A Summer of Stories – Everyday Learning, Creating and Exploring …

Courtney, obviously life has taken a pretty sharp turn these last few months. With almost no notice, schools were closed, church was closed, libraries were closed, any lessons or groups your girls were involved in stopped. I think the other thing that seemed so crazy was that it was just a couple of days prior to March Break here and all the museums and pools and those kinds of things were unavailable, as well as the ability to visit friends and relatives.

I’m trying to imagine what that level of change would seem like in the mind of a six year old. Do you remember how you transitioned into that those first couple of weeks? Or what they even understood it to mean?

Yes, the speed at which everything was changing was pretty unfamiliar! A few days after the schools announced their closures, we decided to actively reframe things – to think about this time as time gained together.  We listened to the kids express their disappointments – for example, the ROM closure forced the girls to miss the Winnie the Pooh exhibit that they were really looking forward to. We also listened to all the things they were excited about – for example, a long break from school.  We talked about all that we have to be grateful for during this time, and how we could help those who were less fortunate.  Now, to be VERY honest, it would be ENTIRELY untrue to claim that ANY of this came naturally and easily in the middle of a pandemic (!!), it took a bunch of active, conscious thought and effort.  It helped everyone by diving into fun activities at home that we hadn’t prioritized and got really excited about them, as a great distraction for ALL of us. 

 I remember that after those first couple of weeks, when we could see the virus numbers rising and it became clearer that it was going to be going on for some time, my family began to plan a bit more, just a bit around how things might work. Like, if I was working from home, how to think about the time and space of that. And even just, what did we want to do? Did we want to plan to watch a Netflix series or were their board games we wanted to play? Were their cleaning or organizing projects to do? How were we managing grocery shopping? Did we have relatives and neighbours we needed to help? Just all those kinds of things. It was a brand new situation, so we were thinking through what our time and physical space would look like essentially. My kids are a lot older though. I’m trying to imagine what that would be like with younger kids.

Do you remember how you all went about organizing your time at that point and how that played out?

I’d love to say it was as intentional as that, but I don’t think it was.  We evaluated day by day, and built a plan at breakfast around executing it.  When would I take client calls? When would my husband be home so I could get to the grocery store for us and family? Now, we had some goals, but none with real deadlines – for example, reading the first Harry Potter book so we could watch the movie together, or starting to explore using search engines on the internet.    

We had a conversation not too long ago that the pandemic has led to some interesting things. You mentioned that you had always felt your girls were quite good with unstructured time, but that you noticed they had gotten even better. It sounded sort of like they’d “levelled up” in their ability to play and create, or I guess deepened, to look at it another way. That is all in my words, of course.

Would you mind describing that a little bit?

This one was particularly neat for me to see.  I don’t know if it’s age, or long periods of uninterrupted time, or a combination of the two, but they really did ‘level up’, I love that language. They went deeper in their play – for example they would start off by goofing around and singing a song, which led to costumes, and doing each others hair, then choreographing a dance, making programs, ending in a performance. I don’t think they started with intent to perform a show, but I think the uninterrupted time to play allowed them to get more creative.

There must be some things that are quite fun for the two of them to do together. Imaginative play or projects that they can both get into and plan together?

There were a few days where I was treated to a ‘spa’, where they had designed the space, collected the things from around the house that they needed to provide spa services, got drinks and snacks together, and selected relaxing music.  That one was really fun, and I don’t know where it came from!

Finally, Courtney, I think you’ve had some collective things that you’ve all been doing together that have been fun and initiated or reinforced some interests?

We’ve been doing a LOT of sewing – together, and independently.  That’s been a lot of fun.  The girls are both avid readers, but more and more the three of us have been sitting in the same room each reading independently.