We made it! Everyone still surviving?
Day 2 didn’t go too badly here. My daughter, Maddie got a little more sassy on Tuesday, but I can’t say I wasn’t anticipating that!
Our morning started with some fun Leprechaun shenanigans and dressing in our green clothes. And of course dealing with the disappointment of not catching our leprechaun, Lucky!
[Side note: A lot of family members have been asking how the kids are doing with all of this and to be honest I don’t think they really understand exactly why we are home and why we can’t go play with friends. I have tried to explain that there are a lot of people getting sick and that’s why we have to stay home but I don’t think its registered. Honestly, I’m okay with that. I don’t want them to feel anxious or worried about all this, I want to protect them from the worry and fear that I’m experiencing. They are too little and right now one of the rays of sunshine in this storm that is sweeping the nation is that I get to protect them every single day. I get to control what they experience and I want that to be normalcy. Or at least our new normal.]
We followed a similar schedule as day 1 and I was able to weave activities sent home from Griffin’s school with some fun St. Patrick’s day activities. Our day looked like this:
- Weather Journal
- Leprechaun books and videos recommended by Griffin’s school
- Handwriting practice
- Sight word practice
A rainbow science video recommended by Griffin’s school
Mommy’s rainbow craft project with supplies we already had
- Snack time
- Lucky Charms Graphing activity -This was a hit with both Maddie and Griffin. I found a free graph on TPT and they both loved sorting the cereal and were very motivated to color in the graph so they could eat the cereal!
- Math Journal activities from Griffin’s school
- Station rotation – alphabet puzzle and a marble timer activity that we recently built from a Kiwi Crate
- Lunch
- Mommy rest time and kids get a show
- Walk/scooter ride and we were able to leave a few messages for our neighbors
- Hot chocolate and marshmallows after our chilly walk
- Painting with our new paints
- Reading of the “Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover” and sequencing activity
- Screen time on their kindle fires while Mom did some work
Day 3 was a little different for us. Dad got to work from home so I could go to my OB appointment in the afternoon. Jeff and Griffin have recently started going hiking and he got to take Griffin on a special, longer hike without little sister tagging along. Maddie and I stayed home and she got a mommy manicure and some solo painting time. When the boys got home we completed name rainbows. Then Maddie got a special walk with dad so Griffin and I were able to do some reading A-Z together.
After reading, we switched gears to math. We completed some of Griffin’s math work and then moved onto some hands-on activities from @busytoddler. The dot math was a huge hit and even Maddie, who didn’t even realize she was doing addition (for her it was more counting), completed her dots! They’ve been asking about the silly dot stickers since they arrived in the mail and they were thrilled to use them!
After a quick lunch break, I set the kids up with another busytoddler activity…practicing my phone number. We haven’t worked on this a ton with either kiddo and I figured “hey, no time like the present!” Those handy dandy dot stickers were pretty motivating and each one practiced matching numbers to my phone number.
The kids got some TV time while I was at the doctor and dad had to do a conference call. When I got home the kids were again making potions! By now, its about 2:45 and I remembered the Cincinnati Zoo would be airing their zookeeper talk at 3. We watched Fiona’s talk and then watched the new one. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals up close.
While I was out, I stopped at my office to grab a few more supplies and also brought home my marble tower. The marble tower was a huge hit with both of them and they played with it for almost an hour!
A few things I’ve learned in the past few days…
- Keep it simple…I thought after day 2 potions would be boring-not the case! Changing one small thing has helped switch it up…the color, the tools used to mix them, etc
- Never underestimate the power of a sticker, right?
- A little extra screen time for Mom’s mental health is okay
On to Day 4…we got this guys.
