Preschool on Zoom

More of the same old, same old, except it snowed quite a bit last night so the kids started the day by playing outside. My neighbor lent me his snowblower for the driveway, but I only did the front part where the mailman walks. 

Max is enrolled in a science class for 4-6 year olds. It's hilarious to watch. The kids are all 4-6 year olds, and the teacher is very animated and really keeps their attention. Today, we had to prepare by hiding objects inside of socks that the kids would use their sense of touch to identify. She sent a graphic organizer for them to record (i.e. draw) their scientific observations. Every kid seemed to love this activity. 

Laurel and I had a Scout meeting via Zoom. The girls had so many ideas about their Bronze award project, it was a little overwhelming for me to think about how to direct their energy.

Fresh Start

Monday feels like a fresh start, especially since I did a lot of resting yesterday. Or at least it felt like that for the first hour. After that, we hit a rough patch with kids fighting with each other. I accept that this is a normal part of family dynamics, but it drives me crazy. And when they are loud, it makes it very hard for M to work. Miraculously, we still got an acceptable amount of schoolwork done. The housework, not so much. 

Laurel's online book club for The People Could Fly kicked off the first week of discussion. The kids are supposed to write thoughtful responses to the study guide questions and then respond to each other on the discussion board. She was excited to do it, but actually writing the responses was difficult for her. 

She also took a pretest for a section on fractions. She cannot remember the difference between factor and multiple. However, her familiarization with the times tables is getting better all the time. I've been letting her use a printed copy of the times tables while she does problems, but I'm hoping she won't need it by the end of the year. We had a virtual meeting of our aunt/niece book club, which was delightful as always. 

Marko worked on a very long, but simple page of greater than/less than problems. He practiced Duolingo (currently studying Mandarin and Spanish....why not?). We get a magazines from the Cricket company that are thematic. This month they were all about games. I'm using a 3-2-1 exercise with them for responding to stuff they read. Write 3 interesting words, 2 important facts and 1 question you still have. It could be any categories, but it gives a framework for responding.

Max is working through a new BrainQuest workbook I got him. He's starting to have the skills for handwriting and the interest to do it well. 

Laurel and I went to an ice skating party with the Girl Scouts in the evening. The service unit rented the whole rink so it would not be crowded. The girls were thrilled to get together. They skated for the entire 2 hour session! It has been challenging to figure out ways to keep our troop connected, but we are very adaptable. Even after we resume in person troop meetings, I think we'll still keep zoom available as an option for snow days or times when we can't get the space we need. Everyone is getting more comfortable with being outside a lot more, with dressing for the weather, and finding new ways to do our favorite things. 

Day of Rest

I am seriously dedicated to the idea of a weekly sabbath.....a day of rest from chores and school and a time to lounge about the house, reading for as long as I want, drinking endless cups of coffee, playing games with the kids, napping, television and ordering takeout for dinner. I keep my pajamas on and my phone off. 

We played Battleship this morning (Max won). Now they are constructing an enormous fort in the living room. Marko is cooking lunch. Laurel is reading (of course). M is on a long run.

There is a strong temptation to get ahead of the week by planning and cleaning right now, but I will not give in! Rest is important and I will do better work on the other 6 days if I take a break now. 

Cross Country Ski Trip

Laurel and I drove out to the Laurel Highlands to meet some other Girl Scouts for cross country skiing. We made a last minute change to meet at Kooser State Park instead of the ski area, in order to avoid crowds. The weather was perfect. Lots of snow on the ground and blue skies above. The park had a fair amount of people in it, but it was easy enough to spread out. 

M and the boys stayed home and I honestly don't know what they did all day. I was pretty tired when we got home because cross-country skiing is a deceptively taxing workout. We ate leftover pizza for dinner and piled onto the couch to watch two more episodes of James Herriot. Max fell asleep in my lap. It was very cozy. 

Dreaming of Yorkshire

Today we read about Sojourner Truth and discussed whether or not you should always follow the law (probably not), and pondered more about Carol Moseley Braun's quote about working to perfect this democracy. We also talked about changing your name and if that would help you feel more powerful if you had to do very hard work, or if it could make people take you more seriously. Do you lose a part of yourself if you change your name? 

Laurel and I watched some how-to cross country ski videos because we are going on a Girl Scout outing tomorrow. Supposedly the snow conditions are perfect.

Marko did the wrong math page, and then paid Max to do the page he skipped. Max is great at skip counting but he can't really write too well yet, so I think Laurel actually did the writing but I'm going to call it collaboration and not cheating. Laurel finally finished the chapter on decimals, thank goodness, and will be moving back into fractions next week. 

My sister sent Laurel her old flute and we're basically just at the how to clean, assemble and position your mouth stage, but if I recall, it took me my entire fourth grade year to learn a simple song on the clarinet, so I think this is normal pace. I really want to encourage music in our house but the flute is loud. The piano is loud. The accordion is really loud. 

Laurel sewed a little bag with her new sewing machine. She also went to the Walgreens to shop for a Valentine's supplies.

Marko and Max worked on Scratch for a long time. 

Friday is pizza day and M outdid himself with a bacon-mushroom-swiss chard pizza that might possibly be the best thing I have ever eaten. We watched 2 episodes of the new James Herriot, which left all of us feeling cozy and sleepy and dreaming of Yorkshire. 

Late Night Tacos

This day skewed late because we decided to have tacos for dinner and smoked the pork on our grill, which is not an entirely predictable process, time-wise anyway. Delicious-wise, it's very predictable. I made red cabbage slaw and black beans and rice. Avocados were on sale and perfectly ripe for once. Marko helped me cook the tortillas so it went fast. A feast! On a Thursday. We started the day off with pancakes, bacon and orange juice and I gave them pasta and meatballs for lunch so it was a day of favorite foods for all the kids.

Schooling went ok. Max took another science class on Outschool. The teacher is great, and I think it's good to see other kids and wait for his turn to talk and things like that. Marko blew through all of his assignments very quickly. I struggle with what to assign him because he very quickly hits a frustration point if I aim too low, but the second grade workbooks often seem too easy. Laurel spent a long time on math and is improving her accuracy, but she can really only work with NO distractions. Not a possibility in this iteration of homeschool. We've been pulling a card from this deck that has all noteworthy Black women and then reading about them. Today it was Carol Moseley Braun. We watched this interview where she gave this quote about constantly striving to "perfect our democracy" that really resonated with me. 

Laurel took a walk around the neighborhood with her friend...how cool that they are big enough to go off on their own a little bit now. The boys played Kirby Clash for a while. There is something that Marko is trying to achieve on his Pokemon game that I don't totally understand but he spends a lot of time verbally planning what he's going to do before he starts playing. It's an interesting genre for me to observe. There are a few games that are the kid equivalent of electronic slot machines in Reno, but most of them require a fair amount of reading, problem solving and teamwork. 

Marko started to listen to The People Could Fly on Audible and he went on an ebook borrowing binge from the library, clogging up my kindle with Percy Jackson titles. 

I spent some time doing modules on my CPR recertification class and participated in a homeschool parent discussion board. 

Also, my Girl Scouts became locally famous for the dog rescue situation on Saturday. My dad texted today to say that he heard about it on the radio! The mama dog is ok, by the way, but the pups were never found. 

Car School

The sun came out today! Sometimes getting in the car and going somewhere is a good way to get the kids to finish their work. Today we went back to my parents to sled some more. The track was slick. Laurel and Marko both had math to finish. Laurel is working on dividing decimals and it's so tedious. I can do it very quickly and I wonder when she'll get fast at it. Was I fast at it in 5th grade? Max brought his big workbook and did some pages, all the while complaining that I was driving too fast and ruining his handwriting. 

One of my favorite routines we've adopted is Max's "Five Books." We each have to read to him and he reads to one of us every day. Today my mom gave us a bunch of her old books and Marko read a book about winter animals to Max while we were in the car. They really giggled over the weasel and the prairie dogs.

Laurel and I did some reading on Ida B. Wells. We learned that she actually owned a part of a newspaper in addition to being a journalist. She had to permanently leave her home in Memphis after she wrote an article about a lynching, and was threatened with being lynched herself. There's a new book about her that was written by her great-granddaughter that I want to check out. 

Last night some of the kids had trouble falling asleep, so I tried to get them to exercise more today. This mostly resulted in me doing a whole lot of tabata. I'm definitely tired! 

Snow, snow, snow

I just spent an hour slipping and sliding home on my evening walk. (Every night, M puts the kids to bed while I go for a walk by myself. It is the key to my sanity.) Tonight it started snowing quite heavily while I was out. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and was very focused on staying upright so I would not break the jar of pickles I had in my bag. Next time, I'm going to bring a pair of yaktrax! 

Laurel is really enjoying getting to read and respond to the introductions on her BW book club board. She was also highly motivated to sit down and start reading The People Could Fly (tearing her away from Rick Riordan books is a bit of a challenge these days). She also dressed up and put on jewelry for poetry teatime. Every Tuesday, we are eating a treat, lighting candles and reading poetry. 

Marko whined his way through all of his school work but he did get it done. We read a little bit about Chinese new year and then looked at the globe while paging through the How People Live book section on the different ethnic groups of East and North Asia. He picked up his Duolingo mandarin practice again for the first time in a while.

Max took his first zoom class and talked about the sense of hearing and made a telephone out of two paper cups and a string, and a flute out of straws. The hardest part for him was waiting for the class to start. Today Max remembered that there are haiku poems in his Cat Kid Comic Club book and he brought it to share with us at poetry teatime. His decoding skills are improving every day. 

I cooked blueberry almond breakfast cookies, lentil soup with butternut squash, and chocolate mousse made with silken tofu. 

M spends a lot of his day talking on zoom, but this afternoon he had a particularly important meeting that required the type of quiet our children were not able to give him. We made an impromptu trip to my parents' house to go sled riding right before the sun went down. It was cold, but the snow is all fresh and powdery and they had a good time. 

I keep thinking of the Chronicles of Narnia and how the witch came and made an endless winter. The Groundhog saw his shadow so six more weeks of winter for us anyway. 

Easing into a new month

February came in with a snowstorm! This disrupted our morning schedule a little bit since we had to spend some time outside shoveling the sidewalk. 

Max woke up thinking about Dutch baby pancakes, so I made one of those for breakfast. Some of our apples were getting sort of squishy so we chopped them up and fried them in butter and cinnamon. 

Laurel is enrolled in two online classes that start this week, so she spent the morning reading class expectations and upcoming assignments, and responding to all the cute little introductions the other kids wrote. We are reading The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton for Brave Writer this month, and one of her classes is a book club based on this. The other class is more of a life skills class called Don't Worry, Be Happy. She completed the first module of that one already and says she likes it so far. 

Laurel did not make it to her math worksheet, but she did do some Duolingo French study. Marko did his math worksheet and some handwriting practice. 

We returned a lone library book that somehow didn't make it into the huge pile that we returned a few weeks ago. The library is closed to patrons again, but the librarians are still in there filling orders and organizing curbside delivery of books and games and all kinds of good things. 

We delivered a birthday present to one of our little friends who turned 5 today. We built a lot of snowmen with them and went on a walk in the woods near their house during which every child shed a few tears. The woods were beautiful and the snow fell gently all day. 

The kids finished listening to the Greenglass House and the ending was kind of intense and scary and sad. It's the first book in a series and I'm sure they'll end up reading the next ones. The story within a story literary device that was used in this book was something they really connected with. Their play often revolves around telling a story while they act things out or build with legos. 

Max prepared his materials for his first zoom class that will take place tomorrow. It's a science class for 4-6 year olds so I'm eager to see how this teacher makes it work, but he's very excited. He needed paper cups and string and straws and tape, and they are all counted and laid out on a tray so he'll be ready. 

I made baked beans from scratch, from a recipe for a Heinz English style sauce. They turned out pretty good and stretched the pound of sausage and 1 bunch of kale I had on hand for dinner.

It was STILL snowing after dinner and I went on a long walk and got soaking wet. 

January Homeschool

Anyone else tired of living through a pandemic? Also, I'm not a fan of armed insurrections. January was a long month. I did notice that most of the Trump signs in people's yards were taken down after the vote was certified by Congress, which I will take as a good sign that people still have some trust in the election process. The vaccines are out and slowly getting into the communities where they are most needed. There are new variants of coronavirus that are more contagious, which are probably already circulating widely in this country. The death rates continue to be in the thousands per day range. You can't fix problems if you don't acknowledge them, and the most frustrating thing for me is listening to people downplay the current situation, like frogs slowly boiling to death. We just need to get back to normal! Everything is fine! 

It is truly not. 

Life must carry on nonetheless, though, so for homeschool, I tried to be organized. I wrote out all of our Brave Writer activities on the calendar and also added other little things that we had to do on a certain date....Girl Scout hikes or birthday celebrations. We continued on with Spectrum workbooks instead of Khan for math, although the kids do refer to the Khan videos if they are confused about something. They check their answers against the answer key. If they miss any, they go back and redo them and also write a sentence about what mistake they made. I used this strategy when I taught high school math and it really does help.

We made good progress with copywork, dictation, studying the literary device of "story within a story" and listening to an audio version of the Greenglass House. 

We kept up with current events by discussing the Capitol violence and comparing the current voter suppression efforts by the republican party to those that have happened throughout the history of our country. Voter suppression is a particularly relevant issue in Pennsylvania so we'll be following this closely over the next year as it plays out in our local elections and legislation. We also watched some of the inauguration speeches and read all of the poems from past inaugurations. I thought the flag display on the Mall was really cool, plus the new Mississippi flag has a neat design. 

We failed to complete the writing project of the month. It was supposed to be a simple research exercise + essay construction on a topic you enjoy, but the kids hated it for some reason and balked at every step. I signed up for the Brave Writer parent class to try and figure out some of this writing stuff. We'll give it another go next month!

We made another art project from Art with Mrs. Filmore. This time we did 3D mugs that had little bits of polyfill sticking out the top for steam. They are currently on display in M's office. I love her website! The projects are very easy to follow and she talks about the elements of art and design in all of them.

We started using a geocaching app and this helped us to get outside in the less pleasant weather. If you want to get outside in the winter, make sure you have clothing that keeps you warm and dry and is easy to move around in. Also, bring snacks. Girl Scout candy and fig bars are the go-tos for us right now. 

On Saturday, Laurel and I went out on a hike with our Girl Scout troop. When we were gathering, my co-leader pulled me aside and whispered that she found a dog wandering around the parking lot. The dog had fairly recently given birth as she was visibly engorged...and there were no puppies around. As it was only about 20 degrees outside it was a pretty critical situation for this dog and worse for the puppies. Luckily we had an extra volunteer with us so we took the girls on the hike, while my co-leader was able to get some help, get the dog warmed up in her car and give her some water and food. Afterward Laurel and her friend searched for the puppies again, but we couldn't find any signs of them. We think somebody may have sold the puppies and dumped the mother dog. It was nice to see my co-leader spring into action to help a creature in need, though. Girl Scouts are always ready to lend a hand!

For February I'm challenging myself to write every day about our days. No links, no photos, no editing. Just a quick summary of what we did and my thoughts on it.