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One day at a time

OkotoksToday and Western Wheel reporter Krista Conrad's daily update on working from home and raising five kids suddenly out of school amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. RG

Day 79: Outdoor office

Sunny skies and light breezes lent themselves beautifully to an outdoor workspace today.

We started inside until the nip came out of the air, but our late morning and afternoon settled into the great outdoors, with three of us stationed out on the patio overlooking the storm pond.

There’s something to be said for working outside. The fresh air, the aroma of fresh-cut grass and blooming blossoms, made us all a little happier and a lot more productive

Hannah took a midday break to “go for a dip” in her little wading pool on the lower patio while we all finished our day’s work.

You can’t do that at school.

I can’t normally do this at the Wheel office, either. We don’t exactly have an optimal outdoor work space, and opening the window next to my desk is nice but not quite the same.

The forecast isn’t going to lend itself to this every day – it’s June in southern Alberta, after all – but we’re taking advantage as long as we can.

For me, it’s not just about being outside. It’s about keeping their days fresh and unique so these school kids hang in there for another couple of weeks.

They’ve already begun the countdown. There are 17 days left of distance learning, two more weekends, 13 days of actual schoolwork.

Hannah asked yesterday when summer vacation would start.

“That will be more fun than this.”

Agreed.

It’s sad, though. When her sisters and brother went through kindergarten they were engaged right through the year and upset on the last day of school because it was ending.

This little girl has had a different experience, and while she’s powered through like a champ there’s just something different about doing kindergarten at home. She misses her friends, she misses going to daycare on the days she didn’t have class, she misses seeing her teacher in-person rather than through a screen, and sharing all those little moments five-and-six-year-olds cherish in their first year of school.

Despite all this, Hannah did tell me today she’s glad Mrs. Edwards sent work because she had finished the little workbooks I picked up for her back in March in a matter of days. So I guess she’s appreciated homeschool, even though it’s not what she signed up for.

It’s not what any of us signed up for, but here we are, almost at the end, working our way through June and counting down the days as 2019-2020 comes to a close.

Hopefully it passes as quickly as May seemed to, and we find ourselves on the other side of June in the blink of an eye.

Because I’m with Hannah on this one – summer vacation can’t come soon enough.

Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca

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