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It’s day 23 of the circuit brea…wait, it could be day 25, 28, 45? Feels like 400. I’ve lost track of how long it’s been and I woke up this morning confident that it was Wednesday until I realised that it is most definitely only Tuesday.

When the circuit breaker was first announced, I had some concerns but mostly, I was feeling rather hopeful. It couldn’t be that bad, certainly I can do 4 weeks of home-based learning with all the kids at home 24/7 without losing my mind<?> Yeah, I realise that came out more like a question than a statement there. But I was optimistic and I had it all figured out, at least in my head.

I was planning to run a tight ship – everyone had schedules! Individual workstations! Lists of things to complete each day! A sense of personal responsibility! (okay questionable)

At 9am on day 1, I gathered all the kids and briefed them on their daily responsibilities + the importance of taking ownership of their individual tasks. Once I determined that they possessed a suitable level of enthusiasm for the day ahead, I sent them on their way as I settled in with my first cup of coffee. They were to brief me on their progress at noon, and then again at the end of the day. Optimism, y’all!

9.15: Truett couldn’t log in to his school email account, troubleshooting required.

9.18: Finn couldn’t complete his daily check in because he couldn’t find his thermometer.

“Did you check your bag??”

“Oh ya, found it.”

9.30: Set up a school-assigned workout for Theo and Hayley on the laptop. While attempting a downward dog, Hayley smashed her head onto the ground and it was adorable but also injurious to both her delicate face and self-esteem.

“I can’t do any more exercises, I’m super injured…”

10am: Messages are coming in hard and fast via class dojo. There were like 20 messages from various teachers with instructions and links and updated schedules. I attended to each one with as much dedication as I could gather but I scanned through the list and was already exhausted.

Some examples:

“Some students have posted the Practice 4 Word Problem. Thank you very much. However, some of them did not do the corrections before uploading.The corrections should include the models, equations and workings and not just the correct answers. Please help to remind your child. Thanks.”

“Hi. I still have the following lesson in SLS showing as incomplete: *Word Prob-Division. Finn needs to complete it asap, as the lesson will be available in HBL for only a week from the start date. Thank you!”

** This was my cue to yell at Finn to complete his Word Prob-Division.

Several minutes later, “Message for Finn! Well done Finn! Good job! You have tried doing almost all the assignments! See you next week during live session :)”

Just going through all the messages and looking into each one took me over an hour. In between, kids were coming to me with numerous problems ranging from the I-can’t-click-submit variety to my-mouse-is-going-crazy-please-help. Theo + Hayley had completed their school-assigned curriculum and I needed to figure out how to occupy the rest of their day in a productive manner. Right then, it occured to me that this was basically a preview of my expected level of involvement in the days ahead and I silently asked the Lord to take this cup of suffering away from me.

But the Lord works in mysterious ways. It’s now day 20-something and my cup of suffering overfloweth. My tight ship (now more like a sinking vessel) is springing leaks all over and I’m desperately scooping water out hoping that maybe it will somehow keep us afloat.

Like yesterday, my entire day was spent helping the big kids with their Chinese assignments (can I just say that listening to them read 理解问答 passages out loud is a soul-draining process) and by the end of the day, I had lost almost all of my will to live. I don’t know how teachers do it but whatever they’re being paid, it’s not nearly enough.

Speaking of teachers and the pain they go through, I overheard this gem from one of the kids during Finn’s zoom class this morning. “Teacher, can you repeat everything you just said, I wasn’t paying attention.” I cannot even.

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Although as far as silver linings go, there are plenty to be found. In the midst of all the mayhem, the kids have been in an unexplainably chirpy mood and life around here is best described as a beautiful mess.

We’re spending a lot of time building forts, fixing legos, reading stories, hanging out with bunnies, staging epic pillow fights, doing movie nights and having indoor picnics. I was prepared for more squabbles seeing that everyone is at home all the time but the kids have gotten along fabulously. The days while intense, have also been a lot of fun.

It’s also been nice having the husband around all day. All the kids are pleased to have him at home for a change. The big kids will come observe him at work and ask questions like “what is it exactly that you do?“; Finn will offer hugs; Theo will challenge him to multiple combats (I feel the need to mention that these are real fights with karate chops and body slams on the bed and I have mixed feelings about it) and Hayley will ask him for snacks. They are now conditioned to keep it down whenever daddy is on a work call, and they do a fairly good job – there’ll be a lot of shushing or loud whispers of “keep quiet, don’t disturb papa...”, it’s adorable.

When all of this is over, I think we’ll look back on this as a special time where we got to spend time doing life a little differently.