Call In The Reinforcements

Mom. Moooooommmmm! Mama. Maaaaaammmmmmaaa!

If I complained in the past about being called for constantly by one or both of my children, I can now confirm I was wrong. Zero grounds for the previous complaints. Because now they are doing it constantly. More than ever before.

I hear it when I’m in the shower. I swear, I even hear it in my sleep. Every two seconds someone is asking for me for something. 

My patience is thinning but this new normal is essentially just beginning. 

This last week I tried a few things that I thought forsure would buy me some time to focus on my work for more than twenty minutes at a time. 

The window paint project was a fail.

The actual execution worked very well, it’s beautiful. But it required 100 percent supervision the entire time. I planned to set them up and let them go so I could work in peace. 

There was no peace. No going without both of my hands involved. The entire time.

Thus, fail. 

Challenges have been somewhat of a success.

My girls love challenge shows like Nailed It and Lego Masters so I attempted a few of those this week. 

I threw out a suggestion and set the time parameters. Usually thirty minutes or so where they would have to leave my presence to go complete a project and then after the time, I would review their work and choose a winner. 

We did a PlayDoh bakery challenge, a Barbie fashion show and chalk drawings. Each bought me whatever time I set because oen of the rules in the challenge was no help from mom and the other rule was they had to work independently. 

Challenge is a win I will repeat. 

Our biggest win by far? Calling in the reinforcements.

We live a considerable distance from our closest extended family (450 miles is the closest) so not seeing them regularly is our norm. We don’t love it but its where we are in life right now. 

Its not a luxury during this time to send the kiddos over to grandmas for a few hours. Or to have someone come into the home to entertain them. 

But that is exactly what we are doing, thanks to a little help from technology. 

When we first learned that we would be schooling the kids at home for two months, we were worried just like the rest of you in this same boat. 

Each of our children learn in different ways and have very different personalities. Neither of them are particulaly great at doing more than the bare minimum with one of us when it comes to homework. 

Our older daughter is fiercely independent and needs little direction. She also doesn’t like to be corrected so thats her fatal flaw when she does make an error and we attempt to work through it with her. 

Our younger daughter just straight up doesn’t like doing anything that involves reading. She can read but doesnt like any pressure or anyone other than her teacher working with her on the parts she struggles with the most. She will shut down in a matter of seconds. 

Both girls flourish with their teachers but shrink back at home. Can you see how the idea of “home school” has us nervous? 

Luckily we have some great “teachers” in our family that can step in and help out.

Through the magic of Facetime, Hadley has been doing reading and phonics work daily with her grant aunt back in Indiana. 

And Ally has been doing STEAM and geometry challenges with her grandpa over WebEx. 

One week in and all are just loving it. We are able to keep our family members engaged with our kids learning and provide the kids with someone they will actually work with and learn from. 

Grandparents are far, far more patient than we can ever be. Its just a fact!

My mom joked the other night that she already did her hard time [clearly referring to my brother and not me] so this is just fun with the girls. 

We have family members across the country volunteering to help. Little things like getting to read a book with the girls or talking over an assignment. All so we can have time to get things we need done during the day. 

Starting this week we have formal e-learning plans from the school but that doesn’t mean we are going to change our approach. We will be sharing the lesson plans and mixing in some time with other “teachers” who the enjoy working with on a regular basis. 

I am so grateful for our family for stepping in and their willingness to support during this time. But it doesn’t have to be just family. 

You don’t have to carry all of this alone. 

My husband was chatting with his best friend the other night, sharing home school concerns of our two kids and his four kids. We offered to swap services across families too. 

Even if its just twenty minutes of having the kids read to us or share something about their day. Their boys love Legos so maybe they build together over facetime so our friends can get some things done. 

It gives kids an outlet and a voice to hear thats not their parents all day, every day. 

Call in those reinforcements. 

Buy yourself some time to take a conference call, make a meal, or even just take a shower without little voices in your ear.