The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 26 ,2 02 0 | 16 2020 Readers' Choice Nominations now open! Nominate your favourites in stores, services and people for the 2020 Georgetown Readers' Choice Awards. Complete nomination list will be posted at a later date. Nominations open 'til April 12th, 2020 make your nominations at: http://theifp.ca/readerschoice Earlier this month I was enjoying the warmth of the sun on my skin, the sand between my toes, and watching my children frol- ic in ocean waves. We swam with sea turtles in the Caribbean Ocean, and it was magical...until. "You're on vacation un- til April 5," my friend, Gayle, told my children as she walked in the door where we were staying in beautiful Barbados. I should explain that my boisterous five-year- old, Sam, had accidentally broken the Wi-Fi at the be- ginning of the week. Being frugal, I resolved not tofrugal, I resolved not tof spend $12 a day to use my phone, so I had relied on Gayle to relay any world news. "What!?" I thought, "We're stuck here?" She explained that schools were closed, but we could still go home. In that moment, my vacation bubble burst. I realized we weren't coming home to the same Burlington we had left just a week before. Now we are home and in quarantine for 14 days. Working from homeWorking from homeW with one sick child is man- ageable. They sleep most of the time and I can down- load and caption previous- ly photographed assign- ments. I can write in the si- lence. Working from homeWorking from homeW with two healthy, boister- ous children -- who can't leave our property -- is proving to be more of a challenge. When I'm try- ing to write, they are natu- rally curious and want to know what I'm doing. While I was trying to edit the video for this story, we did it collaboratively -- be- cause otherwise it wasn't going to get done. The kids are now excited about vid- eo editing their footage from Barbados so that wasfrom Barbados so that wasf an unexpected bonus. Other complications to our quarantine include Scarlett's ninth birthday. We've obviously cancelledWe've obviously cancelledW her party. And while she was definitely disappoint- ed, she is showing a re- markable amount of matu- rity about it. So what have we been doing to cope? We've made a scheduleWe've made a scheduleW to keep our days flowing without becoming an un- ending Netflix marathon. I took a schedule that's been floating around on Face-floating around on Face-f book and modified it to fit our family. It includes aca- demic time -- both with and without computers -- as well as outdoor time, craft time, chores, quiet time, free time and screen time. We're also working onWe're also working onW some things we seemingly haven't had time for, in- cluding Sam learning to tie his shoelaces and Scarlett learning to sew. We're on day three ofWe're on day three ofW living with the schedule and, while we certainly haven't been keeping to the times perfectly, I'm fairly sure it's been keeping me from going insane. from going insane. f One of the choice phras- es of the first two days were Sam commenting, "I don't want to write, I want to sword fight." He was supposed to be practicing his letters. Not to be outdone, Scar- lett boasted to her brother, "I've been helpful all day and now I get to watch an extra show, and you don't." Their proud faces after baking, not one, but two batches of peanut butter cookies were priceless. (Si- denote: we can't take these to school because of aller- gies, so bring on the pea- nut butter in this quaran- tine.) In the afternoon we've been taking virtual field trips to the bottom of the ocean, museums and to- morrow we plan to visit Mars. Here are some of the websites we've used so far: The Deep Sea, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Virtual Field Trips, and Uffizi Gal- lery tour. I've reached out to friends to help with thingsfriends to help with thingsf we need from the grocery store; they've dropped them on the doorstep and I've e-transferred them the money. My editor even de- livered dog food last night to make sure my dogs don't go hungry! I certainly haven't got it all figured out, and there have definitely been melt- downs (both theirs and mine), and a few time outs as we navigate how to not get under each other's skin. We are all in this togeth-We are all in this togeth-W er and the support I have received virtually and through phone calls, text messages and Facebook has been so welcome. I wish you all the best of luck keeping your little ones busy through the next few weeks. COMMUNITY SURVIVING 14-DAY QUARANTINE WITH MY KIDS METROLAND HALTON PHOTOG SHARES HER EXPERIENCE OF SELF-ISOLATION NIKKI WESLEY nwesley@metroland.com Torstar photographer Nikki Wesley is quarantined with her five- and nine-year-old children. Nikki Wesley/Torstar