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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020

Quarantine Weekend #1 | Work, Worship, and #ChalkYourWALK

Wow, what a weird weekend.  The mornings were damp and drizzly but the afternoons cleared up and the sun came out and everything dried up quickly.  So we took the opportunity to get ahead in yard work – especially since it is going to rain A LOT the next two days.  Everything is trimmed down so it won’t be out of control when it finally dries out again.

I’m so thankful for technology during this time and my church.  Service is live-streamed every Sunday morning.  And the student ministry is live-streaming Sunday morning student Bible study and Wednesday night services.  My small Bible study group is even utilizing technology to still have a weekly lesson.  I hope you are taking advantage of online services.  And if you don’t know of a place to do so, you can start here.

So this weekend was work, worship and chalk your walk!

If you haven’t seen on social media, #chalkyourwalk is an idea to fill the sidewalks with positive messages, fun doodles and bright colors to spread a little joy during quarantine.  People are out taking walks more and they will see these messages.

We did ours this afternoon but it’s supposed to start raining in the morning.  It’ll be at least Wednesday before it stops and dries out.  So we’ll get back out there and do it again!

So go #chalkyourwalk this week!

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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020

Springing from Quarantine (Safely and Temporarily)

How long can we stay cooped up on quarantine before cracking?

Five days.

LOL.

It’s day 5 and we flew the coop!

We stayed up too late watching movies last night, slept too late this morning.  And then made a run for it to the park.  Playgrounds are closed.  But this amazing walking track/trail and greenspace area is open.  It doesn’t look like it in the picture because we found a quiet area, but it was actually crawling with people.  It was a beautiful day.  People were keeping their “social distance” but you could tell, everyone just really needed this beautiful day and some fresh air.

After that we did a pickup order at Books-A-Million of The Wingfeather Saga Book 1.  We found out Andrew Peterson is doing a read aloud of book one, and we watched a short film commercial for the book and were hooked!

Then we hurried how so we could wash our hands and we tackled school.

We got through math, reading and Spanish and realized we were done for it for the day. Some days are just like that and grace says its okay.  It’s been a tough week.

We watched all our live streams that we’ve been keeping up on, played Mario Kart, had dinner and then knocked out 4 chapters of The Wingfeather Saga Book 1. 

 

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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020 School Day

Day 4 of Quarantine | Breaking out all the Tricks

Day 468 of Quarantine…

Just kidding, it’s day 4.  Although at times it felt like 468.  We are keeping up normalcy as much as possible (as far as staying home and getting school work finished.)   There are several articles, memes, Facebook posts, etc, circulating on school schedules and routines and ideas floating around.  Shoot, I even wrote one.  But there’s also posts circulating that says throw routine out, stay up late, play video games all day and “have fun”.  Well, we are having fun.  And tomorrow (hopefully), I’ll write a post about why I’m in camp “stick to a routine that includes fun” instead of total at-home anarchy.

But, we did have some fun today because we’re going a tad crazy.

ChessKidsNation had a free beginner chess lesson this morning so we tuned in to that and then played a round of chess to practice our new skills.

Our incredibly awesome local weatherman, James Spann, did a one hour live stream weather lesson that we both very much enjoyed.  We also broke out play-doh to keep our hands busy while we tuned in.

You’d think we’d have made weather-related play-doh things but we made fruit.

We plodded along with other subjects today but didn’t miss out on tuning in to Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems and a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo to see Moe the sloth!

We also enjoyed some highly competitive rounds of Mario Kart on the couch this afternoon.

Today we finished the Health and Nutrition chapter of the Apologia Elementary Anatomy and Physiology book. So we decided to try to make the most nutritious meal we could using only what we currently had, because quarantine and all. We came up with salmon over long-grain wild rice, popcorn shrimp, broccoli for me, romaine salad for G. And we finished off our Irish soda bread from Tuesday (but I use unbleached whole grain flour and applesauce instead of egg – so still kinda healthy!) We reviewed the nutrients found in each of our menu items.

And yes, we play Yahtzee over dinner.

That’s it for day 4.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020 Moments School Day

Day of 3 of Quarantine | Art and Academics

It’s day 3 of quarantine and we’re missing our extracurricular activities already.  Monday was supposed to be co-op. Tuesday, we had a field trip we had been looking forward to get cancelled.  And the weather has been nice but the parks are even closed.

So, we’re trying to adjust to this new normal.  We listened to some podcasts over breakfast this morning.

We did more academics today that we have the last two days.  Lots of math – G is almost finished with 6th grade on Khan Academy.  In fact, he will probably be finished this week. And science.  Also, his U.S. Geography class at co-op sent out homework to keep from getting behind during the closure.  So he has a report on Alaska to start on.

He’s been inspired to create a comic book character so he’s been working on his comic strip featuring Bob the Germ.  I’ve let that count as writing this week because it is, in essence, creative writing, and he’s working on dialogue and narration.  But I’m glad he’s got a report to start working on for co-op class.

And despite doing more academics today, we still squeezed in some fun.  We did puffy paint Picasso paintings with Make Paducah via their FB page. It was messy but I’m glad we did it. It reminded me of those early days of homeschooling.  And he loved it so much more than I thought he would.  He made puffy paint pictures until he ran out of puffy paint.

And we’re still keeping up with Lunch Doodles with Mo!

How was your quarantine day?

If you need a pick-me-up, this video of the Penguins at the St. Louis Zoo getting to get out of their habitat and take a “field trip” around the zoo is really just the best.  And don’t forget to “like” on Facebook!

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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020

Coronavirus Quarantine Day 2 | St. Patrick’s Day, Virtual Drawing Lessons & Zoo Field Trip

We are big St. Patrick’s Day people, but it’s no secret this year’s celebration was destined to be a bust.  The parade we always go to was cancelled last Saturday – bummer.

But we still pulled off our traditional dinner.  Except this year I made Irish Soda Bread from scratch because I never found the box mix at Aldi that I usually get.  I’ll never buy a box mix again because this was so delicious.  And big thanks to the Publix bakery for a few themed sweets.

Be sure you’re following me on Instagram.

BUT, we had a whole day before dinner so let me back up to what our day looked liked.

Aside from math, spelling, grammar and reading, we took advantage of a few of the FUN things being offered right now!

We caught up on the “virtual safaris” being offered by the Cincinnati Zoo on their Facebook page.

We watched yesterday’s hippo video and today’s Brazilian porcupine (oh, my, goodness…cutest animal I’ve ever seen!)  We learned some really cool animal facts and can’t wait to tune in to tomorrow’s video!

We also caught up on Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems! 

He also start those yesterday also, so we had two to watch.  They have been VERY interested as he talks about drawing and doodling but also takes you around his studio and talks about all the things that go into making a book!

I followed along on his “How to Draw Pigeon” tutorial and I think it turned out very well!

G made some “letter doodles”.

I can’t wait to see what we get to do tomorrow!

How did quarantine day 2 go for you?  Come over to the Facebook page and drop your favorite Coronavirus Homeschooling Meme (or find some funny ones to steal!)

 

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Coronavirus Quarantine 2020 Free Stuff Resources

Scholastic Learn at Home Hub | Why We’re Building Dominoes out of LEGO

Scholastic has launched a Learn at Home Hub to keep kids engaged while they’re home during the Coronavirus school closures.

There will be a total of 20 lessons released 5 at a time each week.

We’re working our way through the first week’s lessons and came across a lesson on how a professional domino builder (yep, that’s a thing) uses math to create domino art.

This resulted in us watching tons of YouTube videos on falling dominoes (oh the mess!)

G wanted more than anything to set up dominoes and knock them down.  But we don’t have any.

No worries.  He started building his own dominoes using LEGO bricks.

Now he can set up and knock down to his heart’s content.  He was up to 62 dominoes when I made him go to bed.  I’m sure he will get back at it in the morning.

How did your Day 1 of Quarantine go?

 

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Curriculum Planning Homeschool Deals

ChristianBook.com: Apologia Sale thru 4/1

Spring seems to be when ChristianBook.com does their Apologia sale!  Hurry to ChristianBook.com to save 35% on Apologia Science Textbooks and Journals!  This is not a sale that comes around often!

We love Apologia science and already have our next two years’ books and notebooks purchased and waiting for us on the shelves!

Apologia for 35% off at ChristianBook.com ends April 1, 2019!

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5th Pictures

Homeschooling 5th Grade This Year

We are tackling FIFTH GRADE this year!  It seems so BIG.  Such a leap from last year.

The work area always looks so nice on the first day.  Then it never looks that good again.  LOL.

And of course, you can’t have a first day without the obligatory printed sign and pictures.  But special snacks help!

And we’re off!  What grade(s) are you homeschooling this year?

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Books Sonlight Core C

Last Day of 4th Grade – May 17, 2018 (and some of our favorite books)

Whew!  What a year!  I can’t believe this handsome fella is finished with FOURTH grade!  Whoa!  I’m emotionally not prepared for him to be a 5th grader.  That just sounds so…BIG.

We enjoyed our year this year using Sonlight Core C.  G wanted to take a picture with some of his favorite books so he would always remember.

Here are some of his favorites:

White Stallions of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry (this one happens to be one of my favorites from this year too)

Tales of Robin Hood (what little boy doesn’t love Robin Hood??)

The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin

Marco Polo (Junior World Explorers) This is the only reader that made his list of favorites.  It’s such an odd book to make his list of favorites but I’m glad he liked it!

The Twenty One Ballons by  William Pene du Bois

Missing from the picture because we had borrowed if from the library is probably our second favorite (with White Stallions of Lipizza being our first)…

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Random

Currently Reading…

Obviously the top books are G’s. We are brushing up on the Olympics. The next two are his reading. The School Story is our read aloud. The last three are mine. Though I’m struggling with the bottom one. I’m trying but I just haven’t gotten into it. Who knew C.S. Lewis wrote space travel books?