It’s been a year since my last real post. are people still reading blogs?
I feel social media took over and now I follow peoples lives on Instagram. This little space is where I upload things people ask me to share like my yearly printable calendars or my meal planning printable.
I missed telling you (blog) why we left Chile… it was a lot to process, and then after we moved, we (or I) didn’t have much extra time (or energy!) as we had to -very quickly- get the new house ready before Evan was born! and then we had a baby, when he was 6 months old we went to Chile and when we came back to what we thought it was going to be quieter times BOOM the world exploded. Classes were cancelled, everybody was scared, Will started working from home again. Evan was so little. I wrote some posts that I will keep private, I wrote some posts that are still on my drafts, but then I remembered that the whole point of this blog was to save memories, to write from the top of my head, to process things through writing. Grammar and spelling don’t need to be perfect, I don’t even have to re read my posts and edit them. I just have to write.
Anyways.
After the world shut down we did online school. And we rocked it.
It’s not very a humble thing to say, I know. But it’s true. The kids rocked it, I rocked it. I was tired but proud to be able to handle two kids doing school and a baby. I also think Evan benefited from the whole thing. He had his siblings with him every day, he was always in the middle. We hiked, we watched movies, we spent more time together. We made it work.
Then summer came and we spent a ton on time upstate at the lake house. This is the first time in 14 years I was just as excited to go to the lake, as Will and the kids. That place is magical and this summer it felt like a little bubble we could go to and feel normal and free again. My kids are so happy there.
At the lake, they spend the whole day outside! biking, climbing mountains, kayaking, swimming and coming back to the cottage just to eat and sleep. Childhood made right.
Over the summer he had to make a big decision: hybrid or virtual learning. We went back and forth but the Spring worked out so well, I was excited to keep exploring our surroundings, to go to the Zoo, to the Botanical Gardens, to learn on field trips instead of a classroom. So we decided to sign up for virtual classes.
Sounds great right? well, not so much.
When I signed up for virtual academy I never thought or imagined we were going to be expected to do 6 calls/live classes a day. I was naive thinking we could keep exploring and doing 2/3 hours of regular school like we did in the Spring. The new fall schedule is INSANE.
We spent 6 years trying to limit our kids’ screen time and now we are expected to have them in front of the computer 9am-3pm.
I thought about home schooling, I am still considering it, but now we skip some calls, we do field trips, we do the work without joining every live class. We are pushing limits. And we are getting away with it.
For Elisa is a little different than with Liam who is with me everyday. She is a part of a pod and does virtual school with 2 other girls at a friend’s house, she leaves the house at 7:30 and comes back at 3. Things are a little easier for her. But being in front of a computer the whole day is still a lot. Also, between school and 6 dance classes a week, we see her a lot less. I guess thats part of growing up. We try to make the most with the limited time we now have with her. She is a pre teen but she’s pretty awesome and we like her a lot.
Things are moving fast and slow at the same time, maybe coming back to this little corner of the internet will help me through this next stage. As sports start winding down (Liam is done with Tball and has only 3 soccer classes left), Evan’s library class comes to an end (3 more weeks), and the weather gets cold, we’ll be spending lots of time at home.
This is the first time I’m a little nervous about what’s to come, but we are strong and we got this… right?
