Day 11: Baking Funfetti Cookies

Tuesday, 31st March 2020

Today:

Isabella practised reading by being a little nosy Parker and reading everything I typed while working. I had to wait for her to finish reading before sending off emails. She was actually being very good for a long time while I worked. Just sitting next to me and participating where she could.

Some more reading was done while baking cookies which turned out really well. They're called funfetti cookies. Here's the link to the recipe. We had no eggs so had to substitute using 1 1/2T water + 1 1/2T vegetable oil + 1t baking powder. This was for one egg and worked absolutely fine.

We covered one of the maths tasks she has for this week which was measuring capacity. We decided to do it while washing dishes after baking instead of using the wine example!

Kitten is still doing the same. Exploring the house, but still scared of us and not letting us touch him. He is funny when he is in a playful mood and loves Isabella's tunnel! I bought him treats today to try and lure him closer to us, but so far he isn't falling for that trick.

Andre and Isabella went for a run around the field behind our house during lunch time. They made it round twice which was 1km!

A Peppa Pig magazine has also proved to be quite entertaining today. So nice now that she can read and do some of it on her own.

Isabella started a 3D aquabeads project. She's promised me that she will complete it on her own so that's her challenge which will hopefully win me some time. So far so good for the start of it today. It will definitely take quite a few days to complete. We are working on a next video on the aquabeads too so will hopefully have that ready soon!

I must take a picture of our home office some time, not that there is much to show. Andre and I don't have much exciting news to tell so this is turning out to definitely be more of an account of Isabella's activities. That's what our days are all about anyway isn't it!

Day 10 at home due to COVID-19

Monday, 30th March 2020

What did we do today... Isabella managed to entertain herself with her aquabeads next to me while Andre and I both worked AT THE SAME TIME! Andre then had to make a quick trip to the office and took Isabella with him. There isn't anyone at the office so they weren't in contact with anyone while out. I had the luxury of continuing with work uninterrupted. 

We face-timed with friends over lunch and then Isabella had requested to learn to tell time today. She already knew half past, quarter past and to and o'clock, but has been wearing her watch the last couple of days and wanted to be able to read time better. We spent maybe an hour maximum practicing on her white board and her watch and she's now got it.

She also completed some of her school tasks on Purple Mash, where teachers assign online tasks for the children to do.

Of course we had some garden time in the afternoon as well. We planted dahlias, played tag, bubbles and trampolined like we do every day now.

Kitten has been exploring the house and is doing well.

And before I go to bed, here is a link to yesterday's nail polish challenge video. It was really fun to do and I'm actually enjoying my multi-coloured, not very professional or grown-up looking nails seeing as we're just at home.

Click here to watch the video.

Day 9 of social distancing: 29th March 2020

Here is what we did at home today, Sunday 29th March 2020.

We played with Aquabeads and Isabella made a video which mummy needs to edit, but not tonight. Too tired from being kept up with baby kitten. Hopefully tomorrow.

We had fun doing a nail polish challenge. Video on that one too as soon as I get to editing it. Isabella has asked me before why do I never paint my nails in different colours the way she likes hers. Well now I can!

And  then mummy was done entertaining for the day and went to watch TV with cake and with the living room door closed so no interruptions. Andre and Isabella spent the rest of the afternoon doing gardening.

And while I edit today's videos, here's one from last month, a different cake, but just as yummy as today's! Click the link below to watch. Off to have an early night now. After I tire the kitten out a bit.

Cake Decorating with Isabella

Day 8: Kitten has a name

Day 8, Saturday, 28th March 2020

Isabella received a letter in the post. It was a lovely surprise from her friend Matilda! Matilda  suggested the winning name for our kitten: Tabby! We've been struggling to decide on a name and just haven't found a name we felt worked, but this one just seems to fit. His full name is Mr Adrian Tabby but you can just call him Tabby.

Reading her letter from her friend.

We got Tabby to venture outside our bedroom and into the spare room for a little bit so we (Andre) could clean the bedroom without stressing Tabby out with the vacuum cleaner. He is becoming a little more confident each day.

Still loves his luxury cardboard house! And still not tried out his actual plushy bed...

Then Isabella had a remote play date with three of her friends. At least these kids will have no problem having remote business meetings when they have to!

And thanks to the Corona virus and working from home, Andre finally got to buy the office chair he really wanted.  There is only so much complaining about a chair I can listen to before giving in! Originally I didn't want such a big chair at our desk as our desk is also in our new chill out room, so wanted something a bit nicer. But now that Andre is sitting here at the desk all day, every day I had to let him have it.  At least I got to choose the nicest colour available which was this light grey fabric.

That's a Vit C booster in his hand, not a beer!!

Day 7: Pretty much the same as yesterday!

Second week completed working from home and first week completed for Isabella being home from school. So far so good. 

Andre and I are doing Joe's PE sessions in the morning and Isabella joins in when she feels like it.

Isabella's pretend shop was open again this afternoon so we've practiced money sums. We did bonds of 10 and 20 on the trampoline and also did reading and spelling on the trampoline today. Trying to cover anything we didn't get to earlier in the week!

Daily trampoline photo!

Isabella also had a her street dance class via Zoom on the computer this afternoon. She ended up having a private class as she was the only one who showed up. She loved it though! Kept saying how fun it was! There was also a little bit of iPad time of course and lots of time trying to keep kitten awake as he cried quite a bit again last night, keeping me up! Hoping for some improvement with that tonight. He is definitely becoming more inquisitive, playful and more brave.

Day 6 of social distancing

Cat spent most of the day in hiding still today, but has come out to play this evening for a bit. Hopefully he will feel more relaxed tomorrow. Also hoping he will let me sleep a bit more tonight! We're still undecided about his name and must really make a decision tomorrow.

School this morning consisted of maths - playing shop with real money, adding up prices and working out change. 

Then Andre took over while I did some work and after work went to the (real!) shop. We've not needed to go grocery shopping for a while, but have been running low on the fresh essentials like milk, bread and fruit for Isabella so went to stock up so I won't have to go again too soon. It didn't feel very nice having to go out. The parking lot at the grocery store wasn't very full, but still there was this queue outside as they were only letting a set number of people in the store at a time. The queue moved quickly though, about 10 minutes and I was in and then I hurried through the shop trying to avoid  other people! Fresh food was very well stocked, lots of milk too, not so much the eggs and pasta. There was toilet paper but not very much. The picture below is of the tinned food isle. And the only things on my list I couldn't get was tinned tomato. Not an issue though, we still have a bit and can do without too. I washed my hands so much once I got back from the shop! My knuckles are now also starting to get a bit raw. I'm lucky it's only now as I've seen the children's hands when they were still at school looking much worse from all the soap and hard water. Hand cream can now be found around every corner in the house!

It's lovely to be able to have lunch break in the garden!

Isabella had her tap dancing lesson via Zoom this evening. It worked pretty well. She said it was ok. It is a little strange if you're not used to it and isn't quite the same. But still nice to see other children and their teacher and the funny faces the kids do while looking at themselves on screen!

Isabella decided it's time to dust off the BBQ now that winter is over so we ended the day with our first BBQ of the season! We ate quickly. It was a little cold outside by then!

Day 5: New baby

We have a new baby in the family! A very fluffy kitten!

We have been researching getting a kitten for a few months now, looking at different breeds. Andre has a bit of an allergy to cats and we found that Siberian cats are one of the best breeds for allergy sufferers as they have less of the allergen Fel-D 1 which is in cats' saliva. 

Adrian is 7 months old. This is his registered name, we're still deciding whether that will be what we'll call him or if we'll have a different name we'd call him by. We have a few names in mind but it's not easy finding one all three of us are happy with and that suits him!

I met him at the breeder last weekend and was meant to only collect him this coming weekend, but with the lockdown rules getting stricter we brought this forward a few days. He is staying in the main bedroom for now and his favourite hiding spot has been behind my fluffy dressing gown hanging from the radiator. Andre managed to coax him out before bed time with some cat toys. 

When I switched off the bedroom light at bedtime, he started crying and walking around the room. After two hours Andre suggested trying Isabella's sleep stories to get him to calm down. Instead I found this calming music for cats on YouTube. He stopped crying as soon as I put it on and I had it playing throughout the night and only heard one or two more small miaows from him during the night.

Isabella is of course finding it so hard to be patient and just wants him to come out and play. But it will take some time for him to settle in and we'll be keeping him in the one room until he is more at home with us.

More updates to come!

Day 4: The sun is out to make us all feel happier

Day 4 of Coronavirus Stay at Home. This morning we even received an official text from government saying "New rules in force now: you must stay at home." No more just keeping your distance. Just stay at home.

So we joined Joe Wicks and the nearly 1 million other families at home to do today's PE session at 9am. It's a good workout that. Well for me at least! My legs were definitely aware of yesterday's session.

Then we did what we did after yesterday's PE session: had cake!

Late morning Andre played school with Isabella and they covered a lot of work. I was very impressed by his teaching skills! Big part of it is really also Isabella's eagerness to learn. While they were busy with school work, I did office work.

Andre gave Isabella a word each time to create a sentence with. Next we need to
practice joining ideas using 'and'.

In case you missed it, Isabella wrote the previous blog post all on her own. I just showed her how to add pictures, but
she did it herself. It took a while, so we need to work on speed.

Isabella and I spent the rest of the day in the garden- trampolining, blowing bubbles. AND we cleaned the greenhouse! I have been wanting to do that for YEARS! And it was so easy to clean actually. You can now see right through the (glass!) greenhouse to the other side! Seeds are getting more sunlight too. The glass was a yucky green before. I should have taken a before picture.

You can kind of still see the 'before' dirty glass to Isabella's right and the clean glass obviously to my left.

We're enjoying three meals a day TOGETHER now too which is lovely. Breakfasts aren't rushed, lunch we never had together before, and dinner we can start earlier, cooking together because we're less rushed to and from activities and Andre's commute is only a couple of steps now instead of 30 - 40 minutes drive!

I know this must be super hard for many people, especially those who had to close businesses and those getting really ill, but we are so thankful for all the good that is coming from this. Time to eat, play, learn and work together. And time to just be at home. It feels good not having to rush anywhere.

Day 3: Isabella's classroom

This blog post has been written by Isabella.

We are doing exercice in the morning.  

Welcome to my classroom. 

This is my reading corner. 

I am doing PE with Joe.

 

I played with mummy's phone. I am a angel and when i nod my head i
am a little devil.

I did my phonics at home.

I can do fractions.

We play outside a lot.

This is my cat leaflet I wrote.