Virtual Meetings

I'm figuring out this whole work from home while parenting/schooling thing. It's really interesting. Today the kids had way, way too much screen time because most things recommended by their schools is virtual learning and for the most part they can be self sufficient with it. Plus it was really cold out, so outside time didn't last long.
I also woke up to emails that I had meetings scheduled, that were scheduled after 2:00 yesterday, which was the last time I checked my email.
I have a better schedule for them tomorrow so that will help break it up. I also have some activities set out.

Sam and Vivian have rediscovered an online math learning game that they want to do all day, which is great until I realized how long they have been online for.

Today, while I was in a grade level meeting, which my principal was in, Lanie came to sit on my lap and color, then she left. Vivian appeared behind me and disappeared, Sam wandered in and out. I have developed a swat that I can do without my upper body moving when they start getting noisy or need something.

At one point I sensed movement to my left and out of the corner of my eye I spotted Vivian, then she appeared behind me on the screen. I looked down and Jack was resting comfortably with a Fedora on his head. I didn't even crack a smile.

I did leave a recipe for the big kids to make chocolate chip cookies. Which they did, fairly self sufficiently. I went to drop something off for tutoring and came back and Sam's were a little oversized, and had dripped over the bottom of the oven and burned, so the kitchen was full of smoke. But they were good!

Jack with a fedora. Vivian hovering.

The children making cookies.

They were a little large.

Sam and Vivian filming me for a virtual story time with my students. We were working on camera angle.

Playing around after a virtual meeting with the fifth grade team. We took a photo for the students. The one meeting my children did not interrupt naturally.

Cooking with Vivian

We were making muffins the other day and this was what happened when I had to get the sift down and put the strainer on the counter. 

Her muffins.

Christmas Cookies

I found an adorable reindeer Christmas cookie on Pinterest for which we had all the ingredients in the house.  I figured it would be easy enough to execute.  The kids had a great time but the cookies obviously turned out nothing like what I had hoped for.  Vivian promptly ate all of her decorations and balled up her dough several times to cook in a mound.  Sam took his duties very seriously but they both exercised a creativity to say the least.  I made some reindeer heads just to have a few!  

Christmas Cookies

Sam thought that making sugar cookies was a great project.  He did really well with it, considering it's not instantly gratifying.  After making the dough there is an hour in which the dough has to chill.  Even without that hour of chilling dough, the project took over two hours, in which he was fully immersed (though about 15 minutes of it was racing matchbox cars through flour and handing them to me to "take to the car wash").

Sam Cooks

                We made polenta pizzas the other day.  Sam loved the project!

Making Applesauce

All those apples that we picked, that we couldn't eat, had to be turned into something good, so we created applesauce.  Sam was a big fan of attempting to cut with a plastic knife, which was actually him stabbing the apple slices I had peeled and set out, and saying "cut!" and transferring apples chunks from bowl to pan and back.  Sam also enjoyed eating lots of apple pieces.  We did this project on the (cleanish) floor, which despite some good wiping down is still suspiciously sticky.

 

 Recipe

Lots of apples, peeled and chopped

Washed, especially after much handling by toddler

Simmered in a saucepan with a little water & some cinnamon

 Pureed in blender

Wooden Spoons & Salad Spinners

Some of the best baby toys we have are kitchen utensils.
The kitchen is a gathering place in our house and where we spend a lot of time.  When Sam first learned to pull up, he would go to the kitchen to pull the recipe books off of the card they were stored on and listen to them crash onto the floor (the poor downstairs tenants).  He liked to look at the colorful pictures in the illustrated ones as they fell into a pile at his feet.  When I watched a friend's baby the other day, she went straight to the recipe books and pulled them down.  Sam looked at her curiously as she took over his post.
We try to cook just about every night and Sam seems to like watching us.  He'd be happy if he were in my arms at all times while I made dinner, which obviously is a physical impossibility.  When he was a little guy, I'd wear him in the Baby Bjorn and at first he'd fall asleep on my chest while I cooked.  Then I turned him around and he'd watch the process.  When he started grabbing for utensils and food, those days were over.  Now he plays under us, or sits in the high chair while we cook. 
One of his favorite kitchen toys is the salad spinner.  When I wash lettuce, I put the spinner on the floor, and he pushes the knob down and delights in the cause and effect of the rotating lettuce.  This keeps him busy for a few minutes, at least until he takes off the lid and tries to remove the lettuce.  Lately, when he sees the spinner he gets excited and reaches for it.
He also likes to use wooden spoons to drum on the floor and the cabinets.  Sometimes he will watch me use one and try to mimic the action by rotating it in the air.  I tried to have him mix batter with me once, but it turned out to be a pretty messy endeavor, one better saved for when he is older.  Yesterday I explained to him that I would be "right back" and needed to use the bathroom.  Sam looked at me and crawled towards the bathroom with me, still clutching the wooden spoon.  He knelt in front of the toilet and showed me how he could mix with the spoon, and then headed toward me.  Then he stood and tried to mix the toilet water.
When I picked him up from a friend's the other day, he was stacking her plastic mixing bowls inside of one another and crawling around with her ring of measuring cups.