I think I’ll skip Monday and just get to the good stuff, except to say that we had a lovely Labor Day as a family with baseball practice at the school field and a Mommy/Cline Kid homemade dinner of sweet potato gnocchi.

I do want to get these photos of the kids with sweet Sal, though. Maybe it’s her age (16!) or their age, or both – but she’s so patient with the kids these days. It’s very meaningful for me to see. I flash back to the day Sally and I became family and I never could have imagined where the years would take us together.

The good stuff. The main event. FIRST GRADE.

While I can’t believe we’re here, it also feels a lot less emotional and overwhelming compared to the start of kindergarten. We’re all ready.

Our district started 100% virtual with an option to stay virtual through 1/29, which we chose. The kids teacher is Mrs. O’Neil and the class is all of the kids who are fully virtual for the first semester. It’s a large class – 26 kids – which I have issues with compared to the number of kids in the in-person classes (15) but their teacher is seasoned and seems totally on top of things.

Even though school is at home, we still took our traditional First Day of School photos. Shoes on and, two minutes later, shoes off. 🙂 It was raining and the kids loved seeing me standing out in the rain.

First day of 1st vs. first day of kindergarten. Such a difference!

Amaya wants to be a swimmer, a teacher and an artist when she grows up.

Steven wants to be an EMT, an artist and a chef when he grows up.

Sammy wants to work with animals when he grows up. Maybe on a farm or at a zoo or as a vet.

The blog isn’t going to turn into a million pictures of the kids sitting at their computers at home but there are a lot this week. Steven, Sammy and Amaya all took up the spots they claimed in the spring. Steven is on the sofa in the sitting room. Amaya is on the sofa in the family room. Sammy is at the kitchen table. It seems to work and they appear able to focus as needed on their zoom lessons. This fall there are four different scheduled whole-class zoom times. In between they do independent work related to the zoom lesson and also have additional small-group sessions with Mrs. O’Neil. Each day is also a humanities lesson – gym 2x week and one day each of music, art and Spanish. (Spanish was a new switch from French.)

Day 1 got off to a good start. The kids all had familiar faces in their class. It’s not the same as being there but they’re making it work.

Show and tell – something green.

Mrs. O’Neil does regular GoNoodle dance breaks with the kids. Seeing photos of Sammy in action makes me smile.

Wednesday dance break. 🙂

PE activities.

Wednesday was our one ballgame of the week. Amaya got in some amazing time with Sally before we left.

May May surprised the kids at the game! It was a good one. Sammy got a great hit and made it to first. Steven got to field the ball a bunch of times.

Class on Thursday – participation from Sammy. On his chair you’ll see his art work. They all did some Mo Willems pigeon art and write something they want in a word bubble.

Amaya wants a little sister. Sorry kiddo!

I think Sammy wants to finish the assignment without writing anything. 🙂

Steven wants to not have to go to school. Again, sorry kiddo. (Even though he says that, he seems to be very engaged in the work.)

Music class! Since the humanities classes aren’t live on camera, Penni is able to run them from our TV so the kids can participate together and get a little change of pace.

SSA have recess in the morning for 30 minutes and again as part of their 60 minute lunch break. Penni is getting the kids outside as often as possible. (It’s also an option if they have 30 minutes to work on an assignment and manage to finish it quickly.)

Steven live on Amaya’s screen. Fun view.

I’m in meetings, meetings, meetings all day but it’s a treat if I have a break that coincides with a break for the SSA. <3

Our housekeeper came on Friday so school moved to the basement. It actually seemed to work pretty well. I think it will be a welcome change of pace every other Friday. Gotta mix it up a little.

Math activities

They all had to write something they’re worried about.

Amaya is worried about coronavirus.

Steven is “worried of being alone”.

Sammy is “worried about puppy [his lovey] being lost.”

Sleeping kids this week.

SSA started their Saturday with decaf. As you do.

Our Saturday morning was an exciting outing. For the first time since March, SSA headed to a playground. But not any playground – their school playground. AND, they met up with 10 or so other kids from their 1st grade virtual class. It was amazing. They were so happy. All the kids wore masks and a few other parents mentioned that it was their first post-COVID visit to a playground, too.

Amaya and Maia are excited to be in class together again.

The kids started an impromptu game of Gaga. <3

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Crafts, legos and a visit to see the construction happening further down our street.

Today was a busy, busy day. We started off with Hebrew School – first week of the year. It’s a modified schedule this season. There are a few outside classes, shortened to an hour, and a handful on online session. It’s intended to be enough to keep kids engaged and connected but not so daunting online that the kids tap out. We’ll see how it goes.

Sammy had a bit of a tough reentry. Eventually he pushed through and we sat together for the latter part of the hour.

To help connect us to fall holiday season, the religious school gave us a big bag of activities to go. We dug in today with tote bag decorating, honey tasting and, with a kit from the Shofar Factory, sanded and polished shofars.

Apple stamping a tote bag

Learning how to finish our shofars – we sanded them and then finished them with mod podge. It’s also suggested we drill a bigger hole at the base but we’ll probably need Jason’s help for that.

After the shofars we made delicious honey cake muffins.

I thought we’d rest before afternoon plans but the kids watched an episode of Emily’s Wonder Lab that featured Ooblek and we had to try making some ourselves. It’s cool stuff. Pressure makes it act like a solid and low/no pressure makes it act like a liquid. The kids got such a kick out of trying to punch it. Lots and lots of fun to play with. A lot less fun to clean up.

Almost clean!

We rounded out the day with a trip to Maybury Farm to visit the Corn Maze with Megan, Taco and Rainbow Heart. It was so much fun! Amaya and Taco were adorable together. We made it through the maze in about half an hour and then had time to visit the farm. Everything is getting easier as the kids get older – which is no surprise but new for me to experience.

Have a great week!