Sous Chefs

Restaurants aren't open because of the pandemic. Luckily. we have the best chef I know right at home. John has been outdoing himself with delicious meals, and his sous chefs are learning right along side him. 

Eleanor Louise

We were so excited to get down to Greensboro to meet our newest family member, Eleanor Louise. She joined us on May 16th, but Covid-19 prevented us from seeing her for an entire month. We did our best to make up for lost time with our little sweetheart.  

2019-2020 End of the School Year

To say that the 2019-2020 school year did not go as we expected is an understatement. Covid-19 caused school closings beginning on March 12th, and ultimately the kids did not step back into the school for the remainder of the year. 

While school buildings were closed, teachers pivoted and started teaching online. I wondered how much learning could possibly occur, but I was pleasantly surprised. Just this past weekend, Jack and John had a big discussion about why the moon appeared orange in the sky that night and red light vs. violet light rays. This was a unit Jack's teachers had to teach virtually, and his knowledge on the topic far exceeded mine. 

Here is the obligatory beginning/end of 5th grade pictures of Jack: 

And beginning of elementary school and end of elementary school:

Jack's graduation slide:

Jack is ready for middle school. We aren't exactly sure what that will look like in the middle on a pandemic. Right now, we are planning on the kids going to school two days a week and doing distance learning the other three days of the week. 

Luke finished third grade virtually. I was so proud of his resilience because knowing Luke and how much he values his relationships with people, I worried more about him than Jack. I knew how much he would miss his friends and teacher. Luke kept a positive attitude the entire time. 

His teacher sent me this screen shot of one of her virtual check-ins that illustrates his positive attitude:

During the end of the year celebration, Luke's teacher had an award for every child. Luke won the Heart of Gold award. When she presented the award to Luke his teacher said, "This is someone who has touched my life and my heart because everything he does is genuine. The intention behind everything he does is so pure and so good and so nice. He's such a nice, genuine person who is consistently friendly to everyone, never hesitates to help in the classroom, and always makes me feel good." Seeing his friends guessing Luke in the comments as his teacher described him with a shaky, emotional voice had me choked up. 

This is the advice Luke wrote for future third graders:

 And, the obligatory beginning/end of third grade comparison picture:

While the end of this school year has been challenging, I've learned a lot about my children as learners that I would not have discovered under normal circumstances. I feel lucky to have two boys who are resilient learners who can rise to the challenge of a pandemic education.