Day 6- May 19, 2020

Day 6- May 19, 2020

Today was a relatively good day. Yes, there were tantrums. I may have threatened to throw a Chromebook through a window. My daughter may have let me, lest cooler heads prevail upon realizing this would be detrimental to both online learning, and keeping the house warm. There are at least 2-3 fights a day between my daughters that escalate into tears, but I'm thinking that is just par for the course. Close quarters, no outside contact, strong personalities- if there weren't fights, I'd fear someone had replaced my children with pod people.

Math was easier now that we are doing the basics instead of fifteen steps. The silver lining to
this whole thing may be the elimination of common core math. It's a gift for the teacher gods. R. couldn't find any vocabulary words in the nonfiction texts she was supposed to read that she didn't know.  She also informed me that the grades 4-6 texts ALSO didn't have anything, and could she please use her new Periodic Table of Elements book to find some terms?  Her teacher was extremely supportive (I emailed him and had a response within about three minutes), and her words ended up being nitrates, nitrites, galleons (full disclosure: I have no idea what their definitions are, though I have heard of them, and Honors Chemistry was the only class in high school where I earned a C for the year- and I mean earned.  I worked my butt off for that C.).

I fully expecting her to win a Nobel Prize when she's in her twenties. 

I hate that ChromeBooks don't scroll as well, or work half the time when tapping the cursor. Then again, I'm comparing them to my MacBook Air, which (at eight years old) is markedly superior. The Spanish issue has been solved as we went to using Rosetta Stone through our public library (bless them for having that option). One of my friends said her son is going to learn from Dora (which is awesome- I remember learning Spanish words from her too).  I'm thinking we'll start watching Miraculous in the original French (aka Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir) and then we can learn multiple languages.

Speaking of which, decided yesterday I'm going to devote some time to re-learning French using Rosetta Stone. I remembered back to a lesson I used to teach my Philosophy and Literature class- we would read Walden by Thoreau, and then I would ask the students what would they do if they went into isolation for a period of time, stepping away from society? Inevitably, they had books they wanted to read, instruments they wanted to learn to play, languages to learn, art to create. I never really thought there would be an opportunity for such things as an adult- as a college student, perhaps over a summer or between semesters. But with children and a job? Forget it. Until now.  So I hope to be fluent shortly.  Or at least back to French 5 level like I was senior year of high school.

We watched some quality television- more Zach and Cody.  And we were able to watch The Indigo Girls perform a live concert.  I teared up just seeing how many of my friends, and random strangers around the world, were sending such positive messages during the performance.  In these crazy times, we need things like this to remind us that there is much good in this world.

The news said two people in my town are now infected.  My friend who lives across the street from the hospital sent a video to our group-chat of the line of cars of people getting tests (there were pop up tents that made it look like a really bizarre craft fair).  In the video, the song "American Idiot" by Green Day was blasting in the background, and we all agreed it was apt.  

People seem to finally be taking the social distancing a bit more seriously, though we could still see

self-involved morons on the news talking about how they are on the beaches because they didn't want to give up their spring break trips.  Every one of them was clearly toasted, and I wish for loud noises in the morning, the smell of something awful, and no coffee.  I do not, however, want them to get sick.  I think a terrible hangover would suffice for now (no one should have this virus wished on them).

At a little before five, my friend Rachel who lives in DC texted me to remind me of a Virtual Happy Hour she had created on a Google Hang Out.  It was an odd sensation to get to know a few of her friends virtually, and catch up with her.  We all agreed that it was a good thing to be able to connect to others, especially in this crazy situation.

We ended the day with family snuggle time, watching Schooled with the kids.  Family Snuggle Time is something we invented when we were living with my mom.  We didn't have our own living room, and the only tv in our space was the one in our bedroom, so the girls would come jump onto the bed, curl up between us, and watch television.  Last night, they had to go to bed before Schooled aired, so they were very excited to see it.  They got to learn about Four Non Blondes, and the importance of safety when driving a helmet-shaped car.