I'll start with election stuff.... the election took place on Tuesday, November 3rd. I googled quickly the population of adults (18+) in the US.... approximately 215 - 235 million... depending on which website you go to. The race was very close again this election and Biden came out ahead of Trump with 79.8 million votes to 73.8 million votes.... over 153 million votes cast.
But- on the positive side... like when Obama took office... we felt hope that our child - our mixed-race son - looked like the president finally. Now... historically, our mixed-race daughter looks like the Vice President-elect! (Harris is the first woman VP and the first person of African and Indian descent.)
I think it's a powerful image side-by-side!
Mercer is struggling a bit more in school, but he is happy to have gone back face-to-face several weeks ago (as of Oct 26). He's doing better having gone back in person with organizing his assignments, but....there are still some struggles. 7th grade is progressively getting harder than 6th was - of course. His main complaint: the food! Even though all kids in the US under the age of 18 have a waiver right now to receive free food from the USDA, this growing 12 year old is not wanting to eat what is put before him! What a shame. His school building is over 100 years old. There was just an approval by the board of the school system to remediate all of the older HVAC systems with a special kind of air purification system. So - I feel better about that once that gets into place. The one thing that I'm not keen on: him riding the bus, but we have no choice. His school starts at the same time as mine, but.... I have to obviously be there early / stay later. (Here's his "back-to-school in person first day" picture.... it's pitch black b/c it's 6:30 in the morning... and the bus driver is taking his temp.) Fingers crossed all goes well!
M was coming into school with me for a few days each week leading up to his transition back -- sitting at the opposite end of the classroom for his Zooms while I led my own Zoom lessons. Middle schoolers were invited to come to their parents' classrooms to help get acclimated to leaving the house! I think it was a good thing. He used to be apprehensive, but he's OK with leaving the house, using a mask in public, social distancing, etc. It's interesting how the school system really looks out for their staff children. I have been impressed by this so far since starting work there. 
Unfortunately, some people's carelessness does have an impact on others. There are still plenty of folks going out to crowded venues and not wearing masks. So, it's hard to say how long this pandemic will drag on?! There are still many that say this is NOT a real threat. There are many who know all-too-well that it is. (The families and friends of those quarter of a million Americans who have died from this...) Healthcare workers are begging for people to wear masks and slow the spread that is up-turning right now. They're exhausted and see people out at events and not wearing masks as a slap in the face. 
There have been studies where people are contracting different strains of this -- so they've actually had it more than once! But vaccines are on the way. (Seems sort of like the flu... you can get a vaccine, but there's no guarantee that you're getting the right strain -- just the best guess as to what that strain in?) Still... it's progress...
Aside from going to work/school (which is required), the other area where we were wondering if we were being too exposed: baseball.
At the beginning of the season, as a parent, you question decisions -- was it the right thing to do or not?! I honestly think that having baseball -- for both of the kids -- helped keep a sense of normalcy AND sanity. (Especially for Mercer while he was at home / the first 2 1/2 months of school while it was virtual. This was his ONLY interaction with peers other than the once-a-week-Zoom session he still does with a buddy to play video games.)
He did well. He played a bunch of different positions this season. Late in the season (partly due to one-on-one lessons?), he changed his pitching style and was becoming a competitive pitcher again. His little league partnered up with a nearby little league organization and the two parks rotated between playing each other. (Which is good as the boys are getting older, there are not as many teams formed. In our park there are only two 12U boys teams and playing each other week-after-week would get boring!) So, they "travelled" half an hour to the neighboring league every so often. The season started out OK -- win some / lose some -- but the "Blue Yahoos" ended up the victor in the end between the 6 different teams winning pretty consistently the latter half of the season + winning all of the games in the tournament.
Todd is proud not of the ring -- but that in the last game, Mercer pitched his first "complete game" which - I think is a big deal that they never swapped out pitchers?! His buddy, Daniel, hit the game-winning home-run over the fence knocking both he and Mercer in across the plate and got a lot of glory! (His friend got the ball that went over the fence. There's a little tradition to go get that ball and give it to the kid that hit it over.) Daniel and Mercer each have quite the collection of "over-the-fence" balls from the past couple of years. Mercer is keeping track of who has the most over-the-fence home runs. It's a pretty close contest. I can't keep track!
Isabella played on just the one team. She was the only girl.... which - she liked. The coach had her number too. When passing out awards, he said something like she's the only girl and wants to tell all of the boys what to do! (ha ha) She had close to a perfect batting average.... almost every time she was at bat, she made a hit. A lot of times it went over the pitcher's head down the middle. She said she enjoyed it and wants to play again in the spring.
A friend of ours made Isabella some tee-shirts that says "My VP looks just like me" and "Future Madame President." Honestly - if anyone could do it, Isabella could!
She is a smart, smart kid!!! She was invited to partake in some challenges and testing based on her MAP scores from Kindergarten (that put her into the Gifted Program) and then again some she took this fall now that she's in 2nd grade. She passed the additional challenges and was officially welcomed to the STEM academy earlier this month. We took a tour. She wasn't excited about changing schools but knowing that some of her friends from the Gifted program at her current school will be going made it a little better. This will be a good change for her as it should be more challenging. It will also draw students from all of the city's elementary schools and she'll get to know a variety of students -- maybe finding "her people" ... "her tribe?" :) Mercer was such a supportive big brother trying to calm her down she she was apprehensive. He was talking "up" the school and making a big deal about it for her. Love him!
This year, Isabella has always been going to school in some form since early August when the beginning of the school year started. As mentioned in a previous blog, she was in a "teacher pod" at the other end my school campus initially... and then eventually a different "teacher pod" at her school 3 days a week (Tu, Th, Fr) when all kindergarten through 2nd graders were welcomed back on a part-time basis. She was face-to-face with half of her classmates the other 2 days a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. In early October, all elementary students who wished to return face-to-face (which was most of her class) got back to "normal" Monday - Thursdays. On Fridays, she has to go to a school "camp" -- basically supervised school time, play time, etc for us working parents. I was nervous at each transition. But - afterwards, I felt a little better as time passed.
It reminds me of how the Projects-Based-Learning school I used to work for really took care of staff kids -- which I did not get from the big school system that I had been working for during the previous 2 years. I guess working for a small school system has its advantages. (Plus the superintendent used to be a teacher... he gets it.)
My own transition came on November 9th... when ALL of the high-schoolers were invited back to the classroom. Some of my classes have as few as 3-4 students coming in person, but my biggest class 20-21 of those students are coming consistently. I have a giant room with partitions / students wipe down their own desks / computers when they arrive.... but the way the desks are, I can't socially distance all of the students in that one large class. For the most part, I feel comfortable. There's one student who
Overall, it's going "ok" - I don't love having to teach both virtual students and face-to-face students at the same time, but there's really no other option. It is really mentally taxing to try to juggle both the virtual kids on my laptop / over the big TV in the room -- and the face-to-face students. Honestly - they're more responsive.... it IS more fun to teach to live people in the room instead of boxes on a screen where you don't know if the student is there or no! There's stuff that I mess up on every now and then. (AND THAT'S OK -- I have to tell myself -- because I really am doing the best that I know how to do! And I come home each day absolutely mentally brain-dead. Just wiped out. It has to be the "extra" brain energy going into the technology stuff on top of actually teaching the material?!) Right now teachers are in a tough position. People at home aren't happy generally with the quality that their virtual students are getting... but it is their choice to keep kids at home as a trade-off for being in-person.
I think the well-being of many students (seeing my own kids) is better after having gone back in face-to-face... but there are risks, of course. I have already seen in the short 2 weeks of face-to-face school that some of the kids' grades are improving. All has been well with what we've been doing until 1 1/2 weeks ago until Isy was "exposed" to another student at the Friday camp (for working parents) that later tested positive for Covid. The school system went back / watched tape of the class activities and determined that the kids in her group were within 6' for more than 15 minutes when they were playing an obstacle course game........ so, we went into quarantine mode for her. She was sad, but healthy. (Todd had to juggle by picking her up from school Monday afternoon. He stayed with her Tues / Wed (and went to work after I got home). I taught virtually (with a sub in my room for classroom management) Thurs and also stayed home Fri with her. On the positive side... we have Thanksgiving break and the 2nd half of her quarantine is not with the juggle / not missing school and work! Fingers crossed she (and we) remain healthy through this whole thing!! And her friend from "Friday camp" recovers quickly!
Unfortunately, the numbers are up... and they continue to go up. As of 11/24... the global cases are close to 60,000,000 positive and the deaths are almost at 1.4 million people.
The US hit a not-good milestone: over a quarter of a million have died from this virus and almost 12.5 million have contracted it (or at least per the tested cases.... there are many many more that have gone untested and/or contracted it early when there weren't enough test kits).
Here is what is happening in Georgia... unfortunately, the cases are on the rise again. People are blaming "social distancing fatigue." The numbers are really drastically UP compared to my last post on the details of October 4th. Wow. Just compared.
We're "out" at work and school (no choice on my end)... so that is forcing us to get out of the house. Todd never missed going into the office this whole time (except for Isabella's couple of days of quarantining last week). We have been out to eat a few times in restaurants when we can eat outside. We're always wearing masks when in public / in stores / etc. We sanitize, wash hands, etc. I feel like we're being "pretty cautious." I'm sure to some families -- it's too much exposure. But - compared to other families we've seen -- it's not a lot of exposure. I guess each family deems what level they're comfortable with.
Above were a couple of images that I thought were cool.... public artists are making a statement about the current situation.
Aside from going to work/school (which is required), the other area where we were wondering if we were being too exposed: baseball.
We felt better that it's an outdoor sport -- not indoors like basketball (which we opted NOT to sign Mercer up for this year)! Happy to say that we made it through the season with no incidence.
At the beginning of the season, as a parent, you question decisions -- was it the right thing to do or not?! I honestly think that having baseball -- for both of the kids -- helped keep a sense of normalcy AND sanity. (Especially for Mercer while he was at home / the first 2 1/2 months of school while it was virtual. This was his ONLY interaction with peers other than the once-a-week-Zoom session he still does with a buddy to play video games.)
He did well. He played a bunch of different positions this season. Late in the season (partly due to one-on-one lessons?), he changed his pitching style and was becoming a competitive pitcher again. His little league partnered up with a nearby little league organization and the two parks rotated between playing each other. (Which is good as the boys are getting older, there are not as many teams formed. In our park there are only two 12U boys teams and playing each other week-after-week would get boring!) So, they "travelled" half an hour to the neighboring league every so often. The season started out OK -- win some / lose some -- but the "Blue Yahoos" ended up the victor in the end between the 6 different teams winning pretty consistently the latter half of the season + winning all of the games in the tournament.
(It was a little weird that the top 2 teams playing in the final game of the tournament were both of the teams from our park. Since it's just the two teams at our park, these kids are pretty tight knit and it was interesting playing against them because you know the boys on the other team and cheer when they do something good too!) The other league hosted the tournament and even provided rings! Mercer is proud of this ring and has worn it to school around his neck on a little chain a few times! :)
Todd is proud not of the ring -- but that in the last game, Mercer pitched his first "complete game" which - I think is a big deal that they never swapped out pitchers?! His buddy, Daniel, hit the game-winning home-run over the fence knocking both he and Mercer in across the plate and got a lot of glory! (His friend got the ball that went over the fence. There's a little tradition to go get that ball and give it to the kid that hit it over.) Daniel and Mercer each have quite the collection of "over-the-fence" balls from the past couple of years. Mercer is keeping track of who has the most over-the-fence home runs. It's a pretty close contest. I can't keep track!
But, silently, M got THE tournament end game-ball for his pitching.
Mercer played on his "tournament" team too (the team where they are wearing the maroon jerseys) - but they did not play as much this season because it got a late start. That team -- the Spikes -- is made up of boys from both the orange and the navy teams above.
Isabella played on just the one team. She was the only girl.... which - she liked. The coach had her number too. When passing out awards, he said something like she's the only girl and wants to tell all of the boys what to do! (ha ha) She had close to a perfect batting average.... almost every time she was at bat, she made a hit. A lot of times it went over the pitcher's head down the middle. She said she enjoyed it and wants to play again in the spring.
Baseball is over for both of them. We had a successful season -- 
Oh.... that face!
(Thankfully, she's just kidding around in this photo!)
Isabella hit a milestone this month. She turned 8!
There was obviously no birthday party this year, but she got plenty of celebration.
In her actual classroom, we sent in Harry Potter cupcakes the day before her birthday.
The next day at the Friday camp, we sent in individually-wrapped pre-packaged cupcakes (ick - full of preservatives - but requirement of the camp). That morning, she got a donut for breakfast. (I had to be at work at 7 and.... she didn't go to camp 'til 8 so I left a little note.)
That night, we had her favorite foods that she requested: mac-n-cheese and chick-fil-a. Instead of a cake, she also got some of the bakery treats that she's always asked for from the grocery store bakery case, but never got: macaroons, black and white cookies, donuts, etc.
It was a hodge-podge assortments, but she didn't mind! (Actually at this writing - I'm not even sure what happened to all of this stuff - I don't think she even had any of it on her birthday because she went straight into making a shirt with the puffy paint she got.... that says "Girls Rock")
She had fun reading the package and made more great faces while doing so:
dirt
rotten egg
dishwater
earth worm
She said she wanted a sleep number bed. Ha ha.
She also got a Harry Potter owl and some craft supplies and seemed just happy with what she got.
Of course... what did she ask to do while we were there?
GO TO THE WATER PARK! oy.
Isabella was "Crystal" as her gaming name and Mercer was....well... "Bigfoot." We played until they both made it onto the Leader Board for having completed the original Magi challenge.
The kids were tired overall, but seemed to like the game and said (now that we have the wands) they would like to go back and play the additional MagiQuest games. Next time... I need to bring better shoes than flip-flops!
She got some cute masks in the mail too to extend the birthday celebration.
So.... although the birthday was different, we still tried to make the celebration special.
I think she had a good time turning 8 (going on 18)....
We are on Thanksgiving break now and will post a Thanksgiving break blog post late in the week.... trying to catch up!
