One quarantine thing that doesn't apply to me is having a bunch of extra time. That's obviously for people who don't have young kids. For those of us who do, quarantine means a push of free time at best. Whatever time we save from working less, not commuting, not going out with friends, etc., we lose from having to be accountable for our children every waking hour of the day. There's no school or babysitter or friends' houses to occupy them. Basically, I get free time when they go to sleep -- just like I did before -- and sometimes not even that. I've had a few nights where I've had to work until 10 or 11, because shit had to get done, and I was tied up with the kids earlier.
And this is with me being extremely lax on the whole "distance learning" thing. If I was actually trying to keep up with all the texts and emails I get from their school, I would have no free time. I've almost tapped out of the whole quarantine schooling thing entirely. I do the barest of the bare minimum. We picked up a couple of giant packets from their school, and I make Lil' S1 go through and do a few worksheets every morning. Other than that -- whatever. We've been decent on limiting screen time, so as long as they aren't just watching TV all day like zombies, I'm not that worried about it. Honestly, it might even be good for them. Lil' S1, in particular, is a pretty curious kid, and if you let him explore and learn on his own, he often does really well. We got him this modelling clay, for instance, and he's been making some cool stuff with it.
Lil' S2 is starting to be a more independent learner as well, but he's also so much more rambunctious than his brother. He can entertain himself with toys for pretty long stretches of time, but then he has all this pent up energy, and you have to find a productive physical activity for him quickly, or it's a fight or a tantrum. He still just wants to wrestle me all the time, but he's bigger and strong now, so it's legitimately physically taxing. He's like a little badger, running around attacking me. Today he came up while I was sitting on the sofa reading to his brother and yanked on my ear hard and then ran away. It seriously smarted. "Hey!" I yelled. "That hurt! Don't do that!" And Lil' S1 said, "He can be so aggressive sometimes." I had to laugh because yesterday he asked me what aggressive meant and I told him. See, independent learning!
It's a fine line I walk with Lil' S2, because I don't want him to be a little maniac, but I also don't want to squelch his passion and fun. The kid likes fighting -- what can I say? I usually try to emphasize consent (people aren't obligated to be his punching bag) and that there is a time and a place to turn it off. Basically, I'm trying to establish boundaries, but four-year-olds don't really get that. I think he's okay, though. He doesn't act that way around people other than his family. It's just that such people aren't around right now.
Although I don't have a bunch of extra free time, I have been watching more movies. Again, it's the kids. We often need something to do with them for a few hours, so we'll have family movie time. They watched The Neverending Story last night. S watched half of it with them before she had to bail. I didn't attempt it, because I remember thinking that movie was dumb as kid. I can't imagine sitting through it as an adult. The theme song is in the season three finale of Stranger Things*, and it was on my mind, so I played the video for them, and then of course they wanted to watch the movie. S got annoyed, because she had a different movie planned. But she's the one who wanted to stop by the grocery store on our way back from a hike, even though I said it would take a long time (and it did), and I needed videos to occupy them in the car to keep them from fighting. So, it's really her own fault. I explained this to her, but I'm not sure she totally got it.
*Pretty good season, actually. I ended up really enjoying it. My main critique: shorten the fist fight scenes. Hooper doesn't have to be Jean-Claude Van Damme. I'm already buying there's a fifty foot spider-like monster made of human goo trying to kill a teenage girl with telekinesis. Do I also have to believe an out-of-shape, middle-aged smoker can repeatedly take haymakers to the head without getting knocked unconscious? Also, I caught a nerd mistake in the script. At one point, in reference to Planck's constant, somebody says something to the effect of "you're asking me for a mathematical equation, which you should know..." But Planck's constant isn't an equation; it's just a number.
Today we watched The Phantom Menace. I think this was the first time I've seen it since it was out in the theater over 20 years ago. I know that this movie has gotten tons shit -- it's probably the most derided movie in the history of filmdom -- and watching it again with fresh eyes, I can say this: It's all deserved. If anything, it should have been criticized more harshly. It's an utter abomination.
Alright, I gotta go. Until next time...
And this is with me being extremely lax on the whole "distance learning" thing. If I was actually trying to keep up with all the texts and emails I get from their school, I would have no free time. I've almost tapped out of the whole quarantine schooling thing entirely. I do the barest of the bare minimum. We picked up a couple of giant packets from their school, and I make Lil' S1 go through and do a few worksheets every morning. Other than that -- whatever. We've been decent on limiting screen time, so as long as they aren't just watching TV all day like zombies, I'm not that worried about it. Honestly, it might even be good for them. Lil' S1, in particular, is a pretty curious kid, and if you let him explore and learn on his own, he often does really well. We got him this modelling clay, for instance, and he's been making some cool stuff with it.
[This is his ship on its route from Seattle to Miami. I told him about the Panama Canal, and he said he already knew about it, but that cruise ships aren't allowed to go through it. I don't think that's actually true, but it's a good answer. I do like how he added Antarctica.]
[Not sure what this is. Some sort of cyclops on a lily pad?]
Lil' S2 is starting to be a more independent learner as well, but he's also so much more rambunctious than his brother. He can entertain himself with toys for pretty long stretches of time, but then he has all this pent up energy, and you have to find a productive physical activity for him quickly, or it's a fight or a tantrum. He still just wants to wrestle me all the time, but he's bigger and strong now, so it's legitimately physically taxing. He's like a little badger, running around attacking me. Today he came up while I was sitting on the sofa reading to his brother and yanked on my ear hard and then ran away. It seriously smarted. "Hey!" I yelled. "That hurt! Don't do that!" And Lil' S1 said, "He can be so aggressive sometimes." I had to laugh because yesterday he asked me what aggressive meant and I told him. See, independent learning!
It's a fine line I walk with Lil' S2, because I don't want him to be a little maniac, but I also don't want to squelch his passion and fun. The kid likes fighting -- what can I say? I usually try to emphasize consent (people aren't obligated to be his punching bag) and that there is a time and a place to turn it off. Basically, I'm trying to establish boundaries, but four-year-olds don't really get that. I think he's okay, though. He doesn't act that way around people other than his family. It's just that such people aren't around right now.
Although I don't have a bunch of extra free time, I have been watching more movies. Again, it's the kids. We often need something to do with them for a few hours, so we'll have family movie time. They watched The Neverending Story last night. S watched half of it with them before she had to bail. I didn't attempt it, because I remember thinking that movie was dumb as kid. I can't imagine sitting through it as an adult. The theme song is in the season three finale of Stranger Things*, and it was on my mind, so I played the video for them, and then of course they wanted to watch the movie. S got annoyed, because she had a different movie planned. But she's the one who wanted to stop by the grocery store on our way back from a hike, even though I said it would take a long time (and it did), and I needed videos to occupy them in the car to keep them from fighting. So, it's really her own fault. I explained this to her, but I'm not sure she totally got it.
*Pretty good season, actually. I ended up really enjoying it. My main critique: shorten the fist fight scenes. Hooper doesn't have to be Jean-Claude Van Damme. I'm already buying there's a fifty foot spider-like monster made of human goo trying to kill a teenage girl with telekinesis. Do I also have to believe an out-of-shape, middle-aged smoker can repeatedly take haymakers to the head without getting knocked unconscious? Also, I caught a nerd mistake in the script. At one point, in reference to Planck's constant, somebody says something to the effect of "you're asking me for a mathematical equation, which you should know..." But Planck's constant isn't an equation; it's just a number.
Today we watched The Phantom Menace. I think this was the first time I've seen it since it was out in the theater over 20 years ago. I know that this movie has gotten tons shit -- it's probably the most derided movie in the history of filmdom -- and watching it again with fresh eyes, I can say this: It's all deserved. If anything, it should have been criticized more harshly. It's an utter abomination.
Alright, I gotta go. Until next time...
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