Chicken Minus Head

Day 2 was harder.  Am I the only one that felt like Day 2 was like 2 weeks in?!?  Seems like the days are super long but also fly by at the same time.  I’m finding it’s such a hard balance to work and not feel guilty for giving the offspring my attention when I have to jump on a meeting or get a call in the middle of something. However, this is what I’ve got to deal with and I’m going to make the most of it.

Let me clarify- today was still a GREAT day.  After all, it’s my little Anna Banana’s birthday! And we managed to stick to schedule fairly well today.  Naps, although they were super hard to start, were good and the girls weren’t as tired.  We also re-evaluated our decision to let them stay up until 9:00.  8:00 is as late as they need.  Further than that and it goes downhill for everyone.

So, what did we do today at Graves Academy?

• Birthday/St. Patty’s Day Celebration
  • Today, Anna Banana turned 9.  I’m so super proud of this girl- she’s so incredibly kind, helpful, and one of the most creative kids I know!  Despite being stuck here today, she got to FaceTime with her BFF and that made it ok.  She’s a tough cookie that complained NOT ONE TIME about not getting to have a party or friends over.  Thinking of that makes me so proud that I almost cry.  Stop it, Liz…

• We started the day a little different than our typical birthday breakfast (which is donuts) since we didn’t want to get out of the house.  Instead, we had green eggs & ham, with green pancakes too though and everyone was happy.  Kate got to help with the pancakes and Clara got to help with the green.  And, man were they GREEN….as were our Girl Scout Cookie shirts we wore for the occasion!

• • Anna and I baked cupcakes together for her birthday and each kiddo got to decorate their own cupcakes, complete with their own little bowl of icing (because I KNEW they wouldn’t NOT lick the bowl).  It was COLORFUL.  That’s probably the best word for it….

• Academics

• • Littles- Pre-K
    • Read Green Eggs and Ham (this was on the littles’ schedule from their preschool, as was making green eggs) right after breakfast to continue the theme. We asked what the big problem in the story and how is it solved?  They all came up with the thought that we all should try something even if we think we might not like it.  I have to say- tonight I made chicken taco casserole that they’d never had before and everyone tried it and liked it.  Now if only we could just make that an everyday practice….
    • Count to 100- Anna, being big sister helped with this.
    • Practice writing 1-20 with a print-out.  Tweedle Dee loved this, while it was a whipping with Tweedle Dum.
    • Practice sight words- this was by far the most challenging.
    • Things I hoped to get to but didn’t:
      • Practice writing first and last names- although they do write their first names on EVERYTHING now.
      • Make green jello- we may do this tomorrow
      • ABC Mouse- got a free log-in from Children’s University- we’ll see if we have time and feel up to it tomorrow

• • Anna- 3rd
    • Did multiplication worksheet with Anna
    • Had her get on Imagine Math:  https://math.imaginelearning.com/users/sign_in
    • 3-D Shapes- downloaded some print-outs from this website:  https://www.math-salamanders.com/3d-geometric-shapes.html  and we only got one and a half done but the point was there.

• • • She read the girls three other Dr. Seuss books
    • What we didn’t get to that I wanted to:
      • Word Problems- I’m also getting this from mathfactcafe.com 
      • Pick one of the experiments that she got for her birthday out and do it together

• • Will- 5th
    • Imagine Math
    • Read one of the books he bought at the book fair the week before Spring Break
    • Help Garen put together Anna’s birthday present (a trampoline), which will help add to our activity level
    • Wrote a story about the box creation they made (see arts/crafts description below)
    • What we didn’t get to that I wanted to and will try for tomorrow:
      • Place Value Work- if I can find it in his Google site from his teacher (I’m still a little technologically challenged sometimes)
      • His class will be reading Johnny Tremain together using Zoom, which I think is super cool.

• Arts/Crafts/Creativity
  • See above about backing cupcakes and decorating

• • We got two empty boxes and gave the kids random art supplies, scissors and tape and told them to create something.  It wasn’t something I planned.  I just happened to unpack one of the boxes of books last night (yes, we’ve been living here for almost two months and I still have some boxes to unpack).  The idea came to me as I almost tripped over them this morning and was going to break them down to take to the recycling bin.  This ate up a good hour of our creative time today but it seemed worth it since their creative juices were flowing and I didn’t have to monitor everything (definitely a plus).  I can’t say enough about the super potential an empty box has for childhood entertainment!
  • The littles also played play-do for a while as well at some point.

• Physical Activity/Chores
  • Playing outside- nerf guns, riding rip-sticks (not sure if that’s how that’s spelled,) and bikes was mostly the extent of our physical activity.  We didn’t do anything organized since I had more work and calls today during that time than yesterday, as did Garen.
  • Putting together the trampoline was one of our outside activities we did- and I say “we” very loosely because it was mostly Garen. They are SUPER excited about it and I can’t help but think how great this is going to keep them occupied and active. Hello interim PE coach! You can see the excitement and happiness even if it is a terrible photo.

• • The kids actually did pretty great with their chores.  There were some that I did myself (like cook dinner because everyone else was helping get the trampoline put together or, in the littles’ case, playing in the big trampoline boxes).  If nothing else comes from this, getting kids to do chores without a massive meltdown is one of my main goals.  I know we are NOT the only parents that are making their kids do more than usual, despite what Will assures me!
  • Also, I didn’t get my workout in- whomp, whomp.  Tomorrow is my fast day, so won’t be working out besides some good ol’ trampoline fun with the kids tomorrow.

So, what’s up tomorrow in Graves Academy?

• Littles- Pre-K
  • Practice sight words
  • Practice writing 1-20 with a print-out.
  • Practice writing first and last names
  • Reading whatever is on the schedule from Children’s University
  • ABC Mouse- got a free log-in from CU- we’ll see if we have time and feel up to it
• Anna- 3rd
  • Word problems worksheet- from mathfactcafe.com  This site helps you make worksheets for them to work on (in case you didn’t see my post from yesterday.  I actually downloaded this just now and this was one of the questions:

(My imediate thought was- who cares how many times they sneezed, don’t get within 6 feet from them and go wash your hands!  Jim and Casey better call their doctor before they go anywhere!)

• • Review 3-D Shapes- finish up one more of these that we started on today:  https://www.math-salamanders.com/3d-geometric-shapes.html 
• • Imagine Math:  https://math.imaginelearning.com/users/sign_in
• • Write a thank you card to send to MaMa and Mammy.  I’m going to have her read this and use it as a guideline (we TOTALLY need to work on getting better at this):  https://pinholepress.com/blog/teach-kids-to-write-thank-you-cards-in-3-steps/
• • Pick one of the experiments that she got for her birthday out and do it together

• Will- 5th
  • Place Value Work- if I can find it in his Google site from his teacher (I’m still a little technologically challenged sometimes)
  • Read one of the books he bought at the book fair the week before Spring Break
  • His class will be reading Johnny Tremain together using Zoom, which I think is super cool but this may not start until Thursday.
  • Imagine Math (if I can’t get into google site)
  • Write a thank you letter to Mammy.
  • 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.  Go over with us 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.

• Physical Activity
  • The trampoline is going to definitely be the biggest player tomorrow.  Since we got it finished after the littles were already in bed, they’re going to be chomping at the bit to get out there.  The kids are so excited that Will actually told me he’s setting his alarm for 6:00 and he asked if we could re-arrange the schedule to make physical time first after breakfast, which I’m all for!  Although, as soon as I typed this out, it started pouring rain.  We can jump in the rain, right?!?
  • I had a friend tell me about relay races- that might be fun.  Although, we’ll see realistically how much energy I have by then!

• Work Strategies for Adults
  • Garen is going to try to get up earlier (like at 4- crazy, I know) to get some un-interrupted morning work time in.
  • I tend to be working on and off all day, despite trying to “block time” like I usually do.  When my phone rings, I typically need to answer it- I’m in sales, after all.
  • Conference calls I’m aiming to do during nap time to ensure it’s less likely to have a screaming kid in the background.  I know that’s not always going to be feasible since other parties have other schedules, but it’s nice when I can.

Day 2 down…. how many to go???  Just kidding.  Try to enjoy the craziness this time and the memories we’ll make.