After Easter, things picked up during the rest of April and beginning of May. We got to have in-person church. Museums reopened, the MLB games allowed humans to attend, and I began teaching bucket drumming classes in the park on Fridays! I was super excited.
Both of my boys got to be in the bucket drumming class. Tanner was a teacher’s helper in the class for TK-1st graders. He was awesome and I paid him money for it. Dallin attended the 2nd-5th grade class as a normal student. It was so good for the boys to have these chances to socialize and interact with other kids. They really regressed in their social skills, and this was a good stepping stone for them to assimilate back into the real world.
The classes were held for 2 hours every Friday for 8 weeks. I held them during school hours because our neighborhood school basically was closed every Friday.
Note- We kept the boys in homeschool even though the schools were reopening with a hybrid model. We decided that with the limited hours of in-person and with things still being on zoom, it wasn’t worth it to us to send them back. Things were going pretty decent with homeschool. Here the boys are doing a math activity involving perimeter.
They also compared perimeter with area by designing animal cages for the zoo that meet different animals’ needs. Same area of cubic feet, totally different perimeter.
Playdate for Dallin and friend
I got new glasses!!
Tanner helped develop a new schedule for his Time with Taryn for the remainder of the year.
Another little league game for Tanner. Jeremy and Dallin are watching here.
Tanner became a leader of cheers while they sat in the stands. (They sat there instead of the dugout to provide more physical distance due to Covid).
Tanner likes to lay out his clothes the night before his games. I really like that he does this.
He was getting really good at pitching! His coach was super cool about teaching the kids every position and letting them try each one in the games several times.
The MLB reopened! Jeremy took the boys and our friend Owen to see a Padres game!! They were so excited.
Jeremy got to return to work, but not a whole lot of people joined him.
We had Elizabeth work for us as a mother’s helper. We met her through church. She cleaned our house, cooked for us and sometimes watched the boys. It was especially helpful to have her do the housekeeping because Jeremy was drowning in work for his job and still recovering from his broken bones, and I was still trying to recover from my back injury while teaching music 15 hours a week and doing homeschool with the boys. She worked for us all of April and May. This is one of the meals she made for us. She made it look so pretty. We are very grateful that she was able to help us!
The boys were having fun with the camera one day, probably while both Jeremy and I were working.
They had fun with the panoramic feature on the camera and figured out how to get in the picture more than once!
Took a walk on the beach as a family. We were trying to go about once a week.
Enjoying our balcony, playing darts out here.
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I love how the boys have fun playing with my teaching stuff. That’s one of the main reasons I get the things. Now, if they could just put those things away after they use them, that would be perfect.
We spent a week or two in homeschool learning about rocks, erosion and landforms.
We also did some a fun food class with Aunt Katie. She chose the food to feature, and I bought the food items and hid them in the boy’s mystery boxes that they made. This allowed them to touch and hold the food, but not see it. Katie helped them make observations and predictions in their science books. Then they would do a reveal to see what it was!
Next, Katie would tell them about the food (where it’s grown, what kinds of vitamins and nutrients it has, etc). Then, they would learn how to wash it, cut it and prepare it to eat! By the time they were done with the course, the boys had learned about dragon fruit, jicama and chick peas!
Here they are enjoying the hummus they made. Since then, both boys have been much more confident in the kitchen, making omelets, pancakes, cookies, fried chicken, smoothies and hummus all by themselves or mostly all by themselves. Dallin has been using his cookbook from Aunt Katie and Aunt Melissa to cook all kinds of things on his own.
More baseball for Tanner! One of his favorite things about the game is getting dressed up for it. He is easily the most stylish player on the team!
Jeremy was a score keeper and figured out how to use the score board. Soon, Dallin was operating the score board at each game. Jeremy started DJing, and sometimes Dallin would announce the different players as they came up to bat.
More time with friends!!
Here’s another sensory activity for homeschool. I re-used an idea from the boy’s toddler days, and they LOVED this paint in a bag activity.
The Museums finally opened! That meant more field trips! Here we are exploring the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. It was our first time there.
This exhibit looks exactly like our neighborhood!
We got in a good routine of doing homeschool, lessons, bucket drumming and baseball.
Time for a haircut! Dallin was nearing his baptism day, which was another reason for the haircut.
All four of us made it to Hemet to visit Grandpa Davidson and Grandma Sharon. We actually went there because Dallin wanted his birthday service project to be doing something to help grandpa. So here’s a sneak peak of that trip, but I’m going to elaborate more about this in Dallin’s birthday post.
Playing hide and seek with cousin Ethan on a video call. We also played “What’s Missing.”
Dallin got really good at Nintendo and got to Bowsers castle.
One day for Bucket Drumming class, we had a guest musician- Mr. Zavoral!! He taught the kids about the drum kit, how to play a new drum pattern and fun tips for playing the drums. The students soaked it all up! It was literally one of my favorite days ever because my husband was team teaching music with me, and both of my kids were in the classes!
Elizabeth made us lunch and cleaned our house like a busy bee!
Our family did a cool art project.
For teacher appreciation week at the beginning of May, the boys made special notes for Taryn, who had been their writing tutor all school year.
Also for Teacher Appreciation Week, I made this post on Facebook:
My goal is to bring children JOY through music and the arts. But really, it’s the children that end up bringing joy to me!
This is Teacher Appreciation week. Truly though, it should be Student Appreciation week.
Our students have been through so much. Here in San Diego, it’s been especially challenging. Kids couldn’t go to school for over 13 months. 
The amount of isolation and uncertainty they’ve had to endure is absolute trauma, even for children in the most stable and privileged homes.
The amount of isolation and uncertainty they’ve had to endure is absolute trauma, even for children in the most stable and privileged homes.Sure, as teachers we’ve had it rough! We’ve had more than our fair share of sleepless nights trying to navigate the “adventures” of reinventing education again and again through closures and reopenings.
But compared to the kids, I think we’ve had it easy. Let’s be real. When zoom isn’t cooperating for me or when I have to rework an entire curriculum, I have the power to adjust and adapt my teaching.
Meanwhile, our students have had almost no control over their learning. The internet glitches, class cancelations and lack of playdates were just the beginning of it. Everything they knew about learning changed dramatically. And not just once. Multiple times since last year. From how they dress and play, to how they read, write, eat and even sit, everything keeps changing, all without their input.
Our students get constantly reminded “I’m sorry kiddo, we can’t do [super fun thing that enriches our souls] because of Covid.” As much as we teachers try to avoid comments like that, it keeps coming up because that’s how disruptive the pandemic has been to the nature of education. Instead of moaning about it, our kids have learned to gracefully say “we understand,” and they quickly come up with a beautiful alternative.
Not to mention, these children have astounded everyone with their willingness to wear masks for hours and hours, and they try hard to do the most unnatural thing of keeping physical distance. That alone is trophy worthy! 
Through this all, our students have risen from their loss and trauma with an unique eagerness to learn. Sometimes I’m not sure if my heart should be aching or rejoicing when my kids are thrilled to have me all to themselves on a music zoom lesson or to be singing in the same room that I’m in. Either way, I can see that this pandemic has given them an exquisite gratitude and wonder for the very simple things in life.
Things like improvising an original tune on the keyboard, singing in unison, skipping to the rhythm of a bucket drum, or playing with a sensory tool that clicks when you stretch it out. Something as simple as taping crepe paper to a stick and dancing with it to classical music has never seemed more exciting to my 4th & 5th grade students than it did today!
Thank you, students. Year after year you remind me of the simple joys in life. But THIS year your innocent wonder for everything about music and life has been especially unique and beautiful.
You’ve been the real teachers to me and to all of us. Happy Teacher Appreciation week! 
