I love this meme I’ve seen floating around the internet regarding the decision parents are making related to school right now:
For those with preschool and school-age children right now, what do your plans look like? You will get zero judgment from me and I hope that whatever you choose works well for you and your families.
As for our decision to send our boys to preschool, we have a myriad of reasons that played into our decision and they mostly centered around the fact that we love and trust our preschool and know our boys will benefit immensely from play, socialization and learning and, also, I feel like I will need help with Chase and Ryder if I hope to get any work done with a newborn baby due within the next three weeks. Our small preschool felt like one of the best and safest options for our family. It wasn’t an easy decision but I’m very excited for our boys!
So that is the latest update with our preschool plans!
Anyway, back to the “meat” of today’s post! I wanted to share another day-in-the-life blog post with you guys since I actually managed to snap a bunch of pics throughout our day yesterday. Victory!
Morning
I had another sleepless night on Monday night which is par for the course these days. I really thought pregnancy insomnia would elude me this time around but it’s back with a vengeance. On the bright side I flew through my latest book, The Last Flight, and thought it was a great one! I guess if you’re going to be up reading at 3 a.m., you might as well read a page-turner, right? I somehow managed to drift off to sleep from 4 a.m. – 5:30 a.m. and once I was up for the day, I snacked on some granola and did a little work on the computer before heading into our garage gym and joining Ryan for a quick upper body workout.
Around 6:30 a.m., we had a little visitor.
Chase was up for the day bright and early and hung out with us in the garage until I wrapped up my workout and joined him inside for breakfast.
My morning meal looked like yet another batch of mason jar chia seed pudding. This rendition included cocoa powder, cacao nibs and chopped pecans for a chocolaty delight!
Once Ryder was up for the day, the boys were content to entertain themselves for a bit which gave me the chance to finish up baby sprinkle thank you notes, throw some chicken in the slow cooker and whip up a cucumber salad to serve with dinner.
Eventually the beautiful weather was calling to us, so we made our way outside for some sidewalk chalk shenanigans and a bug walk with Sadie!
Ryder and Chase brought their creature cages, binoculars and nets along on our adventure and we wandered around our neighborhood in search of butterflies and dragonflies.
(You guys the boys’ love for their homemade tie dye shirts runs DEEP. They ask to wear them the minute they’re clean again. We may need to tackle tie dye round two in our house soon!)
It kind of blows my mind that we’re five months into keeping most of our daily adventures close to home and the boys are still all-in on any kind of walk involving the hunt for little critters. It is, without a doubt, one of their very favorite things to do and since I’m all about getting outside as much as possible, it’s a nice option to have in our arsenal on a daily basis.
(My aviators are one of my favorite finds of the summer and part of a super affordable two-pack I found on Amazon!)
Afternoon
We made our way home around lunchtime and the boys dug into sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, peaches and carrots while I ended up eating the meal I initially prepped for our dinner.
I think I mentioned this last week, but my appetite is so wonky in the evenings lately so I’m trying to take advantage of the times of day that vegetables and “real” food appeal to me before I inevitably just want fruit, yogurt or cereal for dinner.
On my lunch plate: Slow cooker BBQ pulled chicken (this recipe has quickly become my go-to!) on top of spinach and arugula + cucumber salad (I loosely followed this recipe) topped with Everything Bagel seasoning from ALDI. An unpictured Hawaiian sweet roll was also consumed while I was plating everything up. My obsession with those things continues to run strong.
After lunch, I put Ryder down for his nap and left the monitor with Ryan (a major perk of having him work from home!) and Chase and I made our way to Kid-to-Kid, a local consignment shop to pick up some of the things the store buyers didn’t want from my recent haul.
Late last week, I rounded up clothes, toys and baby-related items that didn’t really work well for either of our boys and brought them to Kid-to-Kid. For anyone local who might be interested, through next week, Kid-to-Kid in Huntersville is currently operating on a by-appointment only selling schedule. They then take a few days to go through everything and when they call you back and make an offer, you must then come back and pick up anything they don’t want by 5 p.m. This was actually my first time selling to Kid-to-Kid and I was really impressed with the process and the payout! I ended up with an offer of $75 for a big bin of items and was stoked!
Since I had to be at Kid-to-Kid by 5 p.m. yesterday, Chase and I used Ryder’s nap time to pop into the shop and then made the most of our brief time away from home and walked across the street for some frozen yogurt.
It felt like such a treat to have a little mid-day date with my oldest dude and we had fun chatting in the shade outside before making our way home. On a random side note, are any of your kiddos out there obsessed with putting gummy candy on top of their ice cream? I swear it makes the candy as hard as rocks but it’s always Chase’s go-to topping whenever we go to a fro-yo place. Yeesh! I’ll stick with the the softer stuff that doesn’t fight back, thanks!
By the time we made it home, Ryder was tossing and turning in his crib. Perfect timing! After a quick change into swimsuits for our crew, we made our way to a neighbor’s house where we spent the afternoon swimming and playing outside.
I loved chatting with my friend Alise and her kids and our boys play so well together. Her middle child is also animal-obsessed and he and Chase are two peas in a pod with their interests right now.
Evening
We arrived home right around 6 p.m. and joined Ryan at the kitchen counter for dinner. True to form lately, I stuck with yogurt topped with blueberries, granola and nuts and an ice cream bar for dessert and called it a night.
With the boys fairly exhausted after several hours of afternoon swimming, Ryan and I were pretty pumped to have both of them fast asleep by 7:45 p.m. Is this why pools are so coveted by people with kids!?
After chatting with Ryan for a bit, the two of us climbed into bed and read until our eyes could no longer stay open. At the recommendation of my friend Kaitlyn, I began reading The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel and I’ll be sure to report back on this one once I’m a bit further into the story. The author’s novels pop up along with Taylor Jenkins Reid and Elin Hilderbrand so I have high hopes for this book since I tend to enjoy novels written by those two women a lot! (Consider this your friendly reminder to read Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid if you haven’t already. Ugh it was just SO GOOD.)
Plans for today are taking us off to an outside morning play date with friends and then I have some work I really need to knock out during Ryder’s nap time/Chase’s quiet time so I’m crossing my fingers for a decent window of solo work time this afternoon. Enjoy your Wednesday, my friends, and I hope to see ya back here again soon!
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I can’t wait to hear what you think about The Winemaker’s Wife! I believe I suggested it the other day so I’m glad your friend told you about it too. Also you and Ryan are great parents for doing what’s right for the boys in regards to preschool 🙂
I KNEW I read about it before and that it sounded familiar when my friend texted me about it!! Ha! This makes so much sense!! Loving the book so far!
Our fifth grader will be doing virtual learning for the fall semester and our three year old, who we planned to start preschool for the first time this fall, will not be going. My husband and I both have high risk, immunocompromised parents who help us tremendously with childcare and based on the feedback my fifth grader gave us, we made the decision that was right for us. I know it won’t be easy though. Everyone has to do what works for them.
We have a 2-year-old who has remained in daycare, and will continue there. His daycare implemented strict protocol and enhanced sanitization back in late February, so we feel as comfortable as we can. Plus, just like your boys, he benefits so much from the socialization and learning. He’s an active, busy boy, and staying at home just doesn’t work well for his personality. I also love that meme you share – every family has to do what is right for them.
Love the meme! So true. I wish i had different options, but i dont.
My 4, almost 5 year old daughter will be going to in person preschool this year. We’ve had countless meetings with the school about all the precautions they are taking and I feel they have a safe, solid plan in place. My husband and I both work full time and my husband works outside of the home so the past 5 months have been a bit of a struggle juggling it all with little to no childcare. We are all excited about the return of the school year next week. Every family has to make the decision that is right for them!
I’m a nurse at a hospital and my husband is working full time from home so my 5 year old was in preschool the whole time through this pandemic…even when things got really hairy here in AZ. He has now started kindergarten and it is all online and it has been a rough transition for him not seeing his friends or going to his daycare. Also my (premature) newborn started daycare at 3 months and has been there the whole time. You have to do what you have to do and your kid’s daycare sounds small and like they have good safety measures in place.
We’ve had our 4 and 2 year old home with us since mid-March. We plan to keep them home until there’s a vaccine or we are basically at zero cases in NC so we figure long term ’til 2021 Jan/Feb? It’s hard but we feel so much better having them at home not worrying about their health. My FIL is immune compromised and almost died about 1.5 years ago from listeria. We know if he gets COVID he will most likely die. We take precautions (visits outdoors with masks) but cut risk as much as possible. My kids LOVE being home (especially my four year old as she begged to stay home every day she had preschool) and we are saving almost $2k/month not sending them to school which has been really nice! My husband and I are both wfh full time so it’s a juggling act for sure.
My 9 month old has been back in day care since mid-July. Both my husband and I are working full time (from home) and it was just getting too much to juggle plus he loves to be with other children. I know the teachers are going above and beyond to ensure everyone is safe and within our town the numbers have been relatively small. I don’t envy parents who need to make a decision about school (virtual, hybrid or full time). I know everyone has lots of opinions about how things should be handle but I think we should all remember everyone is doing the best they can with the situation. Thanks for making this a non judgmental space, we need more of that.
I’m in Northern California and the schools in our district were not allowed to open back up. That means virtual school for my two girls, in 1st and 6th grade. We are in our second week and it has been extremely challenging, more so for my younger daughter. We are also in the middle of an intense heat wave (temps are 105 or higher each day) and dozens of wildfires so that means once school is done (it ends at 11:30) we can’t even go outside because of the heat and the smoke!! It’s been a tough week. Both my kids really want to go back to school. On a lighter note, my older daughter loves gummy candies in her fro-yo, I don’t understand it!! They just get all hard, lol.
I’m in the Bay Area in California, so schools aren’t open and our oldest son will do first grade remotely. We are keeping our almost four year old home too because we have a three month old baby and cases are high in California so we just don’t want to risk it. It’s already tough having the three of them home all day while I’m on leave; I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when I go back to work. 😣 Thankfully my husband is working from home and is tremendously helpful and pops out to help anytime he can! So glad your boys will be able to go to preschool; I know mine will be excited to go back to school when they can! ❤️ Wishing you the best with your last bit of pregnancy! (My third pregnancy was ROUGH and I am so grateful it’s over and he’s here safely!)
Did you find out you’re having a girl? Just curious about getting rid of the baby clothes when you have a little one on the way! 😉
Nope! Just getting rid of stuff that never worked for our boys — toys, newborn clothes that we never liked/weren’t practical, etc! I think my “nesting” urges this time are basically to get rid of all the things!
Because I’m pregnant and due in October, our kids are doing digital school. No judgment to you (I promise!), but I’m too nervous about exposing a newborn to Covid brought home by kids.
Wanted to pop in because I read “The Queen of Hearts” on your recommendation. I think you recommended it before the wave of civil unrest related to George Floyd’s murder, but I wanted to draw your attention to the problematic way the author of that book describes characters of color. She made several (at least 5-10) pointedly racist comments in her book and it really turned me off. I just wanted to bring it to your attention in case it affects whether you’d recommend it in the future. I was really bothered by the book as a result!
thank you for letting me know, brittany. i definitely would never want to knowingly recommend a book with racist character descriptions. i’m sorry i didn’t notice this before when i read it and appreciate you bringing it to my attention.
I hope you get nothing but kind and supportive comments about your decision to send your kids to preschool. It’s a really difficult decision and each parent needs to do what is best for their family. We kept our son out of daycare for 7 weeks last spring and then sent him back in late April and it’s been so good for all of us! He’s much happier there and now my husband and I can fully focus on work (we both have demanding full-time jobs). It’s gone very very well. There were 3 cases in one classroom in May – 2 teachers, one of which was asymptomatic, the other had minor symptoms, and one child that was also asymptomatic. And that has been it. So I feel good about our decision. I’m grateful our son is not school-aged as our schools are virtual here and I don’t know how we’d do our jobs + teach him. So hopefully things are better by 2023 when he starts K!
Our son is terrified of bugs and spiders – have your boys always been into little critters or does it come with time? We don’t talk about being scared of little critters in front of him. I am personally very afraid of spiders (even though I know they can’t harm me – everything in MN is completely harmless) but my husband is not at all afraid of them and will take spiders he finds in our house outdoors. So maybe with time our son will be more like my husband!
My 1.5 year old has been back in daycare since the end of June, and just started a new school this week (which happens to be where I work as an administrator). The precautions and protocols in place are as good as they can be, and while nothing is perfect, it’s working for us for the time being. He loves the socialization and the things he’s learning, so the risk is worth it to us. I’m pregnant as well – due later this year, and we are toying with doing a family self-isolation for the 2-3 weeks leading up to our due date, depending on how things are looking… but it is such a hard thing to navigate right now!!
I love you meme and it is so true.
We are in northwest suburbs of Chicago so our high school is fully remote. Our son has special needs and so for his life skills program we had a choice of in-person or remote. Remote learning for him was a disaster in the spring. It truly took a toll on his mental health too. So we chose in person. There are only about 25 students doing the in person program in the entire high school building and we feel like it is a very safe option. Temp checks as he enters, health assessment we fill out in the morning and they can be so spread out. Plus masks -no exceptions. So if a child in his program can’t tolerate a mask then they have to do remote.
Our daughter is a freshman in college in Wisconsin and we feel very fortunate she chose a small private university. All traditional dorms they changed to be single rooms (no roommate), extra sanitation, no visitors to the dorms at all, her biggest class has 22 students and they can be 6 feet apart, outside on campus and in classrooms masks must be worn – no exceptions. All students and faculty had to be Covid tested within 10 days of move in and prove their test was negative. Every classroom has been set up to be live-streamed so if s student isn’t feeling well they can watch via live-stream. They also moved the start date up by two weeks so the kids will then all go home right before Thanksgiving and do their finals the next week online. They dont want them all traveling and coming back. And they don’t re-start until late January and again will have to submit negative covid results. Her school also does not have any fraternity or sorority houses so that eliminates the possibility of big parties. We feel very comfortable with the plan and are excited she is getting to have a somewhat typical college experience after missing the spring activities of her senior year.
We are in NY! We are sending our 3 year old to preschool. We love the school and it’s SUPER small. They are only doing 2 days to start all outdoor classes and re-evaluating in a month.
We are doing remote with our Kindergartner. The other option was hybrid and I’m honestly just disappointed with the information that the school has *not given us. As a first time mom to a kindergartner, I have so many questions, but we were forced to decide before we had all of the information.
We just sent our 5 year old (turned 5 a week before Chase) to a “kindergarten club” being run out of a local preschool. It feels as safe as can be under the circumstances and he is SO happy to be back socializing with kids. We’re in the Bay Area and no schools are open. He’s kinda doing the virtual kindergarten through public school as well, but still feeling that part out. Will Chase enter kindergarten next year? Or first grade? Curious if Chase’s a similar set up that fills the spot of kindergarten.
Our 18 month old is home 🙂
I’m so glad you shared your schooling plan. We ended up making a similar decision for our kiddos. When our public schools decided to go full virtual, we decided to not enroll our 5 year old for kindergarten. He will go to an in-person 5-day a week K5 program at a local church. My 3 year old will go to preschool at the same place, 2 days a week. My 18 month old is home with me and I am due with baby #4 a week after you. I knew with a newborn coming and 4 kids 5 and under, I would be in survival mode for a few months. There is no way I could homeschool/virtual school my oldest with everything else on my plate!
Thank you for sharing your plan! We just made a similar decision to send my 4-year-old back to the preschool he has gone to the last two years. We started with virtual pre-K last week through the public schools but it’s just not working for us (no fault of the teachers!). His old school is delaying opening until October and has a ton of safety procedures in place that I’m not sure the public schools would be able to have if they did miraculously open back up this year. It’s a tough decision for sure! Lots of mom guilt over the right thing to do.