A Whole New World - Coronavirus - How I Became a Teacher

                                                                  Sunday March 15, 2020                                                               

By the time we disembarked from our cruise Sunday morning Cali's phone was going nuts with emails and notices from her kids' school. Spring Break was being extended for 2 weeks and the Governor had shut down all the schools. Darryl and I were supposed to take Gideon home to Mississippi with us for 2 days then put him on a plane to Phoenix. We decided the best thing to do was for Gideon and Parker to both come home with us and I would home school them like I did my kids when we traveled and Cali would be able to work full time and not worry about Day Care. She was able to get vouchers or refunds for their tickets and we headed back to Mississippi and a whole new level of weird, especially when it came to shopping for everyday things. 

We stopped 5 times on the way home to get toilet paper and not one store had any. I wanted another pack for a back up as I only had a 12 pack at home. Luckily, it was 18 roll pack! 

A whole new world began as I went from being a part time job clerk to a full time home school teacher. I tried my best to find grade appropriate reading, writing, math and science work for the kids. They were really good about getting their work done.

I didn't care where they did their reading, as long as they got it done before dinner time. Parker liked to read on the balcony where she could watch the birds and the fish.

We did yoga several times a week. Parker was obviously the most flexible.

But Gideon and I get an A for effort.

Our daily lessons contained some "non-traditional" school work like doing the dishes, 

Writing and putting on puppet shows. Yes, they eventually used all 25 of the paper bags to make puppets over the 4 weeks they were here.

On March 21st we celebrated Gideon's 12th Birthday by going out to dinner and having a huge birthday Cookie for dessert. They closed the restaurants to dine in service 3 days later .

Happy Birthday Gid the Kid!

Parker and Gideon both excelled in "Home Economics" cooking class. Parker learned to make her own Old Fashioned Oatmeal with strawberries.

It is her favorite breakfast and under supervision she would make it everyday.

Parker also had a special relationship with the neighborhood blue heron. He wouldn't come near other people, but when Parker went out to feed the fish and turtles he would walk right up to her.

And thanks to her feeding the fish, Mr. Heron always had a meal.

We also had several beach days before the Governor decided to close the beaches. Looking back now after 4 months, I think he might be regretting some of these restrictions.

And since in person church was cancelled we all enjoyed church at home with everyone taking part. Gideon and Parker gave talks, said prayers and even picked out the hymns and helped to lead the music.

We had some very lovely church meetings and wonderful Sabbath days.

I can also say that they both excelled at art. Here they did a fun acrylic landscape painting.

They did an excellent job for their very first time painting with grandma's acrylics.

Physical Fitness was also part of our daily routine. When we weren't doing yoga we were going for walks or doing some isometric exercises like crunches and planks.

After a few weeks their teachers were starting to get some online curriculum going for the children and reading to them everyday on Zoom. We have all become online Zoom meeting experts.

Grandma even makes them practice their handwriting.

There was always time for fun, like grabbing grandma's phone and taking selfies when she wasn't 

looking.

Hey! Is that my phone?

Love this girl, but she has more hair than the law should allow for a 9 year old. It is so very, very thick and gets tangled so easily. She asked me every other day if I could give her a pixie hair cut. 

Another masterpiece from Miss Parker

After asking me for 3 1/2 weeks about getting her hair cut, I finally called up Cali and got permission then called Cami. We got on a video call and she talked me through how to cut Parker's hair in a cute Pixie Cut.

Parker absolutely LOVED her hair cut!

And she really loved how easy it was to comb out and take care of!

Don't look too close. It's not really a very precise haircut. It's a little uneven, but I trust sometime in the future a beauty shop will be opened again and Cali can take her to get it evened up.

She loves it and that's all that matters to me!

After Home Church on Monday April 5, 2020. 

By early April Zaharias Elementary School had some pretty good online learning underway. One of the most fun activities was the day the actor Sean Astin (known for the movies Goonies, Rudy and Forever Strong) read to the student of Zaharias from his favorite book - 'Where the Sidewalk Ends', by Shel Silverstien. 

That was a momentous event amid all the daily drudgery of being confined at home by statewide "Stay at home" orders.

I am so sorry that our nation and many or our citizens are suffering, either from the virus or the effects of the nation wide shutdown. But I want you to know that I absolutely cherished this special time I was able to spend with my beautiful, happy, wonderful grandchildren. I wouldn't trade it for the world. What a blessing it has been for this Grandma!