Homeschool week 4

Monday was kind of rough with the kids fighting a bit more than usual. Probably a combo of Easter the day before and that it was super windy (for some reason wind makes kids crazy). For PE we went to the park to try and fly some kites Savannah had come across the week before during brush and bulky pick up. They were the super fancy kinds. I remembered that we had some kites that had been in our garage for years, so I grabbed those, too. They were the dollar store kind. Out of 3 fancy ones and 2 dollar store ones we were able to get one fancy one and one cheap one up in the air .

Being out with so many kids and so few kites and the kites not flying super easy reminded me why those kites had been sitting untouched in our garage for so many years.

The kids had fun, but also got easily frustrated when the kites didn't go as they wanted it to. Finally they went to play kickball while I ran over to Fry's to pick up my grocery order. Unfortunately there were a lot of people picking up their orders at the same time so it wasn't as quick as I had hoped. By the time I got back there had been more fighting and Grandma was ready to go home and have some peace and quiet.
Megan was so excited to have a zoom meeting arranged with her friend Emma. She's been missing her friends at school and her class hadn't done any zoom meetings, so I texted Emma's mom to set it up. Megan read some of her favorite book, Dragon's Fat Cat to Emma, and Emma read a book to Megan. They showed each other their rooms and stuffed animals and just had a real good time.

Friday Megan's class had a zoom meeting and she was excited to see the rest of her classmates, too. They'll do one every Friday for the rest of the school year.

For science on Tuesday Grandma had the kids build their own tornado making machine. Then we watched a Smarter everyday about the Coriolis Effect. 

During school Rachel just sits and works on her assignments. I have to work with the other kids and have a list of what they should be working on ready for them, but Rachel just organizes her time nicely and plods right though. She was done with her work for last week by Wednesday. One of her assignments was to create a coat of arms. This is what she made:

Upper left is latin for knowledge is power, lower left is latin for the pen is mightier than the sword.

I've started going on bike rides a few times a week first thing so I can get some exercise in before I have to get the kids going on their chores and school. It is lovely to be out in nature and enjoy the fresh air.

I decided to go every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but then last week our workout group decided we should have a Zoom workout group on Fridays, so we did that. It was nice to see my friends again.

We even got to see Jillian and Alayna that have moved away. Super fun.

Annie finished one of her school assignments recording some of her dreams and goals for the future:

Annie often feels overwhelmed on Monday mornings about how much there is to do for the week because her packet of printed work looks a little thick, I guess. But by Wednesday she is usually nearly done with the whole thing. If only she could remember that come Monday again.

For Spanish we've been learning about body parts. We traced a couple of the kids, then had two groups work on labeling the body in spanish.

With watching the daily broadcast from their school at 9:00, we usually end up having about 15-20 minutes for Spanish class. We're learning to sing I am a Child of God in Spanish, then we watch a video on Rockalingua and either do a worksheet or other activity before we start regular school at 9:30.

Grandma does so much with the younger kids each day. She helps them stay on task and get worksheets done, play learning games, and practice reading. She's such a good grandma.

We went down to the Cienega Creek Preserve again because the kids love playing in the water there and it's a relatively short drive. I found a caterpillar climbing on my sock, so the kids took turns holding it on a stick.

We had decided that instead of packing lunches for our trip, we'd just take advantage of the free lunches the school is giving out during the school shut downs for all kids 18 and younger. We expected sandwiches, but that day there turned out to be pizza and breakfast burritos for lunch. There are no microwaves at the trail head to warm up the food. We decided to make use of our cars as solar ovens. We brought the sides along with us for snacks on the hike, and left the pizzas and burritos on our dashboards to warm up.

With the temperatures in the mid 80s that day, our cars warmed up well enough to melt the cheese on the pizzas and warm the burritos all the way through.

We pulled out a blanket and ate in the parking lot and no one threw up, so the food must have been cooked through just fine. :)

Back home on Thursday night Annie and Megan had a gymnastics zoom class. Siblings were welcome to join in, so Ryan jumped in, too.

They did their best to find space for all 3 of them, and seemed to have a good time.

For Come Follow Me study last week we studied Mosiah 1-3 and focused a lot on service. We brainstormed some ideas for doing service and did some though out the week. We made a Boredom Buster Box for the ladies I minister to. Actually for their kids. My kids decorated the box and included some toys that were ready to head to Goodwill, plus some sidewalk chalk and stuff to make paper bag puppets. My neighbor gave us a few bags full of workbooks and activity books that her kids had accumulated over the years  (mostly from grandparents) and were mostly unused. We kept some and passed some along in the Boredom Buster Boxes, too.
Friday Ryan reminded us that we hadn't chalked anyone's sidewalk, which was one of our service brainstorms. So we headed out.

We hit the Hager's driveway (one of Megan's teachers, and our neighbor around the corner) (above), then headed to our backyard neighbors, Shannon and Joanne and Eileen.

Shannon was so appreciative that she gave the kids a Thank You note along with a gift card she called our chalk fund so we can continue spreading joy to those around us.
We had also talked about sweeping the sidewalks in our neighborhood when we brainstormed service ideas. So we swept all the way to the Hagers, all the way to Shannon's and Joanne's, and all the way back home, hitting both sides of the streets. Rachel stuck with it the whole time and her and my arms were dying by the end. Who knew sweeping was such a good workout?

Friday night Eloise had her birthday party. After pizza and a movie and presents the kids had a blast singing Disney (and other) karaoke. It was fun (and funny) to watch. One person holds the microphone to do the karaoke, but really everyone is singing along.

McKenzie and Peyton stayed over night with Eloise, so Saturday morning we had to take advantage of having them out here. We went to a small neighborhood park across the street to play soccer and frisbee for a while. Later they all went swimming, at Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Teacher appreciation week is coming up and the PTA at Rachel's school decided to make a video of students thanking them. Since I had a ton of chocolate apples I thought it would be funny to show Rachel eating them all since she couldn't give them all out. She agreed, so we staged this picture:

We actually do plan to drop a few of the apples off at the office for her core teachers. I'm debating offering to do a video or something like that for the elementary school since technically I am still the Teacher appreciation chair person until the end of this school year... There's only a week left, but I could probably pull something together... We'll see.

Home school week3-Easter

Last week we did a few extra activities that were bunny/Easter related, besides the regular school work the kids' teachers had posted for them. Here's what our week looked like...

Crazy sock day for spirit day:

Ryan even put socks on his stuffed dog. He thought it was hilarious. Megan felt sick that morning so the Knight kids went over to Grandma's for school instead of coming here. Turns out she was fine. She was just whiny, which is a sickness that afflicts her more often than I like.

Ryan's reading choice board with ideas for what to do for reading for 15 minutes has all sorts of options. He loved the idea of reading a book on Epic (a free-for-now library-type app) in the bathtub.

Megan made a card for one of her teachers, but just wanted to send it to her digitally. She's quite a clown when the camera comes out.

Grandma wrote a script for the kids to put on a play last week. Rachel acted as the director and they practiced every afternoon during PE/Grandma's special activity time. One day they squeezed in making a bunny car snack, too. The snacks turned out super cute.

For art on Thursday we dyed Easter Eggs.

Then that afternoon we went to see Peter Rabbit performed.

The kids all did a great job. They love putting on plays for some reason.

Friday was no school because it was Good Friday. After chores and playing around quite a bit, they asked if they could do Cosmic Kids Yoga. They found a Minecraft episode to do.

Megan got a secret message in the mail from her teachers. It was just a plain white piece of paper with something written in white crayon. Megan painted over it with watercolors to reveal the secret message. They thought that was so cool, so they started writing secret messages to each other. Megan's message also happened to help with a lot of sight words they're supposed to be working on in kinder. It says, "You make me smile."

Saturday the Knights came over to serve our family. They washed our car.

And I mean washed our car. Inside and out. The inside of our car has not looked that good since we bought it.

The good news is, with us not going anywhere, the car may stay clean for a long time. 

We discovered that Rachel is probably a little taller than Grandma. Ahhh!

This morning the kids woke us up to go out on our balcony and watch He is Risen on the Bible Videos. They love that tradition so much. And I like that they always want to do it, and when the video is over, they don't immediately run inside. We sit out there wrapped up in blankets listening to the birds and watching the sky change colors, picking out shapes in the clouds. It was lovely.

Then they ran downstairs to check out their baskets and hunt for the eggs the Easter bunny hid for them.

The huge egg is from Ryan's Hatchimal. He left some presents inside for the Easter bunny along with a note. Megan also left a note for the Easter bunny. The bunny left some stickers when he took their notes.

We had a lovely Easter and are blessed to know that the resurrection is real and we will all live again. Easter is the most hopeful of holidays as it brings hope to all who have lost a loved one. Especially at this time when there is lots of doom and despair in the news, the good news that Christ has overcome the world is just what we need to bring light into our lives.

Conference Weekend/Coronavirus Craziness

At the end of this past week the CDC put out new recommendations that we wear face masks if we go out in public, so I've sewn a few for our family. Our stake was asked to sew some for some medical personnel in need a little over a week ago, and I made 2, sent them in and intended to make a lot more, but never quite got around to it, then when the CDC said we should wear masks this weekend I made a few more.

What a weird world we live in right now.

This weekend was General Conference and it was, as President Nelson promised in October, a conference never to be forgotten, and definitely a conference like no other. Only the first presidency and those who were speaking during the session were invited to be there in person and it was held in a small auditorium on Temple Square instead of in the Conference Center.
Talks all weekend focused on the restoration of the gospel and the first vision, since it is the 200th anniversary of the First Vision. This morning President Nelson announced a new Proclamation on the Restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel and led us in a Hosanna shout. We told our kids that was a unique thing they got to be part of. The only times I've participated in a Hosanna shout was at the dedication of temples and the conference center.

During the last session President Nelson spoke one last time and announced 8 new temples, including one in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and one in Shanghai, China. I was shocked at the one in Dubai, as the first temple in the Middle East, but when the one in Shanghai was announced I was beyond shocked. I gasped and teared up, which made Ryan and Megan worry. Ryan came over to give me a hug and Megan asked why I was sad. Ryan told her it was probably because China is where the Coronavirus started so I was worried for the workers there. I explained that having a temple allowed to be built in China was a very special thing that the world has been waiting for a long time.

Homeschool take 1

With COVID-19 in pandemic status, the governor mandated that all schools be closed for two weeks, which was then extended two more weeks, and finally last week they announced that schools will be closed for the rest of the school year. So since Spring Break ended, my mom and I have been team teaching school. Since Todd has work and Savannah has law school, their kids come and do school with my kids. The first week was a lot of trial and error. Figuring out how to keep 8 kids in 7 different grades occupied and productive was a little tricky. And most have some online aspect, so we had to figure out how to apportion the computers and the tablets so they could get done what they needed. By the second week we figured out a schedule that worked ok and it went pretty smooth.

My kids start their official day at 8am with a rotation of chores, piano, and scripture reading for 20 minutes each. Ryan is super on top of things in the mornings, and he is often done with everything before 8am. I love coming down to read my scriptures at 6:15 or 6:30 and he is sitting on the couch with his scriptures open and taking notes in his Come Follow Me notebook I made for each of the kids at the beginning of the year. He loves his new quad he got for his birthday and is really eating up the scriptures. 

 The Knights come over sometime in the 8:00 hour and play outside (morning recess) until school starts at 9:00. The elementary school has been producing their daily broadcast that the kids usually watch at school with announcements, the pledge, and usually pictures of some staff members participating in the virtual spirit day (they have one planned every day to help the kids feel connected). The kids love it, and it's a good way to officially start our school day.

To start school, we do 30 minutes of Spanish, a lot of it using Rockalingua, which has catchy songs that help the kids learn the vocabulary. Here they're learning their colors:

And learning names of frutas:

 I love that they can just lay down on the rug as part of school. There are some perks to school at home.

After Spanish the kids split for school work, half on computers/tablets, the other half doing school work or lessons with Grandma for 45 minutes. They get recess and snack for 30 minutes, then come back in for 45 more minutes of schoolwork, switching who is on/off of electronics. Except for Rachel. Pretty much all her school work is online so she just has a computer the entire time. Then at 11:30 we do an art project until noon when the Knights go home for lunch. At 1:30 we have either PE or science or another special activity at Grandma Knight's house for about an hour.

The first week we did school Peyton and McKenzie came out and joined us for a couple of days of school (with a sleepover at Grandma's as a bonus). It was fun having them do school with us. Unfortunately, since Marie works at a nursing home we don't want to take any chances of spreading Coronavirus, so we are just video chatting occasionally now instead. They plan to join us (virtually) for art at least one of the days this week.

 Grandma has great lessons with the younger kids every day, reading books, playing math games, teaching them how to tell time, and all sorts of fun.

We've done a variety of art projects...

nature art:

 Drawing on Art for Kids Hub on YouTube:

 We've done Calvin (not on Art for Kids Hub, which made us appreciate the effective teaching of the Art for Kids Hub guy):

 Garfield and Odie...

 And we've done some rock painting and chalk art:

The kids have participated in some of the virtual spirit days. We take a picture and share it on Facebook where they can see some friends and staff members' pictures, too.
Some they've done are:
Crazy Hair Day:

 Hat day (we went on a hike to Cienega Creek Preserve that day):

 Read outside day:

 And every Friday is Spirit Day (wear your school shirt or colors):

 The first Friday of no school the teachers did a car parade to drive around the neighborhoods and wave at all the kids. It was awesome and the kids and teachers loved it.

 Unfortunately the governor issued a stay at home order last week, so the teachers can't do the car parade like they were planning to do every Friday. But at least we got one in.

Every afternoon Grandma's house is the hot spot for fun. Some days the kids just jump on the trampoline run around for PE to get their energy out, but she plans a (usually science) lesson a couple times a week, and organized activities at least part of each PE day.

The kids learned about chemical reactions by watching Bill Nye and making volcanoes in the back yard, and freezing their own ice cream.

PE with water is always fun. They got a double slip 'n slide for lots of fun:

 And this past week they put up a new above ground pool for more water fun. Add in jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler and water balloons and these kids are loving Water Wednesday PE.

For PE and science we went on a hike to the Cienega Creek Preserve. The kids built a dam, made moss balls, and noticed little wigglers in the water. We wished we had a microscope. Then the next day Ms. Bradshaw loaned us one for the rest of the school year, so we need to go back and get a sample of the water to see what we can see.

 Grandma planned a great math lesson involving 2D and 3D shapes, then the kids built some shapes and dipped them in bubble solution. The 3D shapes turned out really cool after you pulled it out of the bubble solution.

Fridays we do a bit different than the rest of the week since Savannah doesn't have classes, so her kids stay home. We do a few extra chores on Friday, so they have a little more time than normal for chores instead of having Spanish. Then at 9:30 we do writing, specifically in their journals so they can remember this unique time in history, then it's creative time until 10:30. Creative time is mostly doing a Lego Challenge from a list I printed out. Or they can choose something else, but they seem to like the Lego option. Then at 10:30 or thereabouts we watch Mark Rober science videos on YouTube since he is doing live science classes 3 times a week (which we never manage to catch live). Then lunch and free time.
I am really enjoying school at home more than I thought I would (I am very grateful for the teachers providing materials for the kids to do), but by Thursday afternoon I am ready for a nice break from the mental effort. And just in time. I am so grateful for my mom for helping make this happen. She is a huge help. Having just 8 kids seems like not too hard compared to the 30 kids in some of my kids' classes. But they are almost all in different grades (except Eloise and Annie), so it does complicate things. But we can do this. Vail School District is running with this motto during the school closure: We got this. And so far we do.