Week 2

We wrapped up the month go April and the second week of virtual schooling for term 2. In some respects, our routine seemed to get settled. In other respects, there were some habits started that we needed to nip in the butt. The boys had to overcome their own sadness at having to redo some assignments - reading the instructions are really important. Following and fulfilling these instructions are important. There were a few loud dust ups with regards to these incidents. These involved what exactly does it mean to write a paragraph to explain something. Others, overcoming that writing is a difficult experience and requires many steps that we sometimes do not want to do. Others involved using our devices not for school activities during the school day. This has led to a removal of devices for the weekend. But we did have a bit of fun as well.

John’s Design and Technology class had to make a usual dessert recipe healthier with the addition of some fruit or vegetable. We had to split the recipe and add the secret ingredients. Someone else in the family had to see if they could taste what we added.

We added applesauce to one batch of brownies and shredded carrot to the other. The boys thought the applesauce batch was best. I preferred the shredded carrot. 

John also had to wrap up his unit of inquiry which focused on body systems. He needed to research and come up with a presentation on how an illness affects one or more body systems. He decided (after a teacher redirect) to look up Ovarian Cancer and have an online interview with Grandma Dee about her experiences.

We spent the rest of the week trying to keep to ourselves and minimize our movement. Unfortunately, the cases in the area and the massive contact-tracing effort that is underway was not moving along as smoothly as the government would like. Thus, the capital city was placed on a lockdown for the weekend. Fortuitously, I ordered dinner for delivery early in the afternoon and received it before the official lockdown was announced.

I did one better and ordered a bit more than our usual Friday evening pizza so that I could have another easy dinner meal. Then we got the official news:

It is now Sunday. We all anticipate an announcement as to whether or not this lockdown will be extended. Here is to hoping for some good news.

Week 1

We managed to complete the first week of Term 2 virtually. I will not deny that we had a few arguments about assignments and some were caught watching non-school related videos or playing Minecraft. There were some Zoom headaches as well. We did get everything completed that needed to get turned in. I am looking forward to Week 2 having a more solidified schedule. We celebrated the end of the week by making some home made pizza!

We even enjoyed some pool time during a period of non-essential movement.

But the Covid situation has gotten a bit worse here. As of today, there are over 20 active cases. The most concerning is a patient who showed at a fever clinic, tested positive, but has no clear link to any of the other cases (that is, the super spreader funeral event). With this news, our area of Viti Levu is now being placed in a containment zone.

I hope that over the next few days, the containment zones will become a bit more concentrated to certain areas. The next 14 days will be deja vu. We are reverting to the practices we had in place when we were in the US last year. We are staying at home as much as possible, only have one adult out at a time, masking up, and sanitizing everything.