Category: Roman

The boys finished remote learning early today, so we grabbed some ice cream and headed to the park for a brain break.

I love my wild, tree-climbing boys.

The boys enjoy taking advantage of flexible seating during their remote schooling day here at home. We use it ALL up in here. They have yoga balls or chairs with chair bands or a wiggle seat for sitting at their desk, a comfy floor lounger with a blanket, a floor pillow, and a lap desk.

Today, Roman flipped out about not having enough room at his desk, so he sprawled his materials and himself out on TOP of the kitchen table (this picture was taken when he was actually pseudo-sitting back on the bench). Xander has been known to do his work under the piano or even in his teepee. Jonas has even sat in the van in the garage…ha! I try to keep the boys downstairs, so I can monitor them to make sure they’re staying on schedule with their Zooms and classwork and not chatting with friends, reading on Epic, or playing on their Dashboard when they’re not supposed to be. But sometimes they’re in a Zoom break out room and need to discuss something with their teachers and/or classmates, so they run upstairs really quick to do that in the bonus room.

It’s a little crazy over here, and we’re all so very ready for “Freedom Friday” (the boys will log in for a morning meeting and then will take the rest of the school day, finishing their classwork, at their own pace…AND we’re going to make it a pajama day). We’re all going to need some serious rest, fun, and outside play time this weekend.

Oh man, I tell you what. This remote learning thing is tough. For me, it’s like having triplets that are on different eating and sleeping schedules…constant mental/emotional/physical triage. Seriously. It might be hard to believe unless you were here with me.

Jonas and Xander have pretty much taken right to remote learning. BUT Roman. BUT Roman. Roman is having a tough time adjusting…he has multiple meltdowns a day to the tune of screaming, yelling, and crying in frustration. I know he’s one little guy, but his presence is HUGE, especially when he’s spinning out of control. And it just throws everything off of its kilter, not to mention how emotionally exhausting it is. Bless him. Help us.

In spite of all of that, we’re still trying. AND we have our very own emotional support dog, so that helps a lot. Here’s what today looked like…

Today was the first full day of school (remote learning)!

Here are my three boys hard at work…

The boys had their first (half) day of school today!!! Jonas is starting middle school this year (6th grade), and Xander (5th grade) and Roman (3rd grade) are continuing on in elementary school. Jonas still wants to be an Engineer when he grows up, and Xander still wants to be a Dolphin Trainer. Roman is leaning more towards wanting to be a Professional YouTuber.

It went so much better than I was expecting! Jonas will start and end school an hour earlier than Xander and Roman this year…which might be a little dicey when they’re remote learning. So, I put together a list of upstairs and outside things that they can do while their brothers are schooling and they’re not. While Jonas was schooling and before Xander and Roman started…I threw the football with Roman (we made it to 65!), and Xander made origami creations (recently, that’s his happy place)…

Jonas’ day went really smoothly (except for his General Music class that was switched to Spanish the night before and was then rescheduled the next morning to Theater…it hadn’t shown up on his dashboard yet, so he missed that Zoom).

Xander and Roman kept getting disconnected from Zoom, so we put in a request with IT for a computer swap for both of them and a hot spot (because we have three on the WiFi at the same time), which we’re hoping for on Monday or soon after. We’re SO grateful for the principals, teachers, staff, and IT department working overtime to get and keep everything up and running in this unprecedented, challenging time. Xander was chatting on Zoom with his friends, which he was schooled on pretty quickly…little stinker…he knows better! Roman, our resident extrovert, had a really hard time waiting to talk and be called on. He made it about an hour and a half (even with breaks) before he started melting down. I just kept trying to remind him that this is new for EVERYBODY (students, teachers, and parents).

All in all, it was a good day. And the boys really enjoyed running around and playing outside after their first half day of school. Tom was super sweet and thoughtful and came home early with flowers for me and a cookie cake for the boys…he’s the best…totally made me tear up. Team Seyfried!!!

I took the boys creek stomping down the Little Harpeth River today. The river was refreshing and cool, the lighting was beautiful, and the boys caught five little fish and a crawdad. The pictures are pretty, but MAN was it a rough time.

Roman’s meltdowns are tough things to navigate. When I’m in a good spot, I can just talk calmly to him, remove him from the situation so he can calm down, try to change up his sensory input in some way, etc. and even try to teach him to do those things for himself. But I just didn’t have it in me yesterday, and it stacked up on me from the morning to the afternoon. It would take pages to explain. Suffice it to say that I lost my temper, ended up cutting our little creek stomping adventure short, and dropped him off at his Daddy’s work with his lunch and instructions for zero screen time. And then Jonas, Xander, and I proceeded to enjoy the picnic I packed for us by ourselves in the shade of a big tree at a nearby park. It took me a while to want to even talk at all…a shower, a nap, and some space helped.

By the time Roman came home with Daddy, he and I both were able to ask for and give forgiveness. And I guess that’s the most important thing. Being a kid is hard. Being an adult is hard. But it’s good to know that we can love each other through it.