Week Three SHSH Day 17

So apparently it's been 17 days since we started self quarantine. I had lost count.
I haven't been posting on here as much because each day is basically the same, so if you want a schedule, look back at the first few posts. 😛

Things that have changed a little bit are:

-we have been walking up to the local high school up the street for free school lunch distribution because groceries are still in low stock, so it has helped boost us for healthy snacks and food for the kids. They provide a daily breakfast and lunch, and milk.

-I have just started incorporating Alan's school's provided online resources into his learning time. They sent a note home at the end of last week about how they had plans to "ramp up" the distance learning, but I have not seen any changes so far. At this point as far as I know, all of his school work is still optional and not being graded. So we will keep on keeping on! Had a little bit of tears from Alan today as he was getting overwhelmed with me getting on his case about completing his work. I explained that this is the situation we HAVE to do right now, and I am one person teaching him. He has one teacher at school teaching many kids, so he does get in trouble for not completing work, but they don't get on his case the same way I do, I suppose. We are learning together how to learn together. It is a work in progress, and we are both trying our best. I know from teacher friends that this is a difficult time for parents, teachers, and students alike.
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Nora's virtual preschool is learning about community helpers all this week, so we are going to be sending letters and pictures to different helpers in our community. Nora loves firetrucks and ambulances and the like, so this will be a fun week for her, I hope.

Both kids overall are doing well with the cards we are being dealt with right now. We all have our own struggles, but overall, this is a positive thing, I think.

Keep on staying healthy, happy, and safe!

Here are some pictures from the past week:

Week Two! SHSH Day 10

Well, we ended up doing basically nothing all weekend, so nothing to report from there. I think we all needed to take it easy, and the weather wasn't so great, so we didn't go outside too much, either.

Came back into week two of homeschooling rested and ready to go, though!

Thank goodness for Miss Jamie at Play to Learn Preschool! She is doing another week of videos this week, at 11 am each day. This week's theme is fairy tales, so today started with the Three Little Pigs. Nora has been enjoying the videos and the singing, and it gives her a little bit of learning and fun, and a little bit of seeing someone besides her family, too, because although she loves us a lot (I think), she is a very social girl and misses her various teachers and friends from the outside world a lot. So she views Miss Jamie as her new teacher. 💛

Blowing down the house like the Big Bad Wolf

We made pig and wolf pictures and built three houses and reenacted the story. 

Piggies safe from the wolf!

 Alan read two scholastic articles, did a math problem from his school-provided worksheet, and did some independent reading today. He also did his chore, so both kids are enjoying screen time now.

We are continuing to tune into Mcharper Manor for art tutorials almost daily, but Alan doesn't have much interest in participating, and Nora loses steam pretty quickly after doing a painting or two. I do like that today, she used lots of different colors:

As always, we had outside time again this morning. Nora was able to do one of her favorite things: Jump in puddles!

 As always, stay healthy, happy, and safe, like Nora!

Dealing with the now.... SHSH days 6 and 7

Hello!

I did not write yesterday! I could have, but there was not much to report other than the kids are doing well in our home school time, and I get frustrated when I am around my family too much sometimes!

Yesterday, we did our outside time, and it was FINALLY a nice warm day out there again. Nora did her 11:00 virtual preschool. I hope they do this again next week, because it was so great. They do a video with songs and games and a story for about 20-30 minutes, and then they post resources so you can further the learning at home. This whole week focused on colors and rainbows, and color mixing. We did many of the activities on our own. Yesterday, we tried color mixing on a paper towel with food coloring:

Here is Nora outside yesterday. She has been obsessed with picking the daffodils:

Alan has been doing the Scholastic learn from home program this week. I have him read 2-4 articles, watch accompanying videos, and then we mostly have discussions on the topics, although I have been throwing a little bit of writing and math in here and there. Yesterday, I had him do the 6th-9th grade article because his reading level is there anyway, and the topic was on Esports, so I thought the video gaming aspect would be of interest to him. We've also been doing a lot of the animal themed articles and videos because he likes animals, and is interested in how they adapt and how they are different from us. He has read about endangered species, animal eyes, cat tongues, and some other things this week. I have not gotten pictures of him, I am aware, because 1) he does not usually like pictures taken of him and 2) he's just been sitting at the computer mostly as I work with him. But I have been proud of his participation and the discussions we have. I know that no matter what, I want to keep doing this every day in some aspect, because I have been enjoying learning with him and the discussions we have afterwards. I don't know how next week will look with him, because he is supposed to have distance learning work from school next week, so we will have to see what Monday brings.

I will probably do a post like this for the weekend too, with the days combined, because the schedule will be a little more relaxed, but we still plan to do some fun activities together!

In case you missed it, as of now:
Alan's return date to school is April 13
Nora's return date to school is May 11

Today, Jean joined us in the preschool fun:

and Nora worked on drawing some monsters from the printouts.

Finally, here is just a friendly reminder in times of stress:

Have a good weekend, and stay healthy, happy, and safe!

Cancellations and extended distance learning... SHSH Day 5

Halfway through week one of homeschool learning!

Hit a low point yesterday as we were running out of some home and food necessities (replenished bread, milk, eggs, paper towels, still need trash bags, peanut butter, and meat). When we need to go get supplies, we try to go at a time when stores won't be crowded, and if it looks crowded or picked over, we immediately leave. We have been frequenting the Family Dollar most often because of this. It is discouraging to still see things out of stock, and the Walmart website busy (we usually get grocery pickup, but it has been too busy to place an order). Even more discouraging yesterday was that our local town's activities are getting cancelled, and the big festival of the year just cancelled all activities yesterday. This festival was not supposed to be until May. At around the same time yesterday, I found out that Nora's preschool is closed until MAY 10! 😱

Had a little more relaxed/late start to this morning. Let the kids run around inside as today's weather is more gloomy and cold. Nora had virtual preschool at 11:00 with Play to Learn Preschool. She has been LOVING this. I also have had her practice writing/spelling her name every day.

We also have been doing something creative together every day through dance videos, or art videos (or both). Her gymnastics center has just announced that they will be making some at-home videos soon, too! Today, we took a virtual art class through McHarper Manor. Nora enjoyed the paint and the brushes! Yesterday, Nora tap danced in her high heeled shoes. She's been having lots of fun.

Alan has had a little bit more of a struggle, but honestly overall, everything has been good with him, too. He has REALLY enjoyed playing outside every morning. Before school closed, he had been doing okay, but having a few social struggles here and there, so I think that missing school for a little while is overall doing him good because it's like a breath of fresh air not having to deal with certain aspects of school for a little while. We had a good talk last night about why the break was happening, and that we are all doing something new at this time, because it is such a unique situation that has not happened before. We just found out today that his school is now closed through April 13. Since the virtual preschool videos are live at 11:00 every morning, Alan has been able to have free time (screen time) during this hour that I am working with Nora. This may change to reading time after this week; I am not sure yet. It depends on how long some of the online resources continue. We have to be flexible during distance learning time! His school is supposed to send materials for online learning next week, too, so we will have to see what that looks like, and how long it takes him to complete that work. Currently, he has been doing at least 2 of the Scholastic activities a day. Today, we spent about 30 minutes on the subject of the Revolutionary War with the activities that Scholastic provided. He then spent the rest of the time on animals. He read an article and watched a video on sea otters, and we watched some videos on the penguins at the aquarium who have daily "field trips" around the aquarium while it is closed to visitors. I gave Alan the option to opt out of painting class today, and he chose not to do it. Tomorrow, I will focus on keeping the schedule on track better for the next two days, and then on the weekend, the reins will loosen a bit again. Overall, I am pleased with his attitude and the discussions we have while learning a little bit. It will be interesting to see what next week will look like.

Well, that's the update. Things are overall good. Sometimes I'm tired. Sometimes I'm frustrated. Sometimes I think this is kind of fun. Keeping on a schedule even if it is kept a little more loosely some days, has been really beneficial for us, so I will definitely continue this, even if the overall schedule needs to change. If I am frustrated or stressed or tired or overwhelmed, or one or both of the kids are, that is when we move on to something else. Keeping things moving with new activities or videos to spice things up has been the key so far.

Happy hump day! Almost through week one.
Stay healthy, happy, and safe.

The New Normal... SHSH Day 4

It is St. Patrick's Day...

This is not really a holiday we pay much attention to here. Sometimes, we do some fun things to observe it, and sometimes, we don't. This year, I'm letting it pass us mostly by. None of us are wearing much green. I am planning a treat later for the kids, though. We wrote in green chalk outside and drew some lucky shamrocks. That is about the level of commitment I've given not only the holiday, but the day in general today.

Let me explain....

I woke up grumpy. It happens. I went to bed a little too late. I was trying not to take it out on the kids. I woke up and they had already eaten breakfast (Alan made them both eggs). So at least I didn't have to deal with that. I got them ready to go outside.

We did our morning "recess" outside time. This has been going well every day and the kids are really enjoying their time outside in the yard in the morning. Today, I challenged both kids to find me 3 different flowers and 3 different leaves that they saw. They worked together and completed their easy outside task I've been keeping these outside activities simple and quick so that they do have to think and do something, but then they have lots of free time to do whatever they want to. The weather was nice and sunny today too, and we are enjoying our spring flowers in the garden. We picked a whole bunch of daffodils, and a bunch of periwinkles too, to bring into the house. Nora said this would cheer her up. The smell in here now that they're in the window is very pleasant. We also picked some leaves and flowers to put in the flower press today.

My Kitchen Window

So we came inside after the kids played, and I looked at my "lesson plan" I had written down for academic activities for the kids today. And I was NOT happy. I had not planned anything out the night before on exactly what I had wanted to do with them, so I was kind of in a panic at first about what to do. For Nora, I just want to keep working with her on writing and spelling her name, and then any other kind of learning for her is good, because in preschool, they're learning new things each day, no matter what we do. I had made Nora a basic name puzzle where I wrote each letter of her name on a piece of cardboard and cut them out separately, so she had to put the letters back in order to spell her name. She did well with that, and then luckily, I remembered that the Facebook group Play to Learn Preschool was having a live virtual preschool video at 11:00 with songs, and a lesson, and a story. It was luckily just past 11. So Nora had virtual preschool, and she enjoyed it so much! I am definitely going to keep doing this with Nora! I even printed out the bonus resources that were provided, and did those with Nora, too. They can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pJAzPs07EV3lEqzUQ_zzl6lE9eY_6Knm/view?fbclid=IwAR28klo9T-X87-VOoDWG9vJ0Fqt8qrHH436vn7FEbk7nmXYSWrnrkThag3c

During this time, Alan had slipped back downstairs, but that ended up being okay, because it gave Nora a nice, quiet time to enjoy her learning time. Once she was done, she requested lunch and a show (she's been watching Pokemon over and over), so that it what she is still doing now. 

For Alan, I gave him some virtual school too, and used the resources from the scholastic website. I had wanted to work on vocab with him today, and luckily, there was a story on there for him to read that had questions and vocab with it. Perfect.

Found here: https://storyworksjr.scholastic.com/issues/2017-18/090117/clean-start.html

I also had him read this one on George Washington, since his grade studies Virginia history for social studies this year: https://sn3.scholastic.com/issues/2018-19/020419/washington-s-secrets-revealed.html#On%20Level 

I then had him do a few division problems from flash cards, and, big surprise, he did them all in his head, because he is a math whiz. Finally, I had him write in a pass back and forth type journal that he and I have about moms and sons. He also had a bit of a grumpy attitude today, and did not want to write much in the journal. He is not a fan of writing. Working on it!!

Finally, as a family, we pressed some of the flowers from outside into our flower press. I am going to start making our St. Patrick's day treat (green cinnamon sugar soft pretzels), and do some chores and have my own lunch. The only other thing I want to accomplish today is to have Nora do her second dance video. It is tap today. I will have to snap some pictures, of course! Doing a dance class online and playing outside yesterday really tired Nora out. She went to bed on her own right after 8:00 last night!

Finally, I mentioned yesterday about the online art class through McHarper Manor's Facebook page. It went great! Alan didn't even want to do it at first, but then, he made this beautiful picture that was so full of detail! And I liked that Nora used all the resources: paint, pencil, and black marker. And I'm pretty proud of my painting, too:

Working on trying to safely get some groceries in the next few days. Walmart pickup and delivery has not been going through. 

Until tomorrow, stay healthy, happy, and safe!

I made my kids LEARN!? SHSH Day 3

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." -Dolly Parton

Part of Alan's weekday morning work each day is going to include a quote, and we will analyze it together. I tried to pick some inspiring quotes that will make him think a little bit. I then asked him the questions:

1. What does the quote mean? 

2. Do you agree with the quote?

3. Can you think of a real life example?

4. Do you know the author? (this is mostly just for my own amusement)

Alan is a very literal thinker, so quotes like this can be tough for him. He was able to analyze it in terms of weather very well. But as soon as I told him to think of the rain as a "bad day" and the rainbow as a "good day", it took a little bit more abstract thinking on his part understand the deeper meaning of the quote. We discussed how if there were no bad days or things that make us sad or upset, then good days wouldn't seem as good to us because that's all we would know. 

I also saw something a long while back where young children (I think it was a class of first graders) finished famous quotes, and the results were hilarious, so I am having Alan complete a quote each day, again, mostly just for my own amusement, but also to get him to think a little bit, as well. I told him that with these, there are NO wrong answers, and he replied, "Well, if there are no wrong answers, then I can even say a bad word and I would be correct, because you said nothing can be wrong." The snark of a pre-teen is real, y'all. But he DIDN'T say a bad word today, so here is the result:

It's always darkest before..."midnight"

Nora started her morning work by "signing in", which is what it is called when she traces her name in the morning at school, since the parents are ACTUALLY signing their kids in to class at this time. I made her a tracing plate like her one at school:

We also had our morning outside time this morning before the real academic work began, and Nora used 4 senses (because taste would not be a good idea here) to describe things outside today: Nora SAW the grass, TOUCHED her gloves (her hands were inside them), HEARD the birds, and SMELLED her brother. (LOL)

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THEN we came inside out of the COLD (30 degrees outside this morning) and after a quick snack, Alan got started on his work. Today, we focused on MATH and MUSIC. 

In math, Alan completed a probability statistics worksheet that was from his school. He also worked on estimation with time. He verbally answered questions about if certain listed activities (reading a book, cooking a pizza, making toast, etc) took SECONDS, MINUTES, or HOURS to complete. He also answered questions about whether activities took MORE than one minute or LESS than one minute to complete. 

For Nora's math, she identified and counted the numbers 1-10. We did an activity where I put the numbers on the floor in a random order, and she had to identify the number I called out and jump to it:

For music, Nora and Alan listened to different classic pieces of music and identified different instruments and sounds using the book, "Can You Hear It?" 

Finally, Nora had dance instruction through a video my former dance teacher made for pre K students. She LOVED this (note that she had to put on a dance costume first in order to participate), and was so inspired when the dance class was done, that she has been watching the Nutcracker since we concluded. 

We are excited for a live stream that is happening in less than an hour here now from the facebook page McHarper Manor, which is doing daily live videos at 1:00 pm with art instruction, so I told the kids their "special" is art today. I can't wait to see what they create. 

Stay healthy, happy and safe!

I want to talk about Social Distancing SHSH Day 2

Good afternoon! It is Day 2 of Operation Stay Home, Stay Healthy!

The rest of yesterday went very well. The kids ate lunch together, did their chores (Alan unloaded the dishwasher and Nora picked up shoes that were scattered in the hallway). I also was on a laundry spree for hours yesterday, I think I did at least 4 loads, and of course, whenever Alan empties the dishwasher, I load it back up again! Since it was Saturday yesterday, and the kids did so well all morning and all the way through chores, they were basically allowed to chill the rest of the day and have screen time until dinner. We did brave a quick trip to Family Dollar to check out their stock and get some things that were needed (we did NOT buy anything in bulk!). It was not too crowded, and only a few things were low stock (baby wipes, bread, milk, and canned goods. And weirdly, plastic hampers). We observed National Potato Chip Day yesterday by eating potato chips, of course! And also celebrated National Learn About Butterflies Day by watching a few life cycle of butterfly videos on youtube. Nora really enjoyed the live time lapses the most from egg to butterfly. I thought Alan would enjoy observing the national days each day, as I did as a child, and it looks like I was right. I made ground chicken chili for dinner.

 I am getting my list of national days here: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/march/

The youtube videos we watched yesterday:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5RSpMQQOpw
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jivWeOrCaeI
and of course, we had to finish with The Very Hungry Caterpillar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

So this brings you up to speed from where we left off. Today after breakfast, the kids and I went outside for almost two hours! It was under 40 degrees out and damp. The kid had a blast and dug through the dirt finding worms and grubs. They will be doing their chores soon, but otherwise, since in is Sunday, the rest of the day is going to mostly be chill. Nora is having tea on the couch and watching Pokemon right now.

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So let's talk about social distancing. Right now, the phrase going through my mind has been "better safe than sorry." I am fine with staying home. I am fine with my kids staying home. Sticking to our schedule has been keeping us on track and feeling productive, and going out to the yard has been still giving us that "going out" feeling. I told the kids to think of it like it's their recess time at school. Yes, we went out to the store yesterday, but we had plans to just leave if it looked crowded or picked over. We went home and immediately all washed our hands after. Right now, we are going on what we need to do to feel safe. Sure, we are not at the greatest risk for the virus to do much harm to us. But none of want to be sick, either. It has been a very sick winter for all of us. I was recently in the hospital for tonsillitis, so yeah, I'd like to stay healthy now.

Here are some of the resources I have seen and shared, and find helpful to keep in mind. Be smart, and do what is the best for everyone!

This article: https://medium.com/@ariadnelabs/social-distancing-this-is-not-a-snow-day-ac21d7fa78b4

I can't get the image I found to upload here, but it basically summed up the points in the article by saying:

AVOID: -group gatherings -sleepovers -play dates -concerts -theatre outings -athletic events -crowded stores -malls -workouts in gyms -visitors in your house -non-essential workers in your house -mass transit systems -playgrounds (I added this one because I saw it in other posts)

USE CAUTION: -visit a local restaurant -grocery store -take out -pick up medications -parks -library -church -travelling

SAFE TO DO: - Take a walk/hike -yard work -play in your yard -clean out a closet -read a good book -listen to music -cook a meal -family game night -go for a drive -group video chats -stream a favorite show -check in with friends, elderly neighbors.

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What do you think of this list?
I agree with the avoid list. The only thoughts I have there are the biggest challenges for me will be keeping my in-laws from visiting. But they are in the at-risk category for the virus making them very sick. My father in law also travels a lot, and they live and work in DC, so we think we should all be cautious. Good thing phone calls and emails still work!

I think I would still put restaurants under avoid for us. Not worth the risk, in my opinion. Same with library and church. Our library has closed, anyway, and we don't do church, but before the library closed, I had plans to avoid going there for the time being just to be safe. I would do the same with church, if I went, because of groups of people being close together like that is not worth the risk to me.

I like the ideas on the safe list. As you know, we have been going out in our own yard every day, and doing chores here at home, of course. I am so encouraged by seeing all the fun ideas and support people are posting on Facebook, things like streaming dance parties, dance classes, art lessons, read a book and video it for others to tune in. An online book club would be so cool! I also saw something about writing letters to people in nursing homes or hospitals, since they can't have visitors right now. I love that idea. I had in our plans for this week sometime to write a letter to a community helper to thank them for their help and hard work during this time, because all of them have to keep working!

I will leave you on this note. No matter what your situation is, embrace what you DO have, and do what you CAN do. We'll get through this, and normalcy will return sometime soon. Until then, I'd rather be safe than sorry!

Stay healthy, happy, and safe!