Author: Jodi

Homeschooling, homeschooling, jiggity jog…

Jonas read an article about being bored and wrote his opinion about it in a few paragraphs, solved some Greg Tang puzzles for Math, read on Epic, learned about fossils in Science, studied more about World War II in Social Studies, and painted a clear plastic plate that will be turned into a fun addition to our garden for Art. For Mommy and Me Time, we played horse and the bean bag/milk jug toss game.

Xander wrote a letter to a friend about how he’s spending his time during the day right now and found a bunch of similes in the book he’s been reading, worked with adding and subtracting mixed numbers in Math, read on Epic, read about Women in the Civil War and answered questions for Social Studies, and painted a clear plastic plate that will be turned into a fun addition to our garden and drew on the sidewalk with chalk for Art. For Mommy and Me time, we went on a short walk, played the bean bag/milk jug toss game, and played Boggle.

Roman wrote ten sentences using nouns around the house and wrote his spelling words in sidewalk chalk, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy for Math, read on Epic, and did some Mystery Science for Science. For Mommy and Me Time, we cuddled up in bed and watched “Colossal Questions” on Epic.

We’re all looking forward to “Unschooling” day tomorrow…

My sister, Julie, got remarried this weekend!! I told her now-husband, Ken, a few months ago that I’d never seen her happier. He smiled and said, “Yeah…we do that for each other.” I’m so excited for her and for my niece and nephew, Jordan and Dylan…and for Ken…they’ve found a new home together. May it be filled with love and joy and peace. Amen.

Look at this sweet face!!!

Tom and the boys and I had SO much fun geocaching!!! The boys’ favorite part, by far, was trading trinkets. What a great family weekend adventure!

We even figured out some geocaching lingo:
BYOP = Bring your own pen
FTF = First time find
P & G = Park and grab
CITO = Cash in trash out
TFTC = Thanks for the cache

Fridays are PJ days, but Jonas is the only one who took advantage of that today.

Jonas watched a BrainPop on “Strengthening Sentences” and played a Kahoot called “Word Choices and Connotations”, progressed in math at his own pace on Kahn Academy, read on Epic and answered a few questions about what he read, watched a science video on Isaac Newton and answered questions about it, and Zoomed with Pranav. For Mommy and Me Time, we curled up in bed and read and played lawn darts.

Xander read the Social Studies Weekly newspaper and collected adjectives describing people and places and things, progressed at his own pace in math on Beast Academy, read on Epic, built his own robots in our homemade robot lab (his were so cute!!!) and Zoomed with Jeremy and David. For Mommy and Me Time, we searched through his trinket collection for things to trade when we go geocaching this weekend. We also took a walk around the loop (he hoverboarded) and identified trees by their leaves.

Roman filled out a graphic organizer about “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and answered his classroom discussion question and did a roll-a-word activity with his spelling words, progressed at his own pace in math on Beast Academy, read on Epic, built his own robot in our homemade robot lab, and Zoomed with Ben. We walked around the loop (I walked and he hoverboarded) and chatted for our Mommy and Me Time.

Week 4 of homeschool down!!! Only 4 1/2 more weeks to go…

Today went a little better, for the most part. Thank goodness!

Jonas edited a writing piece, read on his Kindle and answered a few questions about what he read, knocked out a slew of math assignments on Kahn Academy, and did a TaeKwonDo Zoom. For Mommy and Me Time, we threw the football and curled up in bed and read together.

Xander finished up his time capsule packet, talked with me about cause and effect in his life, read a few articles on Social Studies Weekly and answered questions about what he read, and did some math on Freckle. We built a fort and played Mexican Train Dominoes for Mommy and Me Time.

Roman put the finishing touches on his time capsule packet and took a spelling test, read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney on the Libby app, cranked out some math on Beast Academy, did a TaeKwonDo Zoom, and FaceTimed with his friend Luke. For Mommy and Me Time, we went for a walk around the block and talked about introverts and extroverts and how they both might be struggling in different ways during the quarantine and how they can both be using coping skills to make it through this time. (He’s our resident extrovert, so we’re trying to help him connect more with his friends in socially distant ways.)

We skipped Science and Social Studies today…might add those in this weekend with science experiments and geocaching.

Oh, today. Roman had a tough time and was in his room for a while, figuring himself out. The pushback was emotionally exhausting for me.

Jonas wrote about the Coronavirus, read on Epic and answered several questions about what he read, progressed at his own pace on Khan Academy for Math, and watched a BrainPop video and answered questions for Social Studies. We played Mexican Train Dominoes for Mommy and Me Time.

Here’s Petra getting pets from Jonas, while he’s reading…she loves having her boys home.

Xander responded to his teacher’s weekly question and reviewed the job of an adjective, read on Epic, progressed at his own pace on Freckle for Math, and read about the battles of the Civil War on Social Studies Weekly. For Mommy and Me Time, we played Mexican Train Dominoes.

Roman reviewed short vs. long “e” sounds, wrote a story with and listed rhyming words for and spelled in shaving cream his spelling words, wrote a few paragraphs of opinion writing, and progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy for Math. We didn’t end up having Mommy and Me Time during the homeschool day today because he spent a good bit of that time in his room for refusing to work, overreacting, being disrespectful, and saying/doing mean things. (We also skipped our science experiment/art activity today…some days it’s just too much.) I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow with him.

Looks like we’ll be adding another week of homeschooling at least, as Governor Bill Lee renewed the stay-at-home order for Tennesseans through April 30. I’ve had a feeling for a while now that the boys will be out of school for the rest of the school year. We’ll see…

The boys and I are kind of loving the pattern we’ve fallen into of having Wednesdays be our “unschooling” day. I think it’s necessary right now for all of our sanities.

We finished up our Peeps science experiment this morning (the boys couldn’t wait)…they wrote down what the Peeps looked like, smelled like, and felt like after 24 hours of soaking in their different liquids and compared the results with their predictions.

After that, we played several rounds of pickle ball. Then, the boys listened to music, coded, face timed with friends, horsed around, and read books in no particular order.

Meanwhile, I cleaned the house, exercised, did laundry, made dinner, and sewed away on my homemade fabric face masks for donating to family, friends, and medical/essential workers.

It was a good day…I think we all went to bed feeling restored.

The boys are enjoying their little exercise warm up before starting the school day. Tom made a list of 10 exercises (jumping jacks, head shoulder knees and toes, burpees, knee highs, inchworms, mountain climbers, butt kickers, skaters, two foot jumps forward and backward, and running in place) for them. They each chose two exercises and rotated through them in 30 second intervals. Of course, “running in place” became “sprinting back and forth across the room” and “jumping jacks” became “running and doing jumping jacks while making fart noises” but still. HaHa!

We tried something different today for writing that they all seemed to enjoy…Roll and Write. They made up their own lists of settings, characters, and plots. Then, they rolled the dice three times and picked something from each column to create their stories. Roman dictated his ideas to me and came up with four or five really creative stories. Xander’s writing involved a tent, Minnie Mouse, and deadly farts. It was pretty funny. Jonas had so many ideas rolling through his head and had so much fun coming up with his list that he barely wrote two sentences and then cracked up because he couldn’t read his own handwriting. (We’ll have to try that one again on Monday.)

The boys all did some independent reading and worked on math with Beast Academy (thank you, dear Sandi, for telling me about this!!!).

For Mommy and Me time, Xander and I played corn hole and read “Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten: A Call to Arms” together. Roman and I played Kubb (thank you so much to the Longs for the Christmas gift that keeps on giving!!!) and made some oatmeal raisin cookies. Then, Mommy needed a BREAK…so, I sent them all outside, where they came up with some sort of run-around-and-hit-each-other-with-beanbags game. After that, Jonas and I balled up the oatmeal raisin cookie dough and baked it and tweaked his Beast Academy math program online.

We didn’t end up getting to our science activity today, so we’ll do that this weekend.

Two weeks of homeschooling down!!! Roman said homeschooling felt “homey” today…so I consider that a win.

You know, this whole thing makes me think of a little kindergartener who I had in the library all those years ago, who stood up in front of the class, showed her drawing interpretation about the story we read, and said, “My name is Maya, and I did the best I know how.” That’s my heart right now…”My name is Jodi, and I’m doing the best I know how.”