Wednesday: stay in bed

Joshua came in to see if I was awake yet.  I was, but I told him I didn't want to get out of bed.  He called in the reinforcements...Isaac.  Isaac asked why I didn't want to get out bed and I said that I didn't want to do school.  Isaac immediately realized the implications of this and left with Joshua.

They came back a little later with a granola bar for me and told me that I wasn't supposed to get out of bed.  Then they went back outside and figured out the minimum amount that they could get away with for school.

So Isaac helped Joshua with his number flashcards.  The next item for Joshua was mom's choice, so I had Joshua do a puzzle on the floor.  Isaac did his reading and math next to me in bed.  I had gotten my laptop by this point and was doing work of my own.

However, I did have a few things that needed to be done.  Joshua helped by putting on my socks.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk around the lake and I gave them a letter scavenger hunt.  I also gave them phones to take pictures with, but the phones died before we got half way around.  I guess the camera can't stay on the whole time.  Anyway, Isaac had s and found things like: steel, silver, sign, sky, sun, stick, scene, seagull, and seven.  Joshua had b and found things like: bark, bump, branch, black, ball bush, bench, bird house, and background.

Well, it was an interesting day!  Joshua made a popcorn bucket out of Legos to match the popcorn bucket he made yesterday from perler beads.

Joshua had his first time of karate.  It was good that I was there, but I think he had fun.

And the boys are putting together all the Lego dragons that we have.  Joshua put the popcorn bucket in the middle so that...the finished dragons could have popcorn?  I forget, but it was very cute at the time.

Tuesday: week 3, day 2

Isaac cleaned the toilets today.  He wasn't thrilled with it, but in the past he's been happy to clean them.  Maybe it's because I made him clean the outside too, which is not as much fun.

Joshua's Lego challenge was to build a bird.  (We're pretending to do a unit on birds.  It involves him looking out the window and counting a lot of birds.)  Anyway, he made a hummingbird mech with a parrot controller.

Isaac: I was thinking.  There are 24 students in the class and 24 hours in the day, so Mrs. Jonker could spend an hour with each of us!

Amanda: yeah, but...what is a problem with that plan?

Isaac: We'd only get to see her for an hour.

Ben: What other problems are there?

Isaac: Some students would have to be awake at 3am

Ben: Pretend you're the teacher.  Then what is the problem?

Isaac: Um, I wouldn't have time to eat?  I could do that while teaching.

Ben: Keep going...

Isaac: or sleep

Amanda: or do anything besides teaching!

Monday: school is still happening

Well, we continued on with school today.  We made it through the day.  Hopefully some learning is going on.  Also, I think Joshua got accepted into EC next year (as expected) because I had to sign up for a screening time.  However, we haven't been officially accepted so I found the order of things a bit crazy.  Well, it's crazy times everywhere.  We also got an email that said there would be more distance learning after spring break (when the governor announces schools will be closed for longer).  I think that would be helpful, but it might be annoying too.  We'll see how it plays out I guess.

Joshua's lego challenge was to build a shark.  He built a shark mech with a shark on top of it.

We got groceries today.  Well, I guess Ben picked up groceries that I ordered today.  It turned out that we ran out of milk first.  How boring.  I was surprised some of the items that were out of stock: yogurt tubs, pizza rolls, and canned potatoes.  There were a few other things too, but they were replaced with similar items at least.

Sunday

We did church from home again.  It's a bit weird, but so is everything in life these days.  The church has a playlist from youtube for us to go through with the songs.  It works pretty well, but I wish they'd stick to songs that I know.  It's hard enough learning new songs at church, but when it is just the four of us it's awkward.  Sometimes we just watch the song because it seems to be meant for watching more than singing, but still...  Afterwards I made it to the live Q&A session.  I think it's a cool way to get people a little more engaged.  I didn't say much and did take apart a Lego set during it, but it was still good.

Beyond that, not much today.  Some cleaning.  Some pretending we're ready for next week.  Some "why do the boys keep trapping us with mountains of stuff I'm over it".

Saturday: Saturday

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.

Friday: end of the week

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.

Thursday: this and that

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!