Tuesday: yesterday and today

Yesterday Isaac and I were struggling over some of his reading packet.  He had to read a story, list some things about one of the characters, and then using that information write what he thought of the character.  What did he write?  "I don't know what I think of the character because I don't know him."  I was rather dumbfounded.  I know I was busy and am not the best teacher, but seriously?

We made it through though.  Isaac's life skill was to make the frozen cookies...but I didn't give him any help at all.  Well, a few comments.  What I was surprised to find is that he thought the cookies stopped baking once he turned the oven off.  He was going to leave the cookies in there until it was a little cooler and not so scary.  We had a fast discussion about how it was the heat that was still in the oven that cooks them and the cookies would burn if he left them in there.

Today was a screen time day.  (Almost) as much screen time as they wanted.  They spent most of it playing or watching the Switch.

Yeah, they were in those spots a lot today.  They did go to the beach for a bit, took a walk around the lake with us, and had a karate lesson, so they weren't there ALL day.  (Isaac considered going to the beach in his footie pajamas.  While I wasn't going to forbid it, I did ask him if he really thought it was a good idea.  He changed his clothes.)

I tried catching up on my work.  While I'm not caught up, I'm at least closer.  At one point I was looking through my files to see if I had any back from when I was at Hope.  (I was looking for some data to import into excel, and I knew the instron had some.) (I know there's a lot on the web and I did find some of it, but wanted to see exactly what I had in case it would act differently.)  About twenty minutes later Ben put a whole bunch of old CDs on my desk for me to sort through.  What was on the top?  My files from Hope.

Monday: Spring Break?

Today was the first day of spring break.  Hahaha.  As though I'm going to let the kids off that easy.  I know times of rest are important, but we can't do much other than what we've already been doing.  So we had school.

Now, I did remove some of the normal school items and replace them with slightly more fun items, like water play, watching a show while taking apart Lego sets, and games.  But there was still stuff to be learned.  Isaac didn't finish his packets for school that came home three weeks ago, so I told him he needs to finish by Thursday in order to get screen time Friday.  He also needs to have his bedroom cleaned by then.  It might be a struggle as he isn't on track to finish and doesn't use any 'extra time' to do it.  We'll see.

Anyway, today's challenge for Joshua was to build something using only green bricks.  He built a dragon on a dragon mech.

Horizon enjoyed sitting on the laptop keys today.  It was a bit of a problem.

Sunday: Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday!

The boys made palm branches and then we made them walk around the couch shouting 'Hosanna'.  They were not thrilled, so it was more of a saying Hosanna.

Joshua really likes these Lego Challenges and asked for another.  I gave him sun or lady bug.  He did both, although with a rock and some dirt for the lady bug.

Saturday: low key

Today was a pretty low key day for us.  We did a little work, but mostly just lazed around.  Everyone was happy, so it was nice.

Joshua wanted a Lego challenge - he ended up with a unicorn.  It has a rainbow stand.

Everyone took a real rest time today.  Before he actually starting sleeping, Joshua made a party house.  (It's a party house due to the lights.)

This is a fun dip stick with lots of different flavors on it.

Friday: a better day

Today went much better than yesterday.

Friday's special reading this was 'flip and sip'.  He's wanted one of these Gaterades for a long time.

Joshua made a ghost for his Lego challenge.  The ghosts in the Hidden Sides sets are all green, which is why it's green.  It also has evil eyebrows.

Joshua and I cleaned out the chip cabinet today.  I keep forgetting to take 'before' pictures, but needless to say it was much worse.  We added the clip hangers.  I don't know if they'll help, but it's worth a try.  These clips are not super strong, so we'll see if they even work.

Horizon followed me all over for a while.  He usually doesn't do that, but it was fun.

It was up to 60F today, so we went to the beach.  The boys dug a deep hole and filled it with water and then dug it wider.  We went on a family walk and after that the boys went back to the beach and dug the hole again.  Isaac said it wasn't quite as fun the second time, but he was still out there for over an hour so it can't have been that boring.  Oh yeah, and in pajamas.  Because that's how we roll in this house.  I had to buy Isaac more pajamas because he runs out by the end of the week.  (Joshua just wears pajamas that are way too small or way too big.  He's switched over from always wearing footies to never wearing footies so that he doesn't have to get dressed when he's forced to go outside.)

Thursday: life

Today...was a bit rough.  Isaac was in a grumpy mood.  It's ok to have grumpy days, but it's hard to deal with at the same time.

The life skill for the boys today was scrubbing the floor. (Shamelessly stolen from Liz.)  Joshua did a great job, Isaac did an ok job.  They both loved playing with the water though, so it was a good choice.

Joshua was supposed to build a flower.  Instead he built a flower shop.  The cashier has a flower hat and there are people lined up all around the outside to buy flowers.

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.