Tag: coronavirus

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Quarantine

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES: Breaking Through, Quarantine Month Three

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES: Breaking Through, Quarantine Month Three from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

This week marks the end of the school year for my first grader and preschooler. As days have become weeks and weeks have become months, we find ourselves mostly outside. This week, we explored Shelburne Pond and the land near our house. We talked about how we will use our voices to speak up for change and how people around the country and around the world are also speaking up for change.

Everywhere we looked, we saw metaphors in nature. On Saturday, we found a snakeskin in our backyard. We think it belongs to the snake we spotted days earlier slithering around the shrubs. My first grader explained to my preschooler that snakes shed their skin through molting. Online research told us that snakes are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality and healing. They shed their skin so that they can both grow and also get rid of the parasites attached to their old skin.

Near Shelburne Pond, we found a turtle carrying its home on its back. Its shell provides both shelter and protection We were carrying an enormous backpack stuffed with everything we might need for our outing, so we could relate.

We even found a frog at the pond and talked about its life cycle, and its ability to change so masterfully that it becomes unrecognizable from its earlier tadpole self.

We caught up with our bird friend in the backyard, who has made a nice life for itself in our birdhouse, with the freedom to come and go as it pleases. We believe this chickadee is creating a nest to lay eggs.

Nature has a way of turning over, of shedding its skin, of changing. I’ve been thinking about the bird eggs and hatchlings we will likely witness soon. In order for a creature to be born, it must first shatter and dismantle the very thing that has been its source of protection. An egg can’t hatch unless it breaks.

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Quarantine

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES: Time Capsule, Quarantine Day 36

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES: Time Capsule, Quarantine Day 36 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

We’ve been circling the block a lot, going on neighborhood walks. This seems fitting because time itself has started to feel circular. Our mornings often begin where our nights left off, and sometimes I’m pretty sure I spent the day running in circles around the kids. This weekend we took a shortcut through a tunnel of trees. The lighting was just right and created a perfect shadow reflection of the trees’ long slender branches. We started talking about how trees grow from the inside and track time through growth rings that are permanently logged into their layers. The harder the tree’s winter, the tighter the growth ring.

“It’s a trunk full of history in there,” I told my kids.

When we got home I pointed to the coffee table my father-in-law had made when he was a teenager from the found cross-section of an enormous ponderosa pine tree trunk. We tried to count the rings on it but couldn’t make it past 58.

Having lapped past a full month at home, we started thinking about ways we could record our time. I brought up the idea of creating a quarantine time capsule to dig up in exactly one year that included each of our favorite memories over the past month. We presented the kids with a glass jar — like we were literally trying to preserve the memories like pickles — and told them to collect something for the time capsule.

My 7-year-old, Remy, brought out a toy rabbit in honor of Easter and swapped out the jar for a handmade, wooden treasure chest. My husband, Ross, put in a pencil and sharpener to remember working on art and school assignments with Remy. I put in my birthday candles, having recently added another year to my age. And my 3-year-old, Bo, put in a toy figure of Batman’s sidekick Robin and his socks.

I’m hopeful in a year he’ll be able to tell me why.

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Quarantine

Stay-School Adventures: Spring Cleaning, Quarantine Days 25-28

Stay-School Adventures: Spring Cleaning, Quarantine Days 25-28 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

The swamp next door has become my spirit animal. It takes in toxins, churning them over like a giant strainer and purifying the water. It squeezes the best parts out of bad things — a perfect example of what to do when life gives you lemons.

On Saturday, I was staring out the window, looking at the swamp, when my friend called from Brooklyn to tell me her father had died that morning of COVID-19. I looked at the swamp, trying to churn out something to say.

Earlier in the week, my kids had announced they were “moving out.” They spent the week spring-cleaning their play fort in the backyard revamping it into a “permanent” residence. My daughter got the idea from an episode of Fancy Nancy.

The play fort was like a clown car, filled with old balls, bats and baskets overflowing down the slide. I couldn’t believe how much had been crammed in there. We finally had our answers for where all the lost items had been hiding.

I watched my kids hand off piggy banks and miniature furniture to each other, beautifying their 9-square-foot space with a small stool, a tea set and a handcrafted chandelier made from pipe cleaners, tape and ribbon. They asked my husband to wood burn a “Welcome” sign, then secure it over their front door with a drill.

With every passing week of isolation, my kids’ imaginations flourish and they connect more with their internal worlds. It’s as if the daily costumes are shields, enabling them to create their own realities.

The trash has become their treasure. They even intercepted a tattered rainbow tablecloth on its way to the garbage can. It’s become the portal to their new life.

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Quarantine

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES: Quarantine Costumes, Day 19

Stay-School Adventures, Quarantine Costumes + Kites, Day 19 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

My family has entered into a new realm of quarantine. My 7-year-old, Remy, wears a pink tutu and crown daily. My 3-year-old, Bo, wears a cape with or without his Batman mask. My husband, Ross, has even unearthed an Irish cap from the closet’s darkest corner–and he’s been in a great mood ever since.

I don’t have a costume yet but I did dig up my rollerblades from 1998 and rolled through the neighborhood with Remy.

“When did you get those!?” Remy asked me, next-level excited.

“Remy, these blades are old enough to be your mother,” I told her.

And as I gained speed, swerving in and out of a neighborhood of empty driveways, I thought, “Why did I ever give this up? I am really good.”

Then I swung out of control and did a crash landing on the neighbor’s lawn.

We spent April Fools’ Day trying to fly a kite in the backyard. Ross mostly dive-bombed our kids with it, but there were a few good moments where the kite really took flight and soared.

Its not all capes and kites over here. At least once everyday, I nose-dive into feelings of doom, grief and dread about what might happen and what is already happening– happening to people that I love.

But I think the kids–and Ross–are onto something with the dress-up. Those things we haven’t done or worn in years that used to bring us joy, those things can still bring us joy. It’s been well-worth the trip to the back of the closet.

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Categories
Quarantine

Stay-School Adventures: Unraveling in Mud, Quarantine Day 18

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES, Unraveling in Mud, Quarantine Day 18 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

Today I left my kids in the backyard for an unsupervised 30 min. Their matching yellow rain suits have become their homeschool recess uniform now that we’ve hit mud season.

When I opened the door to check on them they were literally rolling in a mud swamp at the bottom of their slide laughing hysterically. Their yellow rain suits were now caked with mud. To top it off I had just bathed them.

I felt something in me unravel and my heart skipped a beat at the momentary shock of how dismantled everything was becoming. It was a Tuesday afternoon and all the rules of normal had been shredded and thrown into the air like confetti around me.

But instead of cleaning up the mess all I felt like doing was admiring the chaos. And unraveling further.