On Mar 13, since Lara was sick anyway, we kept all three kids at home. It turned out to be our first day of social distancing given how things unfolded. Since we cancelled the trip to Costa Rica during March Break, and then schools did not reopen due to covid-19, we’ve been at home a looooong time.
Here’s a look at some of the activities in our first 4 weeks of social distancing. Some highlights include trying out the trapeze harness in the house, snaking the toilet, making fresh pasta, and zip biking.
The sunroom is taken over for Lego on various days.Felix is making Mapo Tofu.While poor Lara is sick.In the ravine by the house,there’s some obstacles for the kids to bike through.Click here for the video.There’s snow at the ski hill,and plenty of MUD! Video of Nolan riding through the mud.Lots of hosing, laundry and shoe cleaning was done after this ride 🙂Making chocolate fudge cake.Followed by shortbread cookies – one of Felix’s favs.Once a week, each kid cleans a bathroom – conveniently, there are 3, and they rotate.These are important life skills 🙂The Bigs are using the chariot to pull Felix up the hill.Resulting in this little poem by Lara when they got home.Once in a while, Neil and I get to do a short walk without the kids. We’ve learnt to be vague about how long we’ll be otherwise a minute after the expected return, one of our phones will ring with the kids demanding “Where are you? When are you coming home?!?!?”Making a sour cream layer cake.Layering the cake. Her plan was to “reduce the sugar in the batter to counteract the brown sugar in the middle”.She convinced me that she wasn’t missing school as she was doing home schooling.The puzzle board has been resurrected from behind the couch. Neil and I made a quick run to Grain Process Enterprises for flour and legumes (10kg bags) as the grocery stores are out of stock.While we were out, Nolan monitored the loaves of bread baking in the oven. This was his translation of the verbal instructions he was given.He did a perfect job on the bread!The kids hauled out the painting supplies and put them to good use.Felix is making garam masala. First measure out the spices.Crack open the cardamoms for the seeds inside.Then toast them so you can start to smell them.Then grind them in Daddy’s repurposed coffee grinder and put them in the spice jar!One of Felix’s favourite make-your-own lunch. His other favourite is 3 eggs scrambled with homemade chorizo.Making dinner.Lara keeps us constantly supplied in chocolate cake.On the left is a 4-man tent the kids set up in the boys’ bedroom, on the right is a beach tent. The kids slept like this for a few days.Trying out the new trapeze harness for the sailboat. They’re temporarily repurposing the hanging chair hook.Check out the video of Felix “hiking out”.Nolan works his arms in this video.Learning about spices and refilling the spice cabinet.Paint-by-numbers brought over by friends down the street.Quiet time.The boys remained focused for a long time.Hmmm …. I just found this picture. I was clearly not part of this activity – this was Neil and the boys. Sheeesh! 🙂Making his own songs on Garageband.Completion of his painting over the span of several days. In the background, you can see our “quarantine zone” containing the Winners bag of borrowed books and an amazon delivery.Zip-biking! The zipline is amazingly still intact.Most days, the kids would hit the trails on their own.On occasion, Neil would go with them. Close to the end of March, these rides stopped due to the changes in policy and the kids have just stuck to our property.Snow day!Perfect for making 5-min crackers. Their name refers to the amount of time it takes to eat a batch.The “Lego room” moves around the rooms in the house.There was a circus show that included some stunts. Video of ride-by catch.There were acrobatics that caused the pergola to wobble alarmingly.Video of the grand finale of the show.There were lots of scenes set up with Playmobil and Lego.The kids have been volunteering to help with washing the pots (normally Neil’s job).Doing extra laundry – the littles aren’t quite tall enough to see the settings but they solved the problem.On Mon, Apr 6, school restarted online, requiring all available devices in the house. At this point, we did not have enough devices for 3 kids to be on calls simultaneously. It took 4 weeks for the new Air to arrive.Remote learning looks just like remote working! [She’s still in pajama bottoms.]Very studious expression.Neil’s work has virtual sessions for kids. This one is hip hop dancing.This one is about 3-D Printing.Piano classes have been held virtually.The Bigs are hammering something, and Felix is doing loops around the backyard towing his “train cars”. There’s a lot happening in this video.Attempting to braid hair.A RARE situation – Neil working on a puzzle. She’s over-the-moon happy!Helping Daddy to snake the toilet.Reading books friends dropped off for us. The Bigs are reading Tolkien. Lara said that she was “savouring” the Lord of the Rings.New look for our new “dates”.On the weekends, we drive to a nearby neighbourhood for a walk/blade, just for something different. This was in the neighbourhood at Yonge and Centre.Daddy train.Making fresh pasta. Then they take over. I just cook the pasta.We make pasta on alternate days. The recipe is very simple: 8 eggs, 5 cups of flour, and some olive oil.Walk/blade in the neighbourhood north of Bayview and Steeles.Playing rollerblade tag in a school parking lot.Basically hunting down every possible construction machine and asking for a picture. 🙂Finding new uses for the chariot, including summer sledding.Finally, they created a little movie together.
