When school was initially cancelled for 2 weeks, we weren't sure how much work was going to be provided from school, so I made up these choice boards for the kids, envisioning them picking 6 activities a day (20 mins each = 2 hrs of school daily). It was a bit much to go back-to-back like that, especially with me at school still and Chris trying to work and figure out technology hiccups (and hangry kids mid-way through).
Our schedule could've ended up like this:
But has evolved into something more along these lines:
I've been super impressed that the gym and music teacher have sent home activities! We've been working on the gym teacher's exercises as a family (situps, squats, planks, and pushups!!).
Sometimes Chris will lead the kids through Yoga/stretching or we'll do a Cosmic Kids Yoga video.
The majority of Willow's work has been online and her teachers send a list of items on a website for her to do each week. Owen got a lot of worksheets initially and he's worked his way through those. He's enjoyed a few things that I've brought home from school, especially this Cootie Catcher that he made after reading a book. (Willow wasn't quite as excited as he was)
He's been doing research about bobcats and is making an "All About Bobcats" book:
The kids have Skyped with Gramps and Gramma a few times and the other "Mrs. Seth" has been reading aloud a novel to them.
We've also really enjoyed the Art for Kids Hub YouTube channel for step-by-step drawing videos!
Owen has made a few for our neighbors:
This cutie came from another children's illustrator's YouTube channel:
We've been doing LOTS and LOTS of sidewalk chalk writing/drawing. Thankfully the rain has given us a clean sidewalk to start over on!
Willow comes up with these sayings on her own and they blow me away sometimes!
In "other art" we've made cards for people at a local nursing home and decorated our windows with hearts!
We've been playing lots of games too!
In "home economics," the kids are each helping with dinner twice a week, baking (previous post), and learning cleaning jobs. Owen and Chris even made a bird house together for a family from church!
Owen has enjoyed his Kiwi crate projects (Willow too!):
The rec baseball is on hold for now but we've played catch in the yard a few times:
Alli wonders when this quarantine will be over ;) and why the humans are around so much
But really she's enjoyed the weekday naps:
movie nights:
and when one of the kids picks to do their reading time aloud to her:
The kids built a fun fort for a church challenge:
And we're all going a little batty:
We've made it "outside the house" twice (if you don't count the Kroger parking lot to pick up groceries). Once was with Kim and the kids during the first week off before we starting being conservative on when we left the house and who we were with. We met at a pond to walk around and have a picnic lunch.
We had the kids recreate a picture from 2 years ago
Kim had us covered with real water and soap to wash our hands!
The other time was on an 80 degree Saturday when we just needed a change of scenery and to stretch our legs!
Since church has been closed too, we've been able to watch the sermons posted on YouTube. This past week the kids were able to have their Sunday School lesson on Zoom, which is like Skype for multiple people at once. It was pretty neat! Afterwards we had a Zoom meeting with our Life Group from church which was great too! We're thankful for this technology to try and keep us connected with others during this time!
Chris has been working hard in the yard, building a new garden gate and fence, planting seeds (the kids helped too!), transplanting plants from indoors, moving mulch/compost, etc. We're just hoping the neighbors will stop planting trees that block off our sunlight in the garden!
A family from church lost their 40-yr old father/husband to cancer this fall and the wife made a post with a list of things to stop putting off. One of the many things that was added to my "to stop putting off" list was to get a video of Chris reading to the kids. We take turns with who we read to at night but Chris wins the award for the best reader in the house because of his voices while he reads. He's read many series with both kids but I'm sure Harry Potter will end up as one of their favorites. He's just started with Owen and I caught this couple minutes the other night. There are so many reasons the kids are lucky to have him as their father!!
