Coronavirus in Hintonburg: Week Six - Communicating through Windows

One of the bright spots right now is all the nice window art that has appeared on neighbourhood houses since the current crisis began. Whether it's messages of support for first responders, pictures of rainbows or just cute images, these images offer a bit of colour to an otherwise grey season.

They come bilingual too!

I hope people don't mind the strange man taking photos of their windows...

It's not just here in Hintonburg either. This appears to be part of a Canadian, no global phenomena. Thank goodness for kids is all I can say. It's not just the window art either. Yes, working from  home is brutal at times. I feel guilt when I'm working that I'm not helping Margot learn enough and guilt when I'm teacher her that I'm not working hard enough. However, despite all the stress, without Margot's good cheer I think the current situation would be so much harder for me.

So keep on drawing kids!

I bee-lieve!

Coronavirus in Hintonburg: Week Five - Nature is Sanity

So we're well ensconced into the shutdown now and time trudges forward. Unlike some of the chirpy morning show radio hosts or local journalists who make it seem that crafting or "online field trips" can somehow equate to real world activities, I view the current crisis pretty dimly.  It's boring, it's never ending, and for many people, it's physically or economically life threatening.  In other words, not fun at all.

There is one thing that keeps my lil' family going through all this though: walks! Canada isn't as strict as other countries when it comes to walking. We're not in a lock down like other countries where you are only allowed outside for one specific task: grocery shopping or a visit to the pharmacy. Also, Ottawa isn't as dense as bigger cities like Toronto or Montreal. The parks may be closed for playing but there is still lots of forest space to walk through and enjoy.

In fact, because of the light traffic on the roads these days we can get to a lot more walks very quickly from our house - including walks in the relatively deep woods of the greenbelt.

So far we've hit up:

• Fletcher Garden (near the experimental farm)
• Watt's Creek (near where Margot goes horseback riding)
• Shirley's Bay

Letting the day's cares flow away

• Lime Kiln Trail  
• The Jack Pine Trail

Walks bring out great smiles

• The Mer Bleue area
• Pinhey Forest
• The Chipmunk Trail
• Sheila McKee Memorial Park trail
• P3 Trail loop

And these are just the ones within 20 minutes of our house!

Honestly, these daily walks are helping me keep my sanity. Walking through the forest, kicking up leaves, and just listening to the birds makes me feel normal. Maybe the Government will close these trails down eventually but until they do, we're walking!

Coronavirus in Hintonburg: Week Four - Maintaining a Schedule for Margot

Being a parent is tough at the best of times. But during a pandemic? Yikes.

As the weeks have dragged on Glosette Girl and I have had to be creative to ensure that Margot isn't bored or worse...scared.  After a couple of disorganized moments at the beginning of this crisis we've come up a decent schedule revolving around four mini "classes" with Glosette Girl and I each giving two classes to Margot per day.

I take care of: English, Math and, amazingly (to me) Music.
Glosette Girl takes care of: French, Social Science and "miscellaneous" Cooking.

Tuesday's schedule

Each class is relatively short, maybe 30-40 minutes. However,  because both Glosette Girl and I work remotely, and are constantly interrupted by  videoconferences and other distractions. So, in practice,   even giving four short classes to her takes pretty much the whole day.

It's fairly modest but we've found that even these four classes, plus giving Margot some time to talk to her friends online, and her normal TV/Netflix schedule (two episodes in the morning and two in the afternoon) has allowed us to keep our sanity without just sticking her in front of Netflix all day. And maintaining a schedule for Margot seems to be helping her maintain a sense of normalcy. We don't teach her on the weekends, which keeps them special for her and for me. Best of all, she still seems to be the same happy go lucky kid I've come to love.

It really is fortunate that Glosette Girl and I have jobs that allow us to work online. I'm getting sick of the day-to-day grind of all this remote work, but I know it could be a lot worse.