Z1, Z2 and Zoom

Mom note: I had hoped we would come up with some better news and so I've been waiting to post this but I think this just basically sums up how they feel about distance learning.

Our mom wants us to write about our first zoom call with our classmates.

Zahra: It was terrible. There was no best part. I never want to do it again. 

Zayd: It was ok. The best part was I got to see all of my friends. But, I don't really want to do all of the math on there.

Ok, new prompt from Mom. How's was your zoom call with your friends at night?

Zayd: It was good. I figured out how to mute people and that was funny, especially when people don't know they're muted.

Nature Walk and Urdu Lesson

Today my mom took us on a nature walk during Urdu lesson time. We tried to talk some Urdu on the way and then we made it to a very cool place.

When we walked up to the Japanese tea gardens the first thing we saw was an angry guy on his phone. But then the next thing we saw was plants and fish. And there's a giant waterfa toll!! Zahra counted more than 20 fish. We named them Jeffy, Goldy, Kujo, Grey Hype, Blue Spot, Grayzey, Blazey,  Hotso, Spotty, Limmy, Mimmy, Mimi, Botty, Whitey, Bluey, Bluey's Baby, Dimmer, Glitty, Winnie, Slimmie, Swimmy, Smee, Smeth, Beth, Brownie, Mownie, Turkey, Gape, Toothy, Lefty, Righty, Alisa, Felicia, Corey, Coral, Torkiss, and Stripey. Mom let us do our blog post from the top of the gardens. And we sent a Marco Polo to our family in Houston.

The best part of the walk was meeting all of the fish and giving them names.

The worst part of the walk was: we can't feed the fish and having to leave the fish. 

Mom edit: The complaints on the way here were extreme and the glee now is infectious.

Corona Comms by the big Zs.

Today my mom says I have to talk about how we're communicating with our friends during Corona virus and our social distancing.

We downloaded a new app and have been video chatting using Marco Polo. We can talk together and do funny voices. Zahra's favorite voice is helium or macho, And my favorite voice is the helium. Helium sounds like a chipmunk and macho sounds like a sumo wrestler. 

We have also been yelling across the street to our best friends, Jude, Ellie, Milo and Maren. Sometimes the adults also sit outside and talk 6 ft apart. But Zahra thinks they maybe are only 5 ft apart, maybe 2 or 3. 

My mom makes us write one to two postcards every day and I think they stink. Zahra says they're not bad. But no one writes back!!! Yet!

We have also been texting, sending letters, folding paper airplanes with letters, and playing video games online together.

We miss going to other people's houses and having play dates inside houses. We also miss going to Houston. We just got back from Panama and haven't seen anybody in so long and now everything is worse.

We hope this ends soon. 

The good news is Mom says we can paint a wall today for art class. Yay!

Zayd's First Post

My mom wants me to make a journal of our first week of homeschool and social isolation.

The best part is that we got to do genius hour and play outside for a long time. We get to play soccer kick outside with our friends, Jude, Milo, Ellie and Maren. The worst part is there's so much learning and we don't get to do screens until 4:00 p.m!!!

Panama! We have arrived!

We took our kids on their first international flight yesterday and all in all I was super impressed with them. After having what we thought were perfect flights all of the Coronavirus hype ended up forcing us on the 5:45 a.m. flights with a stop but they handled it like pros. We're one sample size in but I think these kids were made for traveling. You could tell they were just as excited for our adventure and my heart was running over with anticipation for this trip and just the whole next decade.

Our new flights put us into Panama a day after we were originally expecting so we were headed straight for the cloud forest town of El Valle. The drive was a bit rough coming straight off the flights but once we made it, honestly, this place is like a little paradise. 

We had a pretty relaxing day of swimming in the ice cold pool. The temperatures are high but the wind is really high, too, up here in the mountains. So the pool is definitely too cold for my comfort level but in we all went!

We laid on the lawn, we colored, we painted our toenails, we did face masks. We headed into town for dinner in an open air restaurant. It was a great first day. The kids were happy and that's really all I need.