in the garden

The growing season is ramping up.  It's been nice, as it's been something to focus on and foster.  We're growing a few new things this year, including a three-sisters garden with corn (never grown that before) pole beans (never been super successful), and squash.  In fact, last fall, my brother gave me a couple pumpkins to compost.  We'd put them in the large compost bin we put on the big garden bed.  So now I have two volunteer pumpkin plants growing.  Fun!!

The weather has been hot, but mostly right in the ideal zone for growing plants.  And something else fun: a potato plant that had also volunteered grew a flower!  I've never seen a potato flower before.  Granted this is only my second year growing potatoes, but apparently it's pretty rare for potato fruit to form, and just as well, as they're poisonous.

"Last Day" of preschool

Actually, it was Tuesday, but I got around to taking the pic on Wednesday.  After months of online school, it doesn't really matter.  He's in the middle of saying "Happy Birthday", so obviously he has no idea what is going on.  Monday, we went to his old school with gifts we'd made for his team of 8 teachers and support staff.  We also picked up some of his stuff from the classroom.  It broke my heart a little when he asked his main teacher for a hug and she had to say no.  "Next week?"  he suggested.  But of course, there is no next week.  There may not be a next year.

It's on a day like this that I get so angry and frustrated by the belligerent incompetence of the federal administration.  A lot of stress and heart-break could have been avoided if someone competent was in charge during this national crisis. I've been struggling for months trying to decide if private pre-kindergarten was better than going straight to kindergarten.  If finding a private speech therapist would even be possible.  And now, no one knows what school will look like next year.  If the inevitable resurgence of this virus will mean that the boy will spend the whole year with next to no contact with children that he needs.  See, now I'm getting mad again.  

Evening walk

We're stuck in the house most of the time, the boy and me.  Husband has had to work 6 days a week for the past month, which has been tough.  So many other families stuck at home, ordering supplies online, because of this mishandled epidemic, means we spend that much less time together.  But Sundays, we get to spend together.  After trying to ride his bike around the block, the boy insisted we carry the bike for him while he pretended to fly like a super hero.

Physics for preschoolers

I bought an inflatable punching bag a while ago, so the boy could take out some of his need to push/punch/wrestle onto something.  It didn't work out quite as intended.  But today he figured out Newtown's 3rd law: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

School work and summer fun

School has bee on hiatus, as has the world.  The teachers have sent weekly assignments and asked us to send pictures and videos of our work at home.  One day, the boy had been showing off his disguise game to his classmates online, then we decided to make apple bread.  Can you guess what he is?

A wookie spreading batter.  This doesn't look like learning, but the OT professional would point out the bilateral hold, the cross midline exercise.  Not to mention the speech pathologist would be interested in the conversation we had, and hopefully the psychologist would be pleased with the social skills being reinforced.

The boy saw a pile of watermelons at the store and insisted on getting one.  Since it's way too early for watermelon season, I didn't think it'd be any good, but as you can see, the boy thought it was pretty good.  That's a strawberry huller he's using to dig out the innards.

Easter 2020

I'd kind of forgotten about Easter coming.  Days are run together, and going to the store is a rarer occurrence, plus church hasn't happened in weeks, so all the usual signals are gone.  But the Easter Bunny did manage to make an appearance.  Instead of eggs, he filled empty juice bottles with treats.  He also brought a new pair of t-rex rain boots.  He must have been feeling whimsicle.

I'd kind of forgotten about Easter coming.  Days are run together, and going to the store is a rarer occurrence, plus church hasn't happened in weeks, so all the usual signals are gone.  But the Easter Bunny did manage to make an appearance.  Instead of eggs, he filled empty juice bottles with treats.  He also brought a new pair of t-rex rain boots.  He must have been feeling whimsicle.

Quarantine: month 1

The boy was cold, I guess.

Building a robot out of string.  The original idea was to create letters out of string, you know, like a creative learning type thing.  The boy had other ideas.

Husband created his first embroidery.