Day 3: Learning as We Go

Well, we made it another day.  Three.  Three days.  Today was probably the hardest but also the best.  The kids have started to bicker between each other.  Sisterly/brotherly love I guess.  But also, I think we’re starting to get in more of a groove.  Garen and I split our days- him taking the morning shift to work and me in the afternoon.  Of course, I still took calls and checked emails throughout the morning but still was on “home-school” duty.  It seemed that way anyway.

Here’s what we did:

• Littles- Pre-K
  • Dr. Seuss rhyming worksheet from Children’s University
  • Read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish while having our morning snack of goldfish
  • Practice sight words
  • Practice writing 1-20 with a print-out.
  • Practice writing first and last names
  • What I didn’t get done and would’ve:
    • Read Horton Hear’s a Who
    • ABC Mouse- got a free log-in from CU- we’ll see if we have time and feel up to it
• Anna- 3rd
  • Imagine Math:  https://math.imaginelearning.com/users/sign_in
  • Prodigy Math
  • Wrote a thank you card to send to MaMa and Mammy.  We had them read this and use it as a guideline (this took a long time since we’ve obviously not done this enough but it looks like this is a good activity for us to practice and help with gratitude):  https://pinholepress.com/blog/teach-kids-to-write-thank-you-cards-in-3-steps/
  • Read Where the Wild Things Are to the littles

• Will- 5th
  • Read a few chapters of his chapter book
  • He had about an hour long conversation with his teacher and classmates on Zoom, which was totally cool and I think he enjoyed.

• • Write a thank you letter to Mammy.
  • Imagine Math (since I couldn’t get into google classroom until today)
    • Check out this Parents’ Guide to Google Classroom in case you need to know how to do this.  I’m sure some of you are more technologically inclined than me but I have been a little slow getting this all figured out.

• Physical Activity
  •  The trampoline provided about 90% of our outside activity today.  If they’re happy and playing outside, then I’m not going to worry about anything organized.  As Garen told our Pre-School Teacher today- I’m not sure why we didn’t think of buying this giant cage before now but it sure is handy now.

• • Anna did want to go on a walk today and so tomorrow we really need to make sure that happens.

• Craftiness/Creativity/Arts  
  • Everyone did unicorn drawing.  Here’s the You Tube link:  https://youtu.be/r6cJl89axqY I’m not going to lie- the only kid that could do this was Anna. 
  • Made jello
  • Made a fort to go along with the “Where the Wild Things Are Theme”

• Work Strategies for Adults
  • Like I said above, breaking the day into two different shifts was the best thing we’ve done for productivity.  We still both need to answer our phones all day
  • long but having focused time that we actually lock ouselves into the office made a huge difference.
  • Let me tell you what happens when you don’t mute your phone and you walk past a hall bathroom that may or may not have a four-year-old in it.  Kate yells, “Mommy, I had to poop.  Can you wipe my booty?”- while I’m on the phone with a customer.  SMH.  Lesson learned.  
  • The thing I’m seeing is that construction hasn’t slowed down- knock on wood.  (Garen and I both are suppliers to sub-contractors, so obviously we’re hoping things don’t slow down too much.)  I’m not sure what happens when they close those jobs since most of those folks are hourly.  Hopefully we can contain the spread but still manage to keep everyone safe and healthy.  Time will tell.  But the contractors I’ve talked to are all talking to their folks about staying safe with distancing as much as possible and good hand-hygiene.
  • On a lighter side, one of my team members tagged me in this, which made me giggle and think, “Darn, Cheryl, can’t you do the dang laundry!”

I’m worn out from trying to plan but here’s what we’re going to do tomorrow, based on the next 20 minutes of planning as I write:

• Littles- Pre-K
  • Read Horton Hear’s a Who- what is your favorite part of the story?  What are some rhyming words?
  • Dr. Seuss rhyming worksheet from Children’s University- since we didn’t cut those out and have them do it full-fledged
  • Practice sight words
  • Call out numbers and have them find these in books or magazines.  If that doesn’t work, maybe make flashcards.
  • Scholastic Learn at Home- Day 2:  Living things- plants (watch a movie and read a book).  Check out his free resource from Scholastic.  It’s one we will probably use.
  • Practice writing first and last names
  • How to call 911 and what to do in an emergency.
• Anna- 3rd
  • Word problems worksheet- from mathfactcafe.com
  • Review 3-D Shapes- finish up one more of these that we started on today:  https://www.math-salamanders.com/3d-geometric-shapes.html 
  • Find a chapter book to start reading together.
  • Imagine Math:  https://math.imaginelearning.com/users/sign_in
  • Prodigy Math- only after done with Imagine- prodigy seems to be more game t
  • han learning, not that it’s always a bad thing.
  • Write a letter/make a card for her BFF (she got one today, which was SUPER sweet and special)
  • Scholastic Learn at Home- Day 4
• Will- 5th
  • Read a few chapters of his chapter book
  • Watch/read along Johnny Tremain with his teacher’s video
  • Place Value Work- from his teacher on Google Classroom
  • Spell a word he’s feeling using objects around the house and post it in his class’s SeeSaw
  • Do a science activity in nearpod
  • Start working on the Learn about States worksheet I made up.  My mom taught elementary history and has a love for learning about states, so I can’t take credit for the idea.  Thanks Mom- no matter how old you are, you can still learn from your momma!  Here’s the Learning the States Worksheet I made.  Feel free to download and share with anyone who might like to do it with their kiddos.  I attached in Word format so you could edit to meet your needs.
  • Type up a letter to his teacher describing his favorite things about her class and anything he’d like to do more of in her class. After he completes the letter, re-read it looking for edits that can be made.  Then we will go over it and we can print and mail it to her (if she wants to give us her address or we can just email it).  I got this from Arlington ISD’s new At Home Learning HUB that has some good resources for different grade levels.

As with every day, I over-plan.  I do realize that we’re never going to get it all done but having more to do and some flexibility helps me out.  That’s just me.  Of course, we do wing it some too.  For example, reading “Where the Wild Things Are” was not on the schedule, nor was building a “Wild Things Fort” but when Anna and the girls came up with the idea, I was all for it.

Like Garen says, “Plan Rigidly, Execute Flexibly.”  Cheers to us surviving Day 3 and happy Day 4 to us tomorrow.