Foster's Big Work

Everyday Foster had a 30 minute group call in the morning. Then he worked with Grandma Becky on Math; Grandma Cheryl on writing and spelling; and read to an adult which included relatives and our neighbors. Along the way, he wrote lots of letters to classmates and family and accompany these sometimes potholders or embroidery. This was a challenging time with him away from his friends, but he made the best of it.

He also played lots of LEGOs with Kai, especially Star Wars vehicles. At the beginning we watched a show on LEGO challenges, which inspired the boys and they were off and running, sometimes even Aunt Whitney would give them a Friday afternoon LEGO challenge.

It was fun to see what sparked his interest. One day he was so excited about flesh eating flowers that he spent a day researching and typing up a report on these flowers which he shared with his class.

He created a Washington Memorial out of LEGOs and then wrote a three page report, which he shared and presented to      his class.

One Friday morning Foster came to me with a written list. He said that the day before we had talked about explaining what you need and communicating that to others.  He needed a quiet office with a desk and a chair and supplies, which he had carefully written out in a list. We promptly made him an "office" in the corner of his room.

Embroidery projects were one of Foster's works.

Plans for a tree house that Foster wanted to build with his Grandpa.

He wrote lots and lots of letters to classmates and family.

He learned to make a 6 minute cake. No eggs needed, which was good, as eggs were in short supply at the beginning of April. This was for Grandma Cheryl's birthday,

Foster made so many potholders too!

And more LEGOs

The boys built a LEGO city with a police station and airport. We had LEGO kits from previous birthday gifts that we had never opened, perfect for these long, long days at home.  The boys asked to have their picture taken and submitted to LEGO magazine to be published.

Easter 2020

Although things were different this year, a limit on the eggs we could dye and no gatherings, the Easter bunny still visited. The boys were excited and ended up even hiding the eggs again for themselves several times over the next few days.

Mask Up

As the guidance changed and we found out that masks even cotton ones could help stop the spread, I drug out my sewing machine. It was telling that the material I had was from Kai's baby blanket, my last project 5 years ago. It took me a whole day, but we ended up with masks.

Luckily Aunt P. began churning them out and she gave us all sorts of masks.

A time of LEGOs--COVID Quarantining

Homeschooling--Trying to Do School at Home

All of sudden our normal routine was upended as John and I began working full time from home (we were so lucky). It was stressful and often my brain felt like mush at the end of the day. Never able to focus more than about 10 minutes. Trying to take calls and draft tweets with the constant barrage of requests for sacks or to show the latest LEGO build. 

It was wonderful to get a peak into our boys' school lives. And as the scariness of the pandemic wore us down on some days--hearing the songs of Bob Marley "Don't worry about a thing," sung by second graders just made your heart melt and gave me a fresh perspective on what was really important. There wasn't much time to wallow or feel sorry for yourself, or scared with these two little bundles of energy running around.

This only happened a few times, but all of sudden Foster took the lead and helped Kai finish a whole book of math problems. It as amazing to see them work together.

Cooking on Kai's daily "shows" i.e. group classes.

At the very beginning I thought we would have a good schedule and that would solve everything, that lasted about 30 minutes.