COVID-19: Week 1 Quarantine Recap

Well it has been a while since I've last posted - 5 years to be exact! A lot has happened since then, raising two amazing girls is crazy busy and thus the lack of posts. However, I thought it would be good to keep a record of what's going on at the moment as the schools are closed, meetings are canceled and most states and countries are in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 virus spreading around the world. I also thought this would be a therapeutic way for me to unpack what is going on as well as have a crazy journal that might end up in the history books! ;)

Before I begin I'd like to back up to the beginning of February. I was hospitalized for pain in my abdomen and 104 fever. Thinking it was the flu at first but then the abdominal pain spiked and we went to the ER. Turns out it was an infection in my rectum and it needed to come out. Thanks to Crohn's and pervious surgeries. March 3rd I had a proctectomy and have been recovering from surgery the last two weeks. I only explain this part of our crazy life as this impacts what is happening now. After the first week of recovery the COVID-19 virus spread across the nation and world and schools have shut down. So now into my second week of recovery I am homeschooling my kids, keeping up with work virtually, keeping up with the news and how to stay safe from the virus and keeping up with Millis School Committee virtually. So much for a nice quiet recovery!!

Thursday night, March 12th, the schools around Massachusetts decided to close down for 2 weeks, but Millis did not. The virus was starting to spread rapidly and so JP and I decided to keep the girls home Friday as a precaution and JP worked from home. This day was just like an extra 'home day,' as the girls call it, where we didn't' have any structure but played games and watched some tv!

This past week (March 16-20) was the first week the kids were home and I worked as their teacher, set up routines, worked on math, reading, writing, etc. and homeschooled the girls. Our routine each morning is:

Brigg's School Schedule
7:00 - 9:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:00 Yoga & walk Pip & water the plants in the cold frame
10:00 - 11:00 Academic Time (Math, Writing, Reading, cooking, etc.)
11:00-12:00 Creative Time (Art, Drawing, Play Doh, Legos, Marble Tower, etc)
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:30 Rest Time (Nap, quiet reading in own room, quiet play in own room)
2:30 - 4:00 Academic Time - (Ipad apps, videos from teachers, cooking)
4:00 - 5:00 Free Time
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner
6:00 - 7:30 Free Time
7:30 - 8:00 Bed Time

So far this schedule has been working out great. Yoga has been a huge hit! Cosmic kids yoga is wonderful. The kids love it and look forward to this each morning. I'm lucky that both girls enjoy learning. They love doing math facts and the wonderful workbook that Grammy sent them! They have also been so amazing at helping out!

JP went to the supermarket Monday night around 7:00pm. Roche brothers shelves were bare. There was no milk, eggs, cheese, bread. After he came home I immediately went to Crescent Ridge Creamery and signed up for their delivery service. They will deliver milk and other products once a week. We have a milkman now!! Yesterday, Thursday March 19, was our first delivery! The girls were so excited to see the delivery man and bring in the food! We are lucky that we were able to sign up as I checked their site today and they are no longer accepting new homes to deliver to due to the high demand! This is one of my biggest concerns, food shortages, especially with small kids. Hopefully this won't be a problem but who knows, as there is NO toilet paper to be seen anywhere!! We have enough for now but we don't know how long this quarantine will last. At this point the kids are out of school until April 6th but NY State just went into lockdown so who knows how long we'll all be home!

Yesterday we had 'Theme Thursday,' and our theme was Harry Potter. It was a fun way to change it up, even though we'd only been doing Briggs' School for 3 days! I'm thinking next Thursday will be Star Wars or Frozen themed!

Filling out their wand permit for the Ministry of Magic

Potions Class

Practicing Spells

Quidditch

Herbology

Yoga

Escaped prisoner from Azkaban Prison!

The big thing now is 'social distancing' meaning stay away from people! When the weather is nice, this is hard for the kids. They all are home and want to play outside together. But we explained to the kids that they can't be near other kids incase they are sick or we are sick! Baba came over to drop some masks and gloves off and this is as close as we dare get to each other!