Despite the chaos and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year
was actually pretty good. We easily adapted to staying home with the
occasional playdate or masked trip to the playground as A- became more
interested in other kids.
We chose virtual learning for A-'s junior kindergarten, which turned
out to be just right for A- and me. I loved seeing what the kids were
up to and learning from how the teacher taught them, and A- enjoyed
being able to mostly follow her own interests. I had fun incorporating
A-'s obsession with Numberblocks into lots of playtime. We read
hundreds of books together (both print and electronic), and I even got
to read some grown-up books while waiting for her to be done reading
at bedtime. I learned how to document her learning and organize my
observations according to Ontario's kindergarten program. I was even
able to help the class with tech support, materials, and donations.
We've chosen virtual learning again for senior kindergarten. I hope it
will be just as fun.
It was a good year for learning domestic skills. We enjoyed growing
cherry tomatoes, bitter melon, and basil last year. This year, I added
peppers, and I planted flowers in one of the boxes in front of the
house. We've been enjoying a bounty of cherry tomatoes all summer,
although I'm dealing with some powdery mildew. We learned more about
preserving food, and we tweaked our kitchen layout to accommodate new
tools and facilitate A-'s participation. I continued baking a loaf of
bread every few days, trying out different recipes until we settled on
a slightly modified version of this sourdough sandwich recipe. I
learned how to make yogurt, too. Building on A-'s interest in Pride
and Prejudice, I sewed her a bonnet, gloves, and many long dresses. I
even sewed her a gown of bathing suit fabric that she wore to the
splash pads. She was curious about knitting because of Numberblocks. I
showed her how to knit and purl, and we worked on some hats and
scarves.
I had a bit more discretionary time that mostly came from staying up
late. I helped organize EmacsConf again, and I wrote some functions to
help automate the things I needed to do. I also set up a calendar of
Emacs events. Having developed a greater appreciation of captions and
transcripts while trying to speed-read my way through more videos than
I could fit in my focused time, I started editing captions for the
EmacsConf recordings. That got me interested in possibly
live-captioning EmacsConf and other things like it someday, so I
ordered a Georgi keyboard and I've been teaching myself stenography
with Plover. I mostly use it to write journal entries. I migrated my
blog from Wordpress to 11ty because I wanted to use a static site
generator that could be extended with Javascript, as it's a little
hard to juggle different programming languages if I don't have much
focused time. I ended up picking up more Python anyway, since I also
wanted to extend Plover. I considered upgrading my laptop so that I
could do streaming or video processing, but I'm still more constrained
by time and energy than by hardware. Speaking of hardware, I've been
learning more about mechanics. A- loved watching videos of Lego Great
Ball Contraptions, so I learned how to build a few by following
tutorials. I'm beginning to be able to figure out how to make do with
Lego Technic, adapting the designs to the parts we have (and our
desire to have as many modules as possible running simultaneously).
Last year, I wrote that I wanted to focus on:
- Managing energy:
- Sleep and managing my own plans: I slept less this year because
I stayed up to do more consulting and personal projects.
Fortunately, A- has learned to let me sleep in a little.
- Enthusiasm: I like gardening and cooking, and A- often joins in.
I like working on Lego Great Ball Contraptions while A- helps or
reads, and she loves to watch the results. Learning stenography
also makes it easier for me to patienty read lots of books since I
can practise steno-ing parts of words while I read. Now that A-'s
a good reader, we can take turns reading too.
- Low-energy times: We have some screentime in our afternoon
routine so that I can do household chores and get dinner together.
That helps us get through some of the low-energy times.
- Taking small steps: I did a pretty good job of learning about
things in the small chunks of time I have, although I've been
falling prey to revenge bedtime procrastination. If I get better at
taking notes, it might be easier to convince myself to alternate
days when I stay up with days when I go to bed early.
- Making learning visible: My journal helped me capture lots of
observations. I organized my notes and shared them with the
teachers, who found them helpful when writing report cards. It was
fun being able to review A-'s progress, too.
We're continuing with virtual learning until at least February, so
next year will probably look somewhat like this year. We're figuring
out quick dinners and other sanity-savers in case W- returns to
working in the office a few days a week.
Over the next year, I want to:
- Follow A-'s interests, document her learning, and learn how to
support A-'s learning in key areas: Virtual kindergarten seems to
mostly focus on literacy and math. A- is pretty comfortable with
reading and math, but she's less keen on writing and drawing based
on the teacher's prompts. I'll look for more ways to incorporate
writing into the sorts of things she likes to do. We'll probably
also need to focus on outdoor playdates for social interaction,
since it's hard to connect on-screen. I'm learning more about
helping her develop emotional self-regulation. She's pretty
level-headed, but sometimes she's definitely five years old. That's
okay! I'm learning too.
- Plant more flowers in another front yard planter box: A- enjoyed
picking flowers to put into a small pitcher on the table, so it
might be fun to grow more flowers for cutting.
- Take advantage of A-'s independent reading time to read and draw:
A- usually likes to stay up another 15-20 minutes, so that's been a
good time for me to read. If I take sketchnotes or I draw my
thoughts, that will also help me feel like I've had some time to
think. I can also get back to drawing moments. Those were fun.
- Keep my priorities straight: It's tough having limited time to
focus. I get tempted to stay up late because I don't have much time
to myself during the day, and because it's easier to keep going when
I have some code in my head than to figure it all out again the next
time I get a chance. I'm less patient when I'm sleepy, though, so
the price of feeling a little brilliant is feeling less than awesome
as a parent. Reframing it might help. I'm choosing to be able to
model self-regulation. I also want to have the energy and enthusiasm
to learn from A-'s pretend play. Sure, it's fun geeking out and
coding, but I can do that later on. A-'s availability and interest
in helping me learn how to play is time-limited.
Sketches
- Kindergarten:
- Play:
- Parenting:
- Planning:
- Drawing for fun:
Time
Category |
% 36 years |
% 37 years |
Diff % |
h/wk |
Diff h/wk |
Discretionary - Productive |
6.0 |
10.3 |
4.4 |
17.3 |
7.3 |
Personal |
4.8 |
5.6 |
0.8 |
9.3 |
1.3 |
Unpaid work |
4.4 |
4.5 |
0.1 |
7.6 |
0.2 |
Business - Build |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.0 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
Business - Earn |
1.5 |
1.5 |
-0.0 |
2.5 |
-0.0 |
Discretionary - Social |
0.6 |
0.1 |
-0.5 |
0.2 |
-0.8 |
Discretionary - Family |
0.9 |
0.4 |
-0.5 |
0.7 |
-0.9 |
Discretionary - Play |
1.3 |
0.3 |
-1.0 |
0.5 |
-1.6 |
A- |
46.7 |
45.1 |
-1.6 |
75.6 |
-2.6 |
Sleep |
33.6 |
31.9 |
-1.7 |
53.4 |
-2.8 |