Around January, we started hearing about this "coronavirus" in China, and how it was taking lives and affecting so many people. By March, it had spread to the US, and around early- to mid-March, we attended parent-teacher conferences and then went on spring break...not knowing that we wouldn't be returning to school at ALL this year.
We were on a camping trip, staying in some cabins at Kanopolis Lake when we heard the news that the governor had declared that school would be canceled for the remainder of the year. My mom friends and I were sitting in the kitchen of one of our cabins and we were all in shock. It was definitely a "do you remember where you were when this happened" sort of moment.
We were suddenly thrust into our new role as homeschool mommas, adding to our already weighty To Do list. A new role that was scary, unwanted, and that we weren't completely sure we were capable of.
In the end - my kids were resilient, and we adjusted to our new normal. As an extrovert, Sutton definitely missed his friends but was completely content to stay home, do his homeschool work, and spend the rest of our days playing outside, being creative, and doing Minecraft. Ren, as an introvert, had zero problem staying at home for months. He needs only his brother and his iPad in his perfect world, ha! It was a bit problematic to convince Ren to do his school work - I think he is a student who benefits from peer pressure in order to have motivation in school. It was often like pulling teeth to get him to focus, and I definitely raised my voice a time or two!
Our teachers were awesome - they gave us weekly lesson plans and luckily kept the work to an amount that was not overwhelming. Adding to the fact that I couldn't work for a little over a month, and we settled into a good routine. We had Zoom meetings and virtual field trips, plus a highlight was lots of fun ways Ren's teacher and given us to learn his sight words.
Ren finished up his school work on Friday, while Sutton had a few things to do yesterday and today. But now, we are officially done with school and on to summer break! We don't know what the summer or fall will hold, and it will be interesting to see the long term effects of all this. We did our last day of school photos today, so now I'll share those!
Can you believe this giant kid will turn 10 next month??
Since he never has to go anywhere now, Ren has been wearing pajamas for probably 90% of his life since March. His teacher always commented about it in the Zoom meetings. So I let him wear pajamas for his photos today since that's just who we are right now!
And now for the rest of the photos that didn't make the final cut...
Ever was laying a short distance away, watching our photo shoot, so we decided she needed to be in a few photos.
I'd been wanting to get a shot like this of them for awhile and a friend recently did one of her kids and it inspired me to make it happen! Love!
Also, this next one might be my new favorite of them.
The kittens had made their way from the barn over to the house, so we scooped them up for a photo too.
We went back inside, and then Ren stopped me and quietly said "I didn't get to do the ones where I chose the spot and the poses." So he and I went back outside for just a few more that he wanted to do.
Luna came and found us, so all our cats except Sammie ended up making an appearance in our photos!
In this swing one, he was trying to pretend like he was swinging with his hands in the air and a weird smile.
