Day 4

Joshua drew Gerald and Piggie.

There was learning on the computers.

Isaac's life skill was to change the sheets on his bed and our bed.  His bed went ok, our bed might have been a bit much.

Joshua counted to 20 without forgetting 13 several times!  Yesterday we made these Lego numbers to use...I wanted something more substantial than paper.

Isaac's challenge was to do his reading in a cozy spot.

This was his cozy spot from the front.

Isaac also made two more stop motion videos.


We still had a few tears today because Joshua didn't know what to do during rest time.

Wednesday: day 3

Today went pretty well, although we haven't managed to have a tear-less day yet.

Also, I start wondering about boredom levels when Isaac starts doing his chores BEFORE I get out of bed for the day.  I'm not sure whether to be proud of him for taking the initiative or really scared that he's bored out of his mind.

Isaac started the day out with science.  We're doing a unit on circuits.  And by unit, I mean whatever seems to be an appropriate amount for the day.  Yesterday he identified series vs parallel resistors, today we calculated and measured series resistors, and tomorrow we're going to identify the resistors based on their bands.

Joshua started out with art.  I told him to look out the window and draw whatever he saw.  The yellow is the sunrise.  The green thing in a circle is the dead plant.  He also saw a bird but didn't feel confident enough to draw it, so just wrote it.

One reason today went well is that the boys spent more time outside than normal.  I really let them stay outside as long as they want, but that just hasn't been very long.  Today there was a game that involved yelling at the front door (because they only get one doorbell ring a day) and leaving a 'package'.  I'd loudly say some absurd thing and bring it inside.  So then Isaac, a thief, came inside to steal my stuff!  So I locked assorted doors and unlocked other doors and they found the spare key and Isaac managed to unlock a door and apparently it was the one of the best games ever.

Isaac's working on a project to make a stop-motion video and really getting into it.  (That's what his tears were from...the app is not the most user friendly.)  I'm trying to get him to do most of it by himself, so we briefly talked about his first one and then he made another one:


At lunch time I tend to ask the boys how it's going - what is good, what could be better, what they don't like.  Joshua's been pretty easy to please after we made sure to keep him warm enough outside.  Actually, Isaac's been pretty easy to please too, although he has more suggestions.  They're usually pretty good and minor suggestions, so several have been put into effect.

Tuesday: day 2

Today went better than yesterday in regards to schooling.  I had a few more items ironed out, so there wasn't as much pausing.  There were a few times when they both needed my help, but they were also quite understanding.  I also felt like I got a few of my things done.  Not many, but that isn't all that abnormal.

Isaac made quite a bit of dinner today (chicken bacon ranch sliders) for his life skill.  He did at least a little of everything until the very end, by which time he had moved on to the next activity.  He fried the bacon, thawed the chicken broth, trimmed the chicken, and put it all together.  Horizon helped.  Joshua learned how to fold his laundry.  I expect that is a chore that I won't be taking back any time soon.

Joshua and I continued to work on Elsa's castle.

Piano lessons started today.  Joshua was telling Ben about his day this evening and said, "I learned to play the piano."  Well...he at least started.  His motor skills are (obviously) not the same as Isaac's, so Isaac did four pages of the book and I stopped Joshua at two. 

Isaac had me time his three laps to the cal-de-sac and back.  I was impressed with his consistency.  He said he had to push himself during the last one and he did come back in rather out of breath.  We had several other running times throughout the day.  (We?  I should say they.)  These kids just run and run and run.  It's too bad that I don't enjoy it.

Monday: social isolation day 3, homeschooling day 1

Well, we survived the day.  The day went fine.

Here are the things that didn't go so well:
1. I wasn't quite as prepared as I 'needed' to be.  There were several, "uh, I need to you wait ten minutes while I try to figure this out."
2. Joshua missed having as much Mom time as normal and mentioned it several times.
3. Getting anything else done around the house.
4. Sending Joshua outside without the correct cold weather gear.
5. Trying to teach life skills while doing other work.

Here are the things that went fine:
1. Working on stuff for Hope while directing the boys.  It was only an hour, and they had several questions during that time, but it was doable.  I was slightly distracted from everything, but it worked.
2. Most of the 'subjects' for both boys.  They would be better with improvement but let's not be too hasty.

Art

Morning work

stop motion

Spanish (Duolingo)

Sensory (oobleck)

3. Time management for the whole day.  The boys did their chores before dinner because they were bored and were hoping for more screen time after dinner.  It worked out for them a little bit.  Joshua had to refill all of our emergency/freezer water and made some kind of game from it.

Here are the things that went well:
1. The schedule.  Oh, that worked so well.  Isaac had cut his items out before I woke up.  They loved going to look at seeing what they were supposed to do next.  Tomorrow's schedule has already been arranged.

Here are the other notes:
1. Isaac's life skill was cleaning the fish tank.  He did not enjoy it and wanted to know why he had to learn it because he might never have a fish.   Joshua's life skill was sorting the laundry into pilles for different people.
2. Both boys got out new Lego sets and it was a good break while still being part of the schedule.  Isaac is using one to make a stop motion video and Joshua and I are doing one during 'mom's choice.'
3. We followed the normal routine of screen time/rest time after lunch and then finished the few items we had left.  I thought it worked well.
4. For gym Isaac had to run to the end of the cauld-e-sac twice.  I thought this would take him about fifteen minutes.  Instead it took him about five.  I didn't watch him, but I'll assume he was going to the right place.  Tomorrow I'll up it to three times because it obviously wasn't hard enough.

Sunday: social isolation - day 2

Today went better than yesterday.  I'm not really sure why.

I'm all ready for tomorrow.  The kitchen table has been cleaned off.  The white board was brought upstairs.  I decided that Joshua gets to have school every day too, because I don't think I can do one child with school and one without, especially on the days I need to work too.

While I've seen all kinds of schedules floating around on Facebook, I'm taking a slightly different approach.  I've made a list of the things that 'need' to be done.  We'll cut them out tomorrow and they can choose the order.  Obviously, I can take out things or change the order a bit if needed...recess needs to happen at the same time for both boys.  I can't help two children at once, etc.  This gives them some control while still having a rhythm to the day.  If they finish early, they finish early and can enjoy free time.  If it takes them forever, then it takes them forever.

I especially like how both of them felt the need to write on their papers.

Saturday: social isolation - day 1

Well, today didn't really go as well as I would have liked.  I'm not sure it went poorly, but...yeah.  It was a normal Saturday for us in that we didn't go anywhere.  (Right?  We should be prepared for this.)  But things just didn't quite click.

We did play a bomb game this morning that involved Isaac and Joshua hiding 'bombs' in the office.  Ben or I diffused them and then hid them by the kids.  I didn't think it was that fun, but it also wasn't very demanding.  The kids played it for quite some time so they must have enjoyed it.

Joshua enjoyed bird watching this morning with some new binoculars.  He was very concerned that I hadn't filled up the bird feeder two minutes after he mentioned it.

Also, Happy Pi day!  Isaac had circle homework all week that I don't think he's enjoying, but really should be pretty easy.  We had pizza and pie for dinner.

Friday: preparation

Well, life has gone a bit crazy. 

Isaac has had classes canceled for the next three weeks (after which he has one week of spring break).  He thinks that the next three weeks are going to be fun because he doesn't have to go to school.  I think his expectations will quickly change.

We started errands by getting some more cat food.  We got it a little earlier than normal, but not that much earlier.  The carts were a bit smaller, and Joshua noted that he's growing up because he can push the cart around.

Then we went to Meijer.  The toilet paper is all gone, based on the the nationwide phenomena of buying toilet paper even when you don't need it.  At 10:30am most of the ramen was also sold out as was most of the ground beef and quite a bit of pasta.

We stocked up on a lot of important things like donuts.  I have been planning on making a lot of freezer meals next week, so I did have a large amount of groceries but I was also trying to stock up on a few things.

The biggest problem was the checkout.  The line when around the corner and halfway to the back of the store.  I overheard some employees saying that it was worse than Christmas.  (But really, what did everyone expect?  The recommendations are to buy 2-3 weeks worth of groceries and the schools are about to close.)  My shop and scan app wasn't working.  Oh, what a day for it to not work!  I restarted the phone.  That didn't work.  I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and that finally worked.  Phew!  So I really probably only spent an extra five minutes in the store.