Schools will be closed from Wednesday but we decided to keep Emilee in from yesterday. The rising number of COVID-19 cases are worrying and there really is no point in sending her to school for just two days. Safer for her to stay at home anyway. Thus begins our month of two kids at home.

Having to care for two kids — aged 1+ and 4+ — at home is no walk in the park. They each require a different set of activities to keep them occupied. Just when I focus my attention on one, the other demands for attention too. When they finally sit down to play together, Kaitlin takes something of Emilee’s and we have a mini disagreement going on.

Prepared some writing practice sheets for Emilee to work on while I put Kaitlin to nap. I check back an hour later and find a slightly cross looking hubby complaining that Emilee is not taking her writing practice seriously. Ok, she started off well but got tired halfway and then her letters got all sloppy. Sigh.

Over at my brother-in-law’s place, things were going a bit better with his effort to get my two-year-old niece interested in a phonics video and the obstacle course he built out of toys and markers. Gotta applaud him for effort and creativity but I laughed a little to myself wondering how he would keep up with this for the rest of the month.

I could very well turn to the iPad nanny and get some peace and time off for myself but one month of YouTube videos is just too much for the kids. I’m fairly certain that I’m not the only parent with the same headache.

And suddenly, teachers are such rare gems. Preschool teachers in particular, deserve a lot more thanks than what they receive. Two kids and I already struggle to handle them on my own, what more a preschool teacher who has to face at least 20 monkeys kids EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (Ok, five days in a week but that’s bad enough.) I get through one day of activities for two kids with minimal help from iPad nanny and I’m exhausted. Preschool teachers have to plan activities to keep 20 kids entertained throughout the day for five days in a week. Now, that’s one hell of a feat.

So, to all the teachers out there, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Thank you for keeping us parents, sane.