We started the day off with a survey: Who is the silliest person in our family? We called several relatives...because what else do we have to do?
Isaac kept the tally and won by a landslide. Somehow I didn't get any votes; it must mean that the rest of the family is really silly.
Yesterday Joshua and I cleaned out a cabinet. I don't have a before picture, but I'm pretty proud of the after picture. The plan is to put the drinks in here once the weather warms up for easy moving to the fridge. But for now, the garage is a great refrigerator.
We had an actual rest time today. Joshua hasn't had a nap in two weeks and it showed last night. So everyone had to stay in their beds, although they didn't have to sleep. (I'm not actually sure that Isaac stayed in his bed, but this rest time was mainly for Joshua. Isaac at least stayed in his bedroom.) Joshua fell asleep and slept quite a while; I had to wake him up.
Isaac read and measured some resistors. Surprise! They were within tolernce.
This week Isaac's activity is to read in the tub.
For Joshua's spider unit he made a spider web. We did it outside because the house is too messy. It got left up all day so that the walkers could smile at it. (It went across the driveway a few times.)
Here is Isaac's finished Scratch project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/380307939. I was pasting the link in an email to his teacher and he asked me, incredulously, how I typed it that fast.
We had a slow start to the morning because we had a special breakfast of blueberry strudel that needed to be baked. And by slow, I mean not-really-much-slower than normal. Isaac wore his sleeping bag for half the day.
We're having serious mouse problems with the computer on the left; it sometimes recognizes the mouse and then it just stops. We've tried multiple mice. I think we might bring Isaac's desktop upstairs for now; that way he also won't bother Ben as Ben is trying to work.
Isaac is doing an alegra unit on Khan academy, but there wasn't a review for the unit he was working on so he got to use the white board.
Joshua's life skill was finishing up the muffins.
In keeping with the Lego challenge theme, Joshua altered his challenge. It was supposed to be an ice cream truck. It ended up being an ice cream place that shoots out ice cream.
Work time. I gave a small exam today. It was exceptionally boring, as I flipped through the screens and watched the students not cheat. (Or cheat well enough that I couldn't tell.)
Isaac's life skill was making meatballs. He dealt with touching the meat better than I expected. We also finished up two containers of bread crumbs and started a third...Italian ones, normal ones, and Japanese ones. I'm not sure why I have so many bread crumbs, but I'm glad to get rid of some. Pantry cleaning for the win!
Joshua is apparently doing a unit on spiders, so I told him to go in the basement and look for spider webs. Of course, he doesn't just go down and look, he wants to clean them too. It's not just a clean though, it was a banish. Basically, he was playing a game with the spider webs and not learning anything at all. (Of course, he couldn't find any so I had to go help him. Perhaps what he was learning is where to look for spider webs, another important skill?)
During recess the kids were playing their new favorite game of delivering stuff to the door so they could be thieves later and steal it back. I decided I needed a guard dog. Of course, with no dogs around I used the next best thing...a guard kitty. (The video isn't great.)
Soon after that I get a note from my guard kitty asking for his friend. Now Tornado doesn't like the carrier, so at first a circled 'no'. But Horizon "really, really" wanted him, so I forced him in.
I pretty much lost track of what was going on after that. The thieves came into the house and stole THE WHOLE BAG of cat food. The thieves decided the best way to get the cats back into the house was to stroller them down the hill to the back slider door. Luckily, the thieves also decided to clean up after themselves.
We continued Joshua's spider theme with his Lego challenge by asking him to build a spider. He continued changing the spider theme to suit his desires. May I present the spider mech (i.e., robot), controlled by a spider. It does at least have eight legs.
Isaac's life skill was to weight the loose lego. Ben and I have been curious as to how much we have, so now seems like a good time to do it. (It's not necessarily the weighing of the lego that's the life skill, but keeping track of what he's done and the results.)
It was nice enough to go on a walk around the lake this afternoon. It was busy!! I don't think I've ever seen that many people out walking at once. But we all did a great job social distancing. We were only 6ft away from someone a few times when we were going in opposite directions on the sidewalk, otherwise we were closer to 15ft.
Ben finished work right after Joshua and I got back, so Joshua (and Isaac) brought Ben on a walk around the lake. Joshua takes his job of making sure we get exercise very seriously.
Hmm, I didn't get as many pictures of 'school' today. It must be getting normal. I did make the kids do the not-so-fun things first and I think it helped. Oh! We didn't have any tears today (except for a small injury, which doesn't count.) I was going to have a special breakfast for them, but Isaac made bran muffins yesterday. I guess we'll have special breakfast later.
I do have a picture of a dog house Joshua made for his Lego challenge. Both boys got through more of their activities today...I'm not really sure why. Life skills may have been shorter and recess may have been shorter, and when you add up a few other shorter things you can get through most of the items on the list I guess.
But I'm sure you're really all wondering how back-to-school went for me. Well, it ended up going quite well, I think. I'm obviously not 100% sure because I can't see faces or watch body language, but I covered all the material I wanted to. At the end of the week last week I decided that I actually wanted to use Zoom instead of Google Meet. I felt a little nervous about this decision, because most of the campus is going with Google Meet. However, only one person can present at a time to Google Meet and I wanted to be able to flip through screens. Zoom is far from ideal, but it worked fine. I did cast to Google Meet too and one person chose that option, but most students went with Zoom. Everyone from my second class even showed up, which I was slightly surprised about. (Most students from the first class showed up, but I didn't get a final count.)
My children did a good job too. I talked to them a few times, Ben helped them out a few times, but it wasn't excessive. The worst part was that Joshua went to the bathroom and forgot to flush and I couldn't flush for him because I was using a headset. I closed the door and that worked. (Phew.) The cats did a pretty good job of not interrupting me too. Horizon even sat on my lap for a bit, which was a definite perk!
I posted the lectures on-line. I briefly listened to one to make sure the sound was working and I didn't sound as bad as I was expecting. (Everyone always sounds terrible to themselves, right?) Phew.
Well, we went back to school today. Ben worked from home today. A new normal.
Let's see. Isaac made bran muffins for his life skill. He wanted to do it all weekend but I put him off. I used a buttermilk powder instead of fresh buttermilk and it didn't expand with baking soda as much as it normally does. Hopefully they'll taste ok for breakfast.
Joshua's life skill was making tater tot casserole. He didn't like it, but Ben and I thought it was delicious.
Joshua started making a glue quilt for art. He didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I was expecting...but he took a break and will continue it next art session.
It snowed out last night. How nice of God to give us some new toys for the day! The boys built a snow mountain...Joshua lawn-mowered the snow to the mountain.
Isaac wrote about the time Giraffe got lost and was found at Aunt Allison's house. I could tell he wasn't into it. I'm moving some of these 'have to do' items to the beginning of the day when everyone is in slightly better spirits. (Speaking of which, the tears came today because apparently Joshua didn't think he could write an 'a'. I've been rather surprised at how often he gets moody because he thinks he can't do something.)
Sensory this week is water balls. They were a hit today.
Isaac's project for the week is Scratch programming. He did it every free moment until dinner, after which we said he needed a break.
Tornado was found on Joshua's bed, but didn't stay there long.
