Covid-19, Day 2 of NYC School Closures

My 3yo, working on drawing Piggie

Day 1 went well enough. We read some, we hung out on the hammock, discussed witches, and spent some time drawing with Mo Willems. 

We are huge Mo Willems fans over here. We first fell in love with Elephant and Piggie, both in English and in Spanish. Then Pigeon helped us get ready to go to school. And more recently, Zoom Squirrel helped my kindergartener get comfortable with the idea of losing her tooth.

And now Lunch Doodles is helping us work on some our doodling skills while we're stuck at home. The instructions Mo Willems gives are not only clear and easy to follow, but they also reinforce early literacy skills.

Lunch Doodle is live at 1pm EST, and is also available any time after. You can find it on YouTube at the Kennedy Center Channel, or just click here.

We also did a very brief Virtual Field Trip to the San Diego Zoo. Cute short videos, with interesting animal facts. We also tried Yellowstone Park, but couldn't quite figure out if it was just pictures. The pictures are amazing, though. Here's the link to Virtual Field Trips. 

Day 2 started with a very dramatic meltdown. The 5yo wanted to draw like Mo Willems but is struggling to draw Gerald. She can't draw him perfectly and is frustrated by the idea that she'd have to practice and work at it to improve her doodling skills. 

Fortunately, she was excited to go read on Epic! Epic has a 40,000 digital book library full of comics, nonfiction, audiobooks, and kid-friendly videos. The interface is very intuitive, the books are great, and it allows for different profiles for different readers. Plus, they have free access for students at the moment. Here's the link: Epic!

We had a birthday here today, so that was a good reason to work on some math while baking. One bowl chocolate cake, with leftover homemade raspberry jam as filling, and homemade frozen chocolate icing. The kids agreed that since it was his birthday, dad should get to do the sprinkles. 

Cake!

 We also checked out Go Noodle on YouTube. It was grey and gloomy today in NYC, and I couldn't motivate the kids to go for a walk. We tried a dance party, but the 5yo was a lump on the couch. Fortunately I remembered Go Noodle, and that I'd heard that sometimes they use it at her school when the weather is not good and they need to do indoor recess. She got excited as soon as it was on, and started telling us all about Go Noodle. 

The Go Noodle | Get Moving videos have catchy songs with repeat after me lyrics and fun moves to follow. I took advantage of this and joined in, as my home office setup is already making me achy.

It's been challenging keeping them busy and getting work done. Working in shifts has worked ok so far, but it's been intense. We're figuring things out as we go. For today, chocolate cake helped. We may or may not have eaten half a cake in one sitting.

Here's hoping your day had some sweet moments in it.

Less cake!