year old and a 10 month old. Two weeks before school was to start, we got an email from the school board saying that we were to be 100% remote. This was the first time that I was truly mad. For the most part I have LOVED having my kids home, and we have made adjustments with Jakob working from home. It's hasn't been easy, but I really feel like we handled this pandemic with a very glass half full mentality. For the first time I was angry and confused and thinking "how the heck is this going to work?!" Needless to say, I have been pretty salty in regards to going back to school. Jakob had a meeting the first day of school and he wasn't home. Everyone signed in and I very quickly realized that this was going to be a GONG SHOW! E was a rock star. She signed in and was independent and awesome. Duke signed in and the first hour was pretty calm. Sprout watched a show and I was feeling pretty confident. Foolish Stephanie. Redd woke up and was screaming. I had put him in his high chair to feed him but he continued to yell is true Redd fashion. Sprout was having a melt down about a blue cup. E needed to sign in for specials but her link want working. She came to me in tears and we set her up on my phone. Duke's screen was freezing every two minutes, so we were signing in and out constantly. She was also teaching about an app that we were going to use for the entire year and I couldn't hear a THING over Redd screaming. That was the first time I cried. Redd went down and once again we were signing in for the next class. Duke was crying because he was tired. Sprout wanted to play and run in his house and all I could do was plug him in to be quiet. I cried three times that day. I just feel this is so unfair. My baby (yes, my 10 month old) has watched Dory 3 times today. That's six hours of TV. He's my last baby and I am missing it! Sprout watched TV from 9-1 and then was constantly sushed until three and 3:00 hits and I am dead. I'm so drained. And I KNOW other Mama's have it worse and I can't even imagine trying to do all this AND work. And while we have sort of figured out a tiny semblance of sanity, my baby and three year old watch way too much TV and I have started rocking my baby to sleep just so I can savor what little time I have with him at this stage.

 

E making a cross word out of letters and not repeating any letters, very impressed with how many words she came up with!

More T.V for Roo.

I quickly relized that this system just wasn't going to work. I still needed to be close to Duke to hear what we happening but the big table was too big and the couch was too distracting. So it was time to move things around. 

This table system worked great for the next two weeks. Duke had his own little corner, I had his schedule and passwords taped to the wall. things were a bit better after we figured out this groove. 

And then on the weekends, Chaos reigns!!! Make all of the noise my loves!! 

*Follow up a few weeks later* Once we got our groove down things were much better. For the first three weeks I sat right beside Duke all day every day. He needed me constantly, his teachers were then deciding what to do for Duke's reevaluation for his IEP and I decided to step back a bit and let him work a bit more independently to see how he did. Duke is awesome once he understands his routines. And he did really well. I am looking forward to seeing what his teachers say for his IEP. This is still really hard, but it has gotten better with time. In the beginning i felt like someone had stuck my head underwater and told me to breathe. Now I feel like I'm treading water a bit.

Back to School

Back to school this year feels a bit surreal. Because of Covid the kids will not be going to school in person ...yet. We do not have on official start date, but the teachers need time to be able to rearrange everything the students do from the second they are dropped off at pick up to the moment they get back into our car at the end of the day. I cannot imagine how frustrating and overwhelming it must be for them!

So our tiny humans (which aren't so tiny any more *sniff*) will be doing remote learning for the forseeable future. I'm not going to lie, we are all nervous, but the kids are so excited to be going "back" to school. fingers crossed we will be in person SOON!

Here's  few fun facts about Bear. 

When I grow up I want to be a: Football Player

Favorite Color is: Green

Favorite part of summer: Food Week of Summer Camp

I'm excited to learn about: Math

Teacher this year: Mrs.Winkler

 

As always E is beyond excited to be going back to school. She loves to learn and read!! 

Here's  few fun facts about Peanut. 

When I grow up I want to be a: Scientist

Favorite Color is: Purple

Favorite part of summer:

I'm excited to learn about:

Teacher this year: Mrs. Metcalf

 

Shine bright my loves! You guys are going to soar this year!
 

Mrs. Edge

 This year Ms. Edge retired and our hearts are broken. We have had good teachers but Mrs. Edge was EXCEPTIONAL. She was organized, thoughtful, kind and loving. She set boundaries and expected the children to meet them. She SAW E and those two had a bond I can't quite describe. She was more than just a student to her, Mrs. Edge loved E. She was her girl. When she asked if we could meet up for lunch I couldn't say yes fast enough. We met at Freddy's and E was glowing the entire time.

We visited for more than two hours, sitting together and just savoring every second. Because of COVID, E wasn't able to finish the school year in class or get to say a proper goodbye and she needed this. It was an amazing afternoon and I am SO thankful for teachers and women like Mrs. Edge. We LOVE YOU!!!!

Home School

 

You guys?!?! Who would have thought that the WHOLE WORLD would shut down?!? It actually blows my mind. And while having the kids home for the rest of the school year at first seemed a bit daunting, it was pretty awesome. They cancelled school during spring break, (Middle of March) and the kids started ramote learning. At first I was pretty hard core about it and then it became an activity, to have fun with... some days. They did end up working on some pretty cute things though.

 One of our favorites was rolling dice and then adding/ subtracting or multiplying the numbers. We ended up buying ten and 20 sided dice to help them. 

Leif wanted to work too.

Visualizing four groups of 6 = 24.

One of E's assignments was creating a pet pencil. E wanted to make a sloth and so we headed to pinterest. We designed a sloth and E hand stitched the whole thing by herself. It took her 6 hours and I was so impressed with her!

So many WebEx meetings.

 

E found a five leaf clover.

Shape monster from 3-d shapes.

 

 For the most part I have been pretty chill with COVID and all of the crazy that it has brought, but picking up supplies on the last day of school was SO anticlimactic. There were no teachers. No goodbyes and it was hard. I felt bad for the kids. Then had fun collecting their treasures. 

 

And as an end of school tradition, we went and got ice cream. Not in cones because of COVID, but we won't complain. Okay summer. Bring it on!!!!!!