I took some front porch "homeschool" pictures today... Our life looks pretty different these days with school being on our devices in the basement and in our pajamas, but we've been embracing this time together, and actually enjoying waking up late, working at our own pace, and having nowhere to go!
There has been a fair amount of reading going on too... We make sure it isn't ALL screen time!
Our new pile of "school supplies"...
These girls have been loving hanging out together!
Emily got an awesome shirt from Aunt Bridget for her birthday, and it's PERFECT for her and this crazy time!
We started the week off by celebrating the wonderful gift of Jesus with an at-home Easter celebration... you can check out our whole Easter post to see our day's activities here: Easter Day Here are just a few pictures to highlight our day:
This week marked the official start of "Online" school... and there is definitely a bit of a learning curve (mostly for me...)! It didn't help that on morning #1, much of our area was without power due to terrible storms and tornadoes in the area. Our lights only flickered a few times, and our internet dropped in and out a few times, but we were very lucky to have the worst of the storms pass over us...
When we got up and going this morning, everyone signed on to see their assignments for the week, and Ben found a few of his lessons were going to be taught via video from the team of second grade teachers at his school. He definitely enjoyed seeing all of them again, and Monday was story time and practicing of retelling a story with one of the teachers in her living room tent! I've ended up liking these lessons the best, as I have a few minutes to myself since all the other work takes a bit of my help to make it run smoothly...
Brian set up a Minecraft server for Ben so he could play with his friends, and they sent out an invite to his whole class! We have to iron out the details, but he's enjoyed connecting with some friends on there!
Apparently, Ben's PE coach send a video message and said the kids should be getting A LOT of exercise (which honestly doesn't happen a TON around here), but we try everyday, and Monday was a perfect day for Ben & I to go on a walk alone... Thank goodness for beautiful weather down here!
Some news clips from the beginning of the week were focused on answering common COVID-19 questions, started addressing when to re-open things (and Trump's opinion on his role in all of this), and what will happen to the original April 16 deadline for our stay-at-home order...
Tuesday was a new day with more homeschooling challenges, website glitches and google meetings for the kids... I do still find it odd that my days are planned around my kids conference calls, but they are taking it all in stride and doing great...
In an effort to not be political and keep things light... and just because we all need a little bit of humor, check out this Trump impersonator on Easter if you need a laugh:
We can also try practicing gratitude to keep ourselves positive these days... Here is an EASY way to look for one great thing a day you are thankful for:
There have been a lot of news stories this week about what reopening things would look like it and what precautions we need to take. Out of all of the stories, the take-away is that it's not going to be easy, and we are all going to need to remain patient!
In case you're wondering about appropriate social distancing, these wonderful first responders gave us a visual (taken at the hospital right outside of the classroom I usually teach classes in)... Stay safe!
Emily's been rocking her home schooling, even if it means taking pictures of her math work with her phone, uploading it online, attaching it to a google document in her google classroom, turning it in online, "sharing" the document with her teacher, and waiting for a response... Whew... school is definitely different these days, but we are going to have a new generation of VERY tech-savy kids when this is all over!
I went back to "old school math" with Ben and made him hundreds, tens and ones models so we could work on some big math with visuals. It's nice to just have scrapbooking supplies laying around the house!
Abby's been finishing her work pretty quickly, so on Wednesday, she tried being a Factime teacher to Madelyn, where she helped her with her writing and read her a story. That one is going to take a bit of getting used to (Madelyn found the mute button and kept turning Abby off...), but we'll keep trying to help out Aunt Bridget from afar! I've heard that this week, the girls are planning on co-teaching" together! That should be interesting...
I made Abby choose gardening as her "special" this week, and she learned how to cut some roses off our bush and make us a vase of "happiness" for our kitchen! She's even going to learn how to trim the bushes when the season is right...
Emily helped me after my trip to the store today. She "carefully" brought the bags to my "disinfection zone" in the garage before we brought all of our clean food and supplies in the house. It's quite a process these days! I won't let her touch anything, but she's been so sweet and wanted to help...
Our state extended their stay-at-home order for another 2 weeks, until at least April 30th now, since we haven't seen our peak of cases in the area yet. It also brought with it a few modifications...
There has been so much talk about the road to reopening this week, but after a lot of criticism over being the "total authority" in decision making, Trump is putting the decision back in the hands of the individual state governors.
We wrapped our week up with another walk in the woods, some Lego building, a few more class conference calls, all assignments turned it, and I'd call it a pretty successful week here in quarantine!
I will leave you with my most difficult lesson on this crazy journey so far... It's not always easy to do, but take the time to look at those around you and appreciate that you may not understand their struggles in this journey. Be there to listen, to comfort, and to love those around you... Do the uncomfortable, but necessary thing, and "get in someone else's storm." We can help each other through this! Stay home, and stay safe! Love to you all...
