Monday morning saw Eliza and Alexander both keen and excited to head back to school and preschool. It was actually really nice to see them both keen to go back, enter with smiles on their faces and be excited to see their friends and teachers again.
We walked Eliza up to her gate entrance - of course it was the furthest one - and then headed back home to hop in the car and drive Alexander to preschool. Then Daniel started his work. It was so quite and so odd just having Daniel at home. He surprised me and was quite independent, worked pretty quietly which meant that I could be productive. And productive I was! I did more things around the house than I felt I had done in the last 4 months. I vacuumed, I cleaned the bathrooms, I organised the kids' rooms, dusted, folded the washing, put on more washing. It was great to be so productive! Daniel enjoyed riding his bike during recess and did a cool artwork of a pop up page using a face mask and then showing the smile underneath.
He had finished his work early so asked me if he could make his Fish Biscuits, from his Tom Gates book. It was nice to be able to hang with him alone because he doesn't get that often. So we followed the recipe from his book and made some fish biscuits and they were very tasty! Perfect for afternoon tea.
Tuesday afternoon we sat down to play some Wii MarioKart which was a lot of fun. I don't often play it with the kids but I do enjoy having a bit of MarioKart games.
Wednesday I had Eliza home for the day as well because of an appointment in the middle of the day. I decided that it was probably easier to just keep her home and make up some home learning lessons, rather than try and do pick up and drop off when I can't enter the school. She did some reading, some writing, some art, some maths. Many similar activities to what she was doing the week before when learning from home. I did notice that Daniel was a lot more distracted with her here as well.
I also found a lovely simple lemon meringue recipe to make mini ones which is very dangerous to have! https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/little-lemon-meringue-pies/6214f331-1de0-4b42-b817-287ec1af6baa They were really tasty!
When I took Eliza to her appointment Daniel headed upstair to my desk to work with Daddy. Just made us feel better with him being on the internet and that way we can keep an eye on him. He loved working upstairs with Daddy!
Again, he finished his work early so was able to watch a movie. He chose Home Alone and had many giggles while watching it. Eliza enjoyed it but didn't find it all quite as funny. Instead she thought a bit too much about it all - asking questions about why did that happen, why did the person do that, why were they dressed like that, who was that person? Maybe when she's a bit older she will just enjoy it for what it is. I did really love listening to the giggles though during the movie.
Alexander found it hard going to preschool knowing that the other 2 were home so our hug heart buttons were redone but he had a wonderful time at preschool and got into different craft activities. He has grown a lot this year in his confidence and resilience.
Thursday Eliza headed to school and Daniel enjoyed the school day with Auntie Jenny's Cabbage Patch toy, Morris. He played the train game with him and set up a laptop for Morris to be able to do some school work next to him.
Alexander was home again, being Thursday and Friday, so we did a couple more home learning activities for him. He again decided that he wanted to learn about some animals from the Reptile Park. This time Blue Tongue Lizards. There really isn't a lot of activities out there for Blue Tongue Lizards so we needed to get creative. Alexander was also pretty keen to just hang out and play at different times which made it easier too. He started his morning colouring in and cutting out a snake for fine motor activities.
Then we paused for him to have his 2nd kindy zoom. Again it went for 15mins and everyone was on silent and he wasn't keen to do the activity after but I told him that he needed to. So he got his toy bunny and coloured in the different foods that he might take to school for crunch and sip.
Bunny and Alexander watched the Reptile Park's video about Blue Tongue Lizards and he also watched one from Taronga Zoo. Then we started to make a Blue Tongue lizard by painting a paper plate and cardboard roll green.
While it dried Alexander helped me bake some Donna Hay brownie cookies. I got a paper cut on my finger and it was cute how Alexander looked after me, got me a bandaid and told me to not put it under water because the bandaid isn't waterproof.
Lunchtime the boys went outside to ride with their babies. I loved this! They don't play with dolls heaps but when they do they are just so beautiful in how they play. Daniel had Morris in the carrier as he rode and Alexander put one of the babies (who he named Oliver after his cousin) in the pink carrier seat. They rode up and down the street with their babies. I loved when Alexander stopped to come and sit next to me so that he could feed his baby the bottle. The way he held the baby was just beautiful. Moments like this show me that these boys are going to be wonderful dads when they grow up.
After lunch Alexander came back inside to finish off his blue tongue lizard by sticking on the eyes and cutting out a blue tongue. He also did a very tricky drawing of a lizard (I couldn't find a blue tongue lizard so he just drew a lizard.)
After we picked up Eliza we started what I hope will be a new tradition - Cookie Chat Time. Basically it's a time for the kids to come, sit down, chat while snacking on some cookies and a cup of milk. I'm hoping that as the kids get older and grunt more than speak, this will create a space for them to chat with James and I. To talk about their friends, what they're up to, what they like, what they wish they had, how they're going. It can go for 5mins or for longer. Just creating a safe and open space to chat as a family. The cookies were also very yummy!
Then we headed around to Nana and Poppy's for dinner. First time in months! It was so nice to be together again. Nana gave the boys a haircut (at the boys request. Nana hair cuts are more popular than Mummy cuts). The kids picked strawberries, played games and looked at the spoon collection.
Friday morning Alexander started with looking after Oliver in the carrier. He then asked if we had a cradle so I suggested that he make one. He got a box and stuck on a toilet paper roll underneath so it would rock. So simple but if did the job.
Daniel started with free writing. I knew that he would do a haiku poem so I told him that for his last day of home learning I wanted him to push himself and write a narrative. I decided that I would write a narrative starter and then leave it to him to finish while I took Alexander to swimming. I told him that he could use the narrative starter that I wrote or he could write his own version. We brainstormed some complications that could happen and then some resolutions for it. Then I left him to it. When we got home I asked Daniel if he had finished and he was just finishing off. He showed me his writing and I was very impressed with his setting out. His letter formation was pretty good, his spaces between his words and letters were very clear and he had a clear plot. Sure, he used my story starter word for word and didn't elaborate much on the details, but the bones for the story were there and he did this work on his own. I told him that I wanted him to edit his work and to add adjectives and adverbs to his writing to make it more interesting. He did pretty well and realised how much more interesting it was with adjectives in it. I was really proud of him for pushing himself. I was really proud of him for applying what he has learnt over lockdown and through OT. I was really proud of the way that he took on advice.
Alexander decided that he wanted to learn about wombats for his last day. We sat down and read a few wombat books.
After reading Sebastian Lives In A Hat he got Hope the wombat, we found a beanie and a baby bottle and he fed Hope like they did in the book.
Then after reading Wombat Stew we went on a hunt to find different craft materials to make our own Wombat Stew. He painted a paper plate with black and blue paint then added stickers for bugs, eyes for flies, feathers and some gum nuts.
He then watched Reptile Park videos to learn more about wombats. I loved that he watched it with Hope in the beanie.
Alexander then watched Art For Kids Hub and drew a wombat. He did another great job although at some point he turned the head upside down and finished the drawing so the mouth ended up being onto of the nose. We had a giggle because Alexander didn't actually notice it until after about 15mins.
Daniel finished his work and enjoyed playing some Prodigy
and Alexander built a burrow for Hope the Wombat using the mega blocks.
I then took the boys up to the cricket nets for some cricket practice. They had a great time. It wasn't very long because we needed to get back to get Eliza from school but it was enough for them both to have a bat and a bowl. They both have pretty good actions.
We celebrated the end of Home Learning with cupcakes, a grazing board and a lovely evening at Amelia and Rohan's place. The kids had a blast swimming, the parents had a lovely time chatting and we enjoyed a bbq dinner together. It was a really nice way to finish and celebrate this period of time. I reflected that I am so appreciative of Amelia, Rohan, Carmen and Marcus. They were my constant real life people during lockdown. We'd see each other in the street. They saw me on the gross days where it was all too much and they gave chocolate and flowers to encourage me to keep going and that I was doing a good job. I just really value their friendship and am so grateful for awesome neighbours in the street.
When we got home there was a lovely package at the front door for me. It was a lovely bunch of native flowers from Julie congratulating me on finishing home learning and doing so well with it. It has been lovely having such great encouragement at the end of each week. Now for the return to school on Monday.
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