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!