snow and Sequim

 On Valentine's day, we had more snow fall in Seattle in a single day than any day in the last fifty years.  First we had a dusting on the 12th, then snow during the nights, loads of snow on the 14th and yet more snow on the morning of the 15th.   Snow that I shoveled in our shady alley didn't completely melt for 6-7 days and two days ago I saw small pile of snow in Volunteer park, a whole month after this epic snow storm.

For the first time ever, we actually went sledding on the hills immediately around our house.  Here are some pictures, including the amusing melting pattern around our neighbor's leaking skylight.

We planned an AirBnb getaway in Sequim over President's Day weekend, and happily had made reservations starting on Sunday instead of Saturday.   We kept expecting the snow to stop falling and start melting on Sunday so we didn't leave home until 4 pm, and even then we had to do significant shoveling to get out of our parking spot and to turn down our hill before getting to the major, plowed roads.   

We've had some mixed luck with AirBnBs lately but this one was great and was just as described.   It was un-cluttered, kid safe and also kid friendly, meaning that there were some toys and a big yard with a big toy that we used a few times.   Jack and I went in the hot tub every night.   

Originally we'd hoped to bring our bikes but it was too cold so we scaled back and very much enjoyed the under-scheduled time.   We went out to the bridge over the lower Elwa river (as soon as we left Sequim there was still snow on the ground) and checked out some eagles, walked and scootered around Sequim Bay State Park and hiked in the Dungeness National Seashore, which we last visited when I was pregnant with D.   We also played Settlers of Catan for the first time with D.   Three nights was enough to relax all the way.

vaccinations!

One year in to this, we are so lucky that most of our older family members have been able to get vaccinated!  Today marks the day my parents are fully vaccinated, meaning it has been two weeks after their second shot.

 

The New York Times has lots of info about the vaccine rollout and here is the current state of the nation.  

Last week we hear two important announcements.  Biden said states had to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults by May 1.   Governor Inslee made a pre-proclamation statement that schools must open up by April 5 in some fashion.    Changes are coming!

a year of home schooling and Who Ate the First Oyster

 We are a few days shy of having D home with us for an entire year (minus a few much appreciated weeks of summer day camp).   For better or worse, we are much more involved with his education and there's no need to ask "how was your day?" or "what did you learn about in math?" because we already know.

Although it has been overwhelming at times, in many ways it has been really fun.   He has so much to learn and so many topics are at a level where Jack and I are effectively experts.   We've talked about fractions, wars, alphabetization and so many other things.

On the other hand when we get in to questions about physical sciences I am far from an expert and my explanations falter.   He and I listened to the audio book of Who Ate the First Oyster, a popular science book answering a series questions about human history.   Each question is a chapter and the explanations were at a good level for me.  Examples include, "Who rode the first horse?" and "Who was the first surgeon?" as well as a chapter on smallpox and the first vaccines for it.  D followed most of the explanations of how we know what we know, once we discussed them and I explained words.   The book is only 210 pages and I checked the audio book out from the library about 8 times between July and December, so it was slow going, but was easy to pick up again periodically since the chapters were self-contained.   Going slow and explaining thing vastly increased my comprehension and retention as well, though don't ask me to recall many numbers.

Watching his analytical skills grow is really rewarding.  In the books we read aloud he is always excited to try to predict the plot, as well.   Jack taught us the term "plot armor" which is quite useful, especially in kids' books.

To be fair I appreciate that his first grade teacher has done a good job with online school.   She's demo'd some science experiments and he gets 4 math small groups and 4 vocab/reading/spelling small groups a week.