Virtual Coffee Date

Hello, Wednesday! Confession time, I (Sharon) do not like coffee. (I know, you are wondering how do I manage to function? I have no idea.) Even so, when a friend invites me to go get coffee with them, I always accept and that’s not because I love coffee. I say yes because I enjoy their company and time with friends nourishes my soul. However, these days, we can’t just meet someone up for coffee or dinner or drinks or whatever might be our regular way to casually catch-up with those we care about outside of our family. Well, how about a Virtual Coffee Date? 

Grab your beverage of choice and read on as we check-in with a few SLOCA families.

Meet the Moms & Kids:

• Stacey Cote | 4th grade, 2nd grade, Junior Kindergarten & a 9-month-old.
• Ashley Ernstrom | 1st grade & Preschool.
• Joy Newman | High School Junior, 8th grade, 7th grade, & 3rd grade.
• Cheryl McCabe | 8th grade, 6th grade, & 2nd grade.
• Molly Trapp | 7th grade, 5th grade, & 2nd grade.
• Stephanie Ridley | 9th grade, 6th grade, & 1st grade.
• Ji Wei Long | 3rd grade & Kindergarten

What are you and your family enjoying about this unique schooling time?

• Stacey: More time together; ease of having dad working from home; slow days; daily fun art projects together; nature activities and journaling.
• Ashley: The slower pace of life. Not having to be anywhere or rushing out the door is less stressful for all of us. I like that we have time to linger over the things that interest us during the day.
• Joy: We are enjoying more family time and a much more leisurely schedule. Sleeping in!
• Cheryl: Extended family time!
• Molly: Without the pressure to finish before afternoon sports activities or obligations, our home school days are flowing more smoothly and with less stress. We finish earlier than usual and enjoy our time together more.
• Stephanie: We have all said that we are really enjoying being all together again. Isobel started SLOCAHS this year and as a track B family, she is now gone on our homeschool days and the kids are gone on hers. We like being back together! An added bonus (distraction) is that Bryan is also working from home now.
• Ji Wei: We are enjoying having unhurried time at home, a slower rhythm to our days. We are enjoying letting our kids amuse themselves – it’s led to a fort taking over the family room, and many projects being built out of the ‘makerspace’ a.k.a. the recycling bin!

Have you encountered any challenges transitioning to distance learning/full-time homeschooling?

• Stacey: Not having enough devices for everyone to watch their lessons. Sometimes we skip a lesson and do it on our own to avoid more online videos and screen time.
• Ashley: We’ve had to rearrange our tech setup to make it more easily accessible, and we’ve spent a lot more time on screens, but we are adapting. We’re finding we use our space differently being home all the time, which was hard at first as we figured things out.
• Joy: The transition to distance learning felt pretty easy to us. The kids adapted to the virtual classrooms easily. They just miss the real face time, as we all do.
• Cheryl: The transition to distance learning was actually a really smooth one for our family. Full-time homeschooling (while parents are working from home) on the other hand, not so much. 😉
• Molly: With three kids needing screens at various times in the day, we had to buy another screen. Fortunately, we were able to find a local business to support for that and we were able to find a really good deal. It’s always a bit of a challenge to make sure all the kids have the right screens and right links at the right times for Zoom meetings and different teaching times. I think we are finally getting it down!
• Stephanie: The trick has been my work (for WWP and SLOCA) and the added homeschool time. But the two oldest are pretty self-sufficient, and the primary teachers have worked so hard to make the “in school” days as self-directed for the kids as they can. I am just still reeling with all of the screen time. We are a very low tech family, and the had more screen time the first two weeks than the entire year put together I think! So, we are just severely limiting any extra screen time outside of class time, even though so many of the interesting opportunities out there right now are on the screen.
• Ji Wei: Our 3rd grader misses his friends and being able to see them in person. I am struggling with completing projects without the accountability of at-school teachers. It has previously been a great motivator for our family!

What is one thing you hope your family takes away from this experience?

• Stacey: Valuing the time we get to spend together and guarding that time when things get busy again.
• Ashley: I hope we come away from this having learned to face challenges together. I hope we learn to look for the silver lining, and not let the scary stuff overshadow all the good in the world.
• Joy: Great memories of being safe at home in the midst of a frightening time.
• Cheryl: Learning how to be flexible and creative with how we continue to make our educating moments constructive and fun.
• Molly: When it all comes down to it, family is at the core of all that we have. And that is a blessing. I pray that our family really learns to cherish and appreciate each other for the unique ways we all contribute to making our family a well-rounded whole.
• Stephanie: The beauty of togetherness, slowing down, and creating opportunities for ourselves.
• Ji Wei: That we can be happy at home!

How are you getting exercise and/or combating cabin fever for you and/or your kids?

• Stacey: We’ve been doing a lot of walks around the neighborhood and some fitness videos.
• Ashley: Since Dad is working from home, I’m able to get out for a walk by myself without kids almost every day. We are biking, hiking or walking as a family. We’ve also been doing Cosmic Yoga on youtube. The lady tells a story as she leads the kids through simple yoga moves. The kids love it!
• Joy: Not sure it counts as exercise, but we have been playing minute-to-win-it type games and have an ongoing family game tournament that includes keeping score as we play different games.
• Cheryl: My husband’s answer: bribery and manipulation. LOL…In all seriousness, we’re thankful to have a trampoline in our backyard so that thing has seen my boys way more these last few weeks than the last two years combined. Having convenient access to a basketball hoop is also extremely helpful so they’re out there quite a bit. We also go on multiple family walks throughout the week – even going out to Calpoly’s empty campus one weekend for a change of scenery.
• Molly: Ugh. This is hard. We have dusted off some old toys from the garage – pogo stick, rip stick – and we are getting out on our bikes more. With rainy weather, we’ve been trying to make getting outside “fun” through rainy walks and muddy bike rides. Let’s just say I’m happy it’s sunny outside of late. My kids are real home bodies though and they prefer to be inside so it’s an area of contention often with me forcing them outside for at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. We have discovered East Cuesta Ridge as a hiking outing they really enjoy! We also have many elderly neighbors so we have been inviting them on walks (using appropriate social distancing techniques) to get us ALL out.
• Stephanie: We are riding bikes, sending the kids out into the yard to play, and hiking and getting out in nature on the weekends. Sometimes we just need a neighborhood walk in the afternoons. And coffee: making espresso and coffee helps adult cabin fever.
• Ji Wei: We try and take a walk or bike ride after dinner every day. We’ve been exploring lesser-known trails on a weekday afternoon. Our kids Facetime their grandmother every evening before bed and read aloud to her. ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’ has been a hit with our 3rd grader – our grandmother has 4 -5 friends who have bought the book for their own grandchildren to read to them! The Facetime session has helped me teach less and also helped us connect with someone who lives alone.

For the kids: What is your favorite thing that your family has done in the last week or two?

• Stacey: Jacob — art projects | Kate — art projects | Ethan — playing games.
• Ashley: Built a fort!
• Joy: We built boats out of recyclables and staged a boat race; our big family game tournament; online workouts; “campfire” around candles on the coffee table.
• Cheryl: 8th grader + 6th grader: “Going on a long drive up to San Simeon!” | 2nd grader: “Easter! Because you said you wouldn’t get us anything but then you stuffed new socks with surprises!! It was really fun!”
• Molly: “Watched a movie in the afternoon after completing our first home school day back from break!” “Baked!” “Gotten to bring [our grandparents] into our family circle.” “Made zucchini bread for the neighbors.” “Being all by myself in my room and reading and reading and reading.”
• Stephanie: In age order, my kiddos said: going to the beach, baking, and bike riding; bike riding and time at the tide pools; biking and going to the beach.
• Ji Wei: Sleeping in the fort all week and ordering Tintin books from the Den! Building a Barbie house out of cardboard boxes, doing allllll the art projects by Mrs. Vaccaro.

One might conclude from some of their answers that these ladies copied each others’ responses. But, no, it is just an excellent reminder that we are all in this together and that while we are adjusting to this “new normal” there are many silver linings to be grateful for.

We’d love to hear from more of you! (Possibly some SLOCA dads!) Send a quick email to [email protected] to participate in our next Virtual Coffee Date. 

Photos provided by Ashley Ernstrom, Cheryl McCabe, Molly Trapp, Stacey Cote, Stephanie Ridley & Ji Wei Long.