The first semester of the school year is almost done and I honestly don't know how it has gone by so fast. The boys "pod" (K-2nd grade) has not had to cancel any school days due to the pandemic. The boys missed a few days right after fall break when they both got a nasty virus complete with fevers and lots of drainage. Gabriel took one for the team and got tested for all the things, but it was just a random fall virus. When we went to the doctor he started crying and apologized for the doctor for getting sick. He said "I try to wear my mask, but maybe I walked too close to my friend Aela's desk one day." This made me so sad, and I was so thankful that the doctor looked him right in the eyes and said "you never need to feel guilty for getting sick. Getting sick is part of being alive. You didn't do anything wrong." I hate this the current culture of masks and social distancing had made him feel that way and I didn't even realize it until he said it to her in tears. But, on to more fun things. Like how the fall has been going.
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| Apple Picking |
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Just watching some TV dressed like Captain
America with a Storm Trooper blaster.
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Both boys are really enjoying school, though I have to say I wasn't sure about Corban the first couple weeks. Corban likes to be home and he likes to have his quiet when he needs it, so school all day was a little bit of an adjustment for him. There are currently 5 boys and 4 girls in his class and he loves his teacher (the same one that taught Gabriel in Kindergarten). He is really starting to understand reading better and we enjoy still doing some reading lessons at home. I am very impressed with how much more legible his printing has become over the past few months. If you were to ask Corban his favorite thing about school he would certainly say "Lunch" and "Recess". He likes it when one of us comes to help with lunch on Mondays. He makes me laugh. If he could have his way he'd eat the exact same thing for lunch every day: a stick of cheese, milk, cucumbers, apples, and dessert. He likes it simple.
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| Watermelon seed math |
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| Celebrating Curious George's Birthday |
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| With the student teacher, Ms Keating |
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He told me that the bigger cat that he got for Christmas last year,
Butterscotch, needed a baby. Since he kept bringing it up I found
a smaller, similar version. He named it "Ice Cream."
He is so in love with that kitten. Ice Cream and Sack are the consistent
sleeping and cuddling friends every day. |
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| Deer in the front yard |
Gabriel, as he always has, loves school as well. There are currently 3 boys and 4 girls in his class. We absolutely love his teacher. She is very experienced, patient, and consistent. Just what Gabriel needs. He needs to know what the boundaries are and not be able to push them. He has already learned so much from her and she is more than happy to implement things that the occupational therapist has suggested regarding classroom strategies. He has a quiet space where he can work when he's feeling easily distracted and she has tried some different things to help him with sitting still and controlling talking. As far as academics go, everything seems to come pretty easily to him. He still loves to read and he thinks that math is fun. Since they have made it past Thanksgiving and not has to miss school they are spending this last month focusing more on science and STEM and he is loving that too.
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| Red Panda Day at the Mill Mountain Zoo |
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| Flying kites at the park |
Other than school the fall has been fulled with lots of trips to the park and playing outside, Ninja class on Fridays (they are both in the same class now), Zoom violin lessons for Gabriel, Legos, Super Heros, and Star Wars. We got to go to an outdoor wedding in October and the weather was beautiful. Corban had never been to a wedding but he did a great job. Having our own table where they could do things while they listened was really nice. They both loved that they got to pick out their own special hand sanitizer from a basket when we got there.
Most days the boys really do love playing together. Gabriel can get annoyed when Corban won't play the way he wants him too. Corban likes to whine and tell on Gabriel for little things. Most days they really do enjoy each other though and they want to do similar things. Corban plays with Gabriel and his friends mostly at recess, which makes sense since he's been coming to recess and playing some of them since Gabriel was in Kindergarten.
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| Making Mickey Mouse Halloween cookies |
We did a lot of the same things we do every fall, just a little differently. We went to a small pumpkin patch with fewer "activities" and tried to go early when it wasn't crowded. We painted pumpkins, decorated with kits, and then carved some too. We went to a friends house with a couple other families on Halloween and played games in the back yard. We watched "The Great Pumpkin" and the boys handed out candy when other kids came by. We just made costumes with things at home since neither one of them seemed like they wanted to be one thing in particular, but I think that we did some fun things and made it special.
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| Mini fall festival at school set up by a parent |
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| Panning for gems at the pumpkin patch |
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Robin Hood and a ghost
(note that Corban also has a ghost cat (Ice Cream) with him) |
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| Hike to the Cascades with Daddy |
Over the past couple of months Gabriel has gotten into "making movies." He decided that he wanted to make a movie of the "Live Action Jungle Book." He's only ever seen the cartoon, but he found the soundtrack on Amazon music. He went to a lot of work for this movie. He used an old iphone to record the music off of the TV in the house and then brought the iphone outside to use it for the movie. He made advertisements and props out of cardboard boxes. He originally got inspiring when we went to the zoo and there was a puppeteer there who talked to them about how she recycles things to make her props and puppets. She used a lot of old cardboard for sets.
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| King Louie |
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| Corban was a baby wolf in the wolf den |
For Thanksgiving we had a special treat and our cousins and Grandma Cheryl all came to visit. We had a great time celebrating Gabriel's birthday, going to Wonder Universe, going on a hike, and of course eating Thanksgiving dinner. What a great way to spend the end of fall. These kids love to play together.
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Thankfulness Tree. They were thankful for so
many family members, friends, and teachers. |
