Like many other people, Mr. WTF will be spending his birthday in quarantine. While it is a bummer, it’s better to stay in for this birthday and live to see the next one. We know a few kids who have unfortunately had to spend their birthdays in quarantine and we really feel for them. Let’s just say, Mr. WTF isn’t as affected by being home and having no friends over. I actually think he might prefer it this way. After 21, you kind of just stop caring that much anyhow. Now we’re just adults with responsibilities wishing we were kids again.
The kids and I started their birthday projects for him pretty early last week because I know their attention spans are equivalent to that of a squirrel. We started on a three-piece sign for Mr. WTF and completed it yesterday. He’ll find out in this post, but we’re notoriously bad for keeping birthday secrets and the signs have been left out to dry where he can see them anyway. The kids still think that he doesn’t know about them though. They were super into it and there wasn’t any arguing…for once.
After our faucet fiasco last Monday, we’ve been doing more art projects to make learning time easier. I think the faucet did me in. I’m tired of fixing things in this house and it seems like there are a lot of little things here and there to do. Easier learning times mean that I have more patience to do the repairs and yard maintenance.
We also did some easier number recognition worksheets that was interactive with dice and stickers. I think that a lot of our frustrations with number worksheets is that they don’t recognize the numbers well enough yet to put together all the components of the counting worksheets. For example, when we were doing the dice and sticker worksheets, they rolled the die and then covered the correct number with a sticker. It seemed to be pretty easy for them, but if we do the worksheets where they have to count the number of items and then pick the correct numerical number, they have a really hard time. Past the number five, they start guessing numbers when I point to them. I made a 1-10 poster board for them to refer to and have them count up to the number they’re trying to find. Their attention spans don’t last that long. By the time they’ve gotten to the poster board counting, they’ve forgotten how many items they counted on the worksheet and have to go back and count items again. Another problem is that they don’t count to themselves yet so when Reid is getting up there in numbers and then Lucas starts counting, Reid gets distracted and miscounts. It’s very frustrating for all of us and I know they don’t learn well when any of us are mad. It’s a whole debacle and I’ve decided that they’re just not ready for those counting worksheets. We need to continue on number recognition first and make numbers fun, not frustrating.
Another educational activity that we did during week five was to try out tangrams. Remember those things? I found a printable version on One Mama’s Daily Drama’s blog to try them out. As mentioned in the last post, I’ve been buying all kinds of art items for them. Tangram sets aren’t that expensive, but they’re just enough that I didn’t want to buy them if they weren’t interested. It was a little difficult for Reid, but Lucas caught on very quickly. Luckily, their auntie got them a set so that they don’t have to keep using the paper cutouts. I’m hoping that if we start doing activities like this, that they will learn to be more analytical and their spatial awareness will be better than mine. I used to play with tangrams as well, but was never good at it. To this day, I’m really terrible about building things.
As for fun activities, it was warm enough to do some of the water balloons that they got for Easter. Since I already had to unpack their swimsuits to do the balloons, we also unpacked their mini pool. We’re unpacking all over the place and it’s really, really irritating. I thought living out of boxes was annoying, but having to unpack things that will need to be repacked is even worse. Anyway, we got the pool out and they had a blast. As a rule of thumb, we don’t keep the water for more than a day. I’m afraid of bacteria growing and then someone swallowing water and getting ill. This is not the time to be going to the emergency room. We also don’t chlorinate the water because we use it later on for our plants. These days it’s just our strawberry patch because I gave the rest of our plants away, but we used to use all their pool water for my plants. This time, the kids helped me water the strawberries and then made themselves a river in my landscape rocks. They had a grand old time playing with the water even if they weren’t in the pool on the second day.
In other news, I joined the masses and needed to do my own hair. Mr. WTF is hunting for a set of hair clippers to do his too and my hairdresser told me that my dad helped my mom do hers. Whether or not we’re in quarantine, we still want to look normal. I’ve also started going back to coloring therapy, which helped me a lot when I had Postpartum Depression. I finished my first, and probably last, 1000 piece puzzle around the end of week four. I ordered a couple of paint-by-number canvases, but am still waiting for those to come. I unpacked my trusty old adult coloring book. I told Mr. WTF that by the end of our stay home order, I’ll have a full gallery of crafts.
Crayola color pencils 
Crayola Broad Line markers 
I’ve also been trying to read more at night instead of watching tv. We’ve gone through a lot of shows and I need a new form of entertainment. Unfortunately, the kids are too needy and talk a lot in general so I can’t read when they’re around. I can’t even read a magazine without going over the same sentence twice. Coloring works during the day and reading is helping at night.
I can’t believe that this is the beginning of week number six. I told Mr. WTF that now that we’ve started using Instacart, I really just don’t want to go out. I’ve become the ultimate home body. He takes the twins out on weekends so that I can have time to myself and I’m 100% fine with staying at home. He offered to watch the kids while I go out, but I didn’t even want to do that. I’ve been getting my sun and exercise through weeding. Lots and lots of weeding. On the weekends, I just want to sit and do nothing. I’m sure I’ll get even more lazy as the weeks go on. We haven’t heard anything about another extension, but we’ll both be weary of leaving the house any time soon.
WHAT THE FONG? 
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