Tuesday, the routines have been slightly adjusted. We changed our daily plan a bit with the learnings from day 1. Timothé works on a schedule, his teacher is closely following them. Hugo has less to do, which is good because he still needs a lot of help. Sarah takes care of herself, and she prepares lunch for everyone. Nicole gave a math lesson and exercise to Timothé via video – I think they both enjoyed.

Sev and I manage to get quite a lot done workwise. There is much to adapt to as well, both because everybody is working from home, but also because of the challenging situation with the oil&gas market at the moment, with oil prices halved within just a few days.

The boys spent a lot of time playing in the trampoline. They went for a walk with Séverine late afternoon. Sarah and I went for a bike tour in the neighborhood – funny to realize that we were visiting some of the local areas for the very first time. We discovered waterfalls, portugese-style houses, old farms and villas.

At 18:00 we went outside our front door to congratulate all the health workers for their work. Timothé played the tuba, to make sure we would be heard.

Music of the day was “The Sound of Music” soundtrack. Sarah taught us the handsigns for each note. We practiced our Do Ré Mi!

Monday – first day working from home. We asked Sarah to take care of herself, so that we would be more available to Timothé and Hugo.

It was all a bit difficult. This is all new, we do not have routines yet. We’re constantly improvising, trying and failing. At the end of the day, the homework was done, and we had never come to a situation where it was necessary to switch on the TV – a good indicator. Our setup for working from home worked well.

At 1030 we stopped all activities and watched the Prime Minister of Norway on TV. She was giving a conference for kids, with two of her ministers. Doesn’t get much more Norwegian than this.

The kids are still watching “La vie” (Once upon a time… Life). We’ve got 6 DVDs, and are starting number 2. This is going too fast.

In the evening, I went to collect the USB hub I bought, and went grocery shopping. I did it quite late, to avoid any crowd. Plenty of food in the shops, but I still bought a lot, so that I don’t have to shop too often.

Music of the day was the good old Police. Feels a bit “so lonely” these days 😉

Sunday is a rainy day… Our focus is to prepare as well as possible for home school and for working from home. Séverine and I have decided to have our desks in 2 separate rooms – we will have a lot of video chats and video meetings, we can’t be sitting next to each other. The desks are ready: external monitor, keyboard and mouse. We found an old USB hub that we had bought almost 20 years ago, and not used since 2003 probably – very handy, though. And we bought another one online… I never thought I would ever buy a USB hub again.

To get some physical activity, we tidied up the garage and the basement. We also mounted the trampoline – that also will be very handy in the coming weeks, a good way for kids to exercise while being at home. Maybe I should start, but not before having checked the specs on maximum weight, though. Séverine and the boys went for a walk in the neighborhood. They spotted a car from a trampoline business. Apparently, we’re not the only ones setting up the trampoline early this year.

On Sundays, we usually sit together with Séverine and write down our weekly plan. Today we made a daily version of it, and prepared the plan for Monday with the kids. When do we work, when do we take breaks, who of Séverine and I is available when.

On the evening, I had a video meeting with the board of the kids’ orchestra. It proved technically challenging, but we got through it and managed to make some progress. It was a video meeting with neighbors, literally.

Today we went for a long bike ride, down to Fornebu. We had some shopping to do (DIY for Sarah), and met with Brunzie in the park. We played badmnington and rugby with the boys, a safe 50m from anyone. In the evening, Playstation again!

With the TV in the living room, we’ve started watching programs together… Feels like 10 years ago. Our show of the day: Wheeler Dealer, the French version. I swear this show already existed 20 years ago. They were restoring a Ford Capri today. Sitting on the sofa watching that show with my two boys, I felt like I was mastering fatherhood.

Sarah is feeding us with cakes, on a daily basis these days.

Friday, we experimented the first days at home for the kids. They don’t have much home work yet, as the teachers need time to adapt. Timo played Fortnite on the Playstation, and chatted on his phone with his friends. One of them came to visit late afternoon… And then the realization came: it is probably not something we should be doing. Kids are asked to play with just 1 or 2 friends, always the same ones, and only outdoor. That social isolation became very real…

Fortunately we have email, video calls and social networks to keep in touch. Myself, I decided to maintain social contact by playing a little bit on the Playstation with Fofi.

We maintained our family tradition and had our Friday pizza. We have a DVD set of the 80’s cartoon “La vie” (Once upon a time… Life). Pedagogical, entertaining and very timely!

I have never gotten as many text messages as today. We don’t see each other, but we all share a lot about the situation, the context, what challenges we meet. And we share jokes. That’s good to keep the day going.

I am restarting this blog. Not that we are traveling! Quite the opposite: we are stuck at home. The Norwegian government has just closed all the schools, and we have been instructed by our employer to work from home.

This is a very new situation for us, as for everyone. We’re going to spend 15 days home with minimal social interactions while working or learning.
Because of the Covid-19, we’re in a strange state of mind: worried to be infected, to be sick; focused on making sure the next 2 weeks go as well as possible; and curious to see how this will work.

We used the evening to start changing a few things in the house. We need a place to work for Séverine and I; we are moving in the TV room (TV stua, as we call it here in Norway), and moving the TV to the living room.

The kids need a desk to work on – fortunately they found one after some archeological excavation. It was hiding below a heap of papers, toys and clothes.