Hello and welcome to another Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is November 21st.
Can it really be only two weeks since I confessed to my cake coping strategy?
The good news is that I've stopped making cake. The bad news is that I've really only made a lateral move to doughnuts and cookies. Even worse news is that I haven't been sharing. At all. I atoned for this parenting sin, however, by making brownies for the kiddos on Friday.
And I reinstated Cheese & Wine Hour, so really, all is forgiven.
Yes, folks, our gang over here in our corner of Wannaskan country is back to distance learning.
I started out optimistically, per my usual. "We've got this!" I cheered to my crew.
During the transition period, I let the kids have their computer comas with the hope that they would quickly get over the thrill of having their very own devices. (Note: I'm talking mostly about the little ones here.)
I placed all of their learning-related items into a tote and called it the "School Box" and tucked it into a corner of our kitchen. The kitchen was cleared out to accommodate four learners. I assembled all the teacher notes. I made a schedule. I was ready.
There was an eagerness in the air, as kids commenced at 8am on Monday. Yes, even the teenagers. Like a tennis ball, I bounced back and forth between the needs of the Kindergartner and the Third Grader with an occasional lob over to the older boys. "Make sure you click on attendance for each class!" I hollered. It was a long day, but we all managed to bang through the requisite to-do lists.
Tuesday was greeted with a little less enthusiasm, but we made it through. Wednesday, even less enthusiasm and thank the Good Lord above it was a short day, meaning "class" finished at 1pm. Then Thursday the younger two melted like icebergs in global warming. "Are we done yet?" moaned the Kindergarten. Friday was like finding an oasis in the desert. Saturday, we are sprawled out about the house still in our pajamas. Bring on the computer comas.
But enough with the whining, let's get to the good stuff. With all travails come great lessons. Here was my big win from this past week:
I am a Sudoku master.
If your household is anything like ours, you may have experienced the period of child development in which teenagers think their parents are stupid. So, it is a rare delight when an occasion presents itself for mom or dad to shine in the spotlight of brilliance even if it is something as seemingly humdrum, easy-peasy as Sudoku.
The WAKWIR* had a math assignment involving Sudoku that was crazy hard - even for me. I realized that, up until that assignment, he'd never played Sudoku. He needed to learn some basic Sudoku strategies to get a feel for the game before he could tackle the harder puzzles assigned by his teacher.
I recall the Oldest Son telling me once that “old people” (meaning anyone my age and older) are better at word finds and scrambles than young people. This conversation happened over a round of Wordscapes that was stumping the kid crew. In a nutshell "kids these days" (or maybe just mine) either can’t spell or have a disappointingly slim vocabulary. A troublesome double deficit for any parent to worry about.
I pulled some yellowed Sudoku puzzle books off the shelf and turned to the ones labeled "very easy." From my vantage point at the kitchen counter, I chopped carrots for the chicken noodle soup and watched while the WAKWIR, aided by his supremely confident older brother, puzzled through. The eldest kept saying, "No, you see, it's easy. You just have to hypothesize and match this corner with that and take an educated guess. It's so easy."
By the time I was pulling the soup bowls from the cupboard and setting them out, only a few boxes had been penciled in with potentially correct numbers. "But hey, the opposite corners match," the eldest insisted.
"I promise you," I said, "at the beginner's level, you never have to guess."
To his credit, the Oldest Son has wicked Rubik's cube skills. He has memorized more algorithms than I have vocabulary from all the languages I've studied. And the WAKWIR can play Minecraft like nobody's business. But Sudoku? Pa-shaw.
"Here, let me show you try," I said. (Note: Because saying you're going to "show" a teenager how to do something is just another nail in your parental coffin.)
Bing! Bang! Boom!
Done.
"Whoa! How'd you do that?"
I gave them my best Clint Eastwood squint like I'd just shot ten tin cans off the wooden fence rails from 100 yards away. I blew the smoke from my imaginary guns and served the soup.
"Practice."
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
* Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence
Love the tennis analogy! I feel like I now of the inside scoop. Did the NASA rocket launch successfully while all this was going on?
ReplyDeleteYes! It was actually SpaceX so quite a big deal. https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-launches-new-nasa-satellite-saturday-and-lands-with-a-boom/
ReplyDeleteExcellent post Kim. You inspired me to "try" a Sudoku. I've seen these little grids for years, tried them a couple of times, then tossed them aside as time wasters. So I watched a YouTube on sudoku for beginners, then another on basic strategy. It looked easy enough, though I wanted to say to the guy, "wait a minute." I found a puzzle online and solved the top three blocks as recommended. The middle three were almost empty so I moved to the bottom three, To get these to work, I'd have to go back to the top three and do some rearranging. By this time I was about 35 minutes to the bad, counting the two videos. Behind me Teresa was watching "The Crown." Charles was getting details about Diana from her older sister. I abandoned sudoku and yelled out to Charles, "Don't do it, you fool!" The scene cut away to Diana, who was kicking leaves in the gutter as she walks home from school. She looked about twelve years old. "Fame kills!" I called to her.
ReplyDeleteThen I thought about Garrett Hobert, who died on this day in 1899. Who? Yeah, that's what I said. If he had only lived a couple of more years he would have been at least as famous today as, say, Millard Fillmore or James A. Garfield. Hobert was William McKinley's vice-president, He was one of six vice presidents who have died in office, which seems like a lot till you remember that eight presidents have died in office. Hobert died of heart disease at the, to me, ridiculously young age of 55. He was replaced by the governor of New York, who, a year later, became president when McKinley was assassinated. How famous would Teddy Roosevelt be today if he hadn't gotten to use his bully pulpit?
Meanwhile, my sudoku puzzle somehow got deleted. Maybe I'll try again. Or maybe instead I'll check out those five other VPs who died in office.
Lol! That's awesome. Your comedy act is killing it! Keep it up and you will be ready to grace a (virtual) audience in no time.
DeleteP.S. Post-pandemic, I will share all my Sudoku secrets. In the meantime, keep me updated on The Crown. We seem to be the only peoplr left without Netflix.
DeleteThe Royals will beat a puzzle of logic every time. They’ll also beat Logic.
Looking forward to my lesson.