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Today was a crazy day. We didn’t get started with homeschooling until almost 10:00 am, at which point the electricity went out and the internet went down. So, the boys played outside in the sunshine, made themselves lunch, and played outside some more until the power came back on…then, they did a little free play on their tablets.

After that, we started our school day. We ended up skipping Mommy and Me Time and just burned through Math, Writing, Social Studies/Science, and Reading.

Jonas progressed at his own pace on Khan and Beast Academy, watched a couple of Flocabulary videos on the writing process and the five elements of a story, watched a slideshow presentation on genetics, completed a few slides on American reconstruction, read on Epic, and did a TaeKwonDo Zoom.

Xander did a GoMath lesson and progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, responded to his online classroom discussion question and watched a Flocabulary video on idioms, read three articles on Social Studies Weekly, and read on Epic.

Roman progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, took a spelling test and did a little research for another biography project (he chose Elon Musk), read on Epic, and did a TaeKwonDo Zoom.

I’ve been a little off all day today (although the boys rolled with the changes in our day really well). But, selfishly, I’m hoping we’ll have more of a (new) normal day tomorrow…

Mental Health Day!!!

I thought it might be fun for the boys to do their homeschooling work in the tent today, so Tom set it up for them in the backyard.

Xander and Roman were out there right after breakfast, setting up their spaces…my boys love to nest (it’s so sweet). Jonas slept in, but as soon as he woke up and had breakfast, he was out there too with stuffed animals and blankets in tow. Petra was close behind. Roman set up her bed inside the tent with them, but she preferred to sit outside and stand guard…we love our Petra girl.

Jonas responded to his online classroom discussion question, read about the Vietnam War on Epic, worked on a packet of Greg Tang puzzles, and tried again with the Google Slides (we’re going to have to figure that one out soon…he was getting super frustrated with it). For Mommy and Me Time, we snuggled up on the couch and read.

Xander searched the book he’s been reading for adverbs and made a list of them, read on Epic, worked on unit fractions, and watched a Mystery Science video on black holes. For Mommy and Me Time, we made lunch and worked on cutting out fabric for some bookmarks he wants to make.

Roman researched Unspeakable and filled out a graphic organizer for his biography, read on Epic (we couldn’t figure out how to interact with ConnectEd), progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, and made up fifteen silly sentences with his spelling words (all of them had at least one potty word in them…eye roll). For Mommy and Me Time, we went on a walk (he rode the overboard).

We’re back at it…

I decided to start the day out today with the boys doing some kind of outdoor exercise for a bit…Jonas and Roman rode their bikes and Xander took a walk. We just have to get that energy OUT multiple times a day (especially first thing in the morning) or they will be at each other’s throats all day (especially Jonas and Roman).

Jonas did some editing and revising, progressed at his own pace on Khan Academy, read on Epic and answered a few questions about what he read, and tried to figure out how to complete interactive slides on forces and motion and the Civil War (I’m not sure he ever figured it out…). For Mommy and Me Time, we snuggled up in bed and read together.

Xander responded to his online classroom discussion question and watched a BrainPop to review adverbs, struggled with point of view in a non-fiction text and ended up filling out a graphic organizer on animal research (dolphins) instead, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, and read a few articles on Social Studies Weekly and answered a few questions about what he read. For Mommy and Me Time, we played pickle ball and Exploding Kittens.

Roman watched a BrainPop video/took a quiz on biographies and picked out who he wants to write his biography about (Unspeakable), read on Epic and watched a BrainPop video/took a quiz on main idea, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy (we weren’t able to figure out how interact with GoMath…), and typed out his spelling words. For Mommy and Me, we took a walk (he rode the hoverboard).

I can’t believe that I pretty much already have a 6th grader, 5th grader, and 3rd grader on my hands!!!

Friday is our PJ Day…thank goodness. I was feeling low energy today. The boys woke up early, so we were able to start our homeschool day an hour early! They got everything done (except Science/Social Studies) an hour before lunch. So, they had some time to run around outside. We’ll hit up Science/Social Studies later today/this weekend. We’re headed out to Tim’s Ford Lake right now to go out on the boat and do some exploring. I’m so grateful…I think we’re all ready for a break.

Jonas worked on his typing skills through Typing Agent, completed a graph and played speedball on Renzulli for Math, and read on Epic and answered a few questions about what he read. For Mommy and Me Time, we snuggled up in bed and read together.

Xander posted on his classroom discussion board and wrote a letter to his best friend, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, and read on Epic. For Mommy and Me Time, we played with the kitty cat next door (Xander is pet sitting for the first time and is SO excited about it…such a perfect job for my little animal lover) and played slapjack and war.

Roman added a few more chapters to the story he wrote yesterday, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, read a story and took a quiz on Freckle, and read on Epic. For Mommy and Me Time, we sanded the stick he’s been carving and read monkey stories on Libby.

Week 5 of homeschooling is complete!!! Only 3 1/2 weeks to go!!!

Today was a little bit of a blah, rainy day…not much to report.

Jonas worked on revising and editing, progressed at his own pace in Math on Khan Academy, read about the Great Depression, did some Mystery Science, and studied the Holocaust. For Mommy and Me a Time, we snuggled up in bed and read together.

Xander looked for and made a list of metaphors in the books he’s been reading lately, reviewed subtracting mixed numbers on Khan Academy, read on Epic, and watched a physical science video and played games and took a quiz on it. For Mommy and Me Time, we played slapjack, rummy, and war.

Roman wrote a story on the computer about his best friends (something involving a wrecking ball and school), progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy, read a story and took a quiz about it on Freckle, read on Epic, and watched a video and took a quiz on classifying animals on BrainPop Jr. For Mommy and Me Time, we cleaned his room and read some “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” together.

Homeschooling, homeschooling, jiggity jog…

Jonas read an article about being bored and wrote his opinion about it in a few paragraphs, solved some Greg Tang puzzles for Math, read on Epic, learned about fossils in Science, studied more about World War II in Social Studies, and painted a clear plastic plate that will be turned into a fun addition to our garden for Art. For Mommy and Me Time, we played horse and the bean bag/milk jug toss game.

Xander wrote a letter to a friend about how he’s spending his time during the day right now and found a bunch of similes in the book he’s been reading, worked with adding and subtracting mixed numbers in Math, read on Epic, read about Women in the Civil War and answered questions for Social Studies, and painted a clear plastic plate that will be turned into a fun addition to our garden and drew on the sidewalk with chalk for Art. For Mommy and Me time, we went on a short walk, played the bean bag/milk jug toss game, and played Boggle.

Roman wrote ten sentences using nouns around the house and wrote his spelling words in sidewalk chalk, progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy for Math, read on Epic, and did some Mystery Science for Science. For Mommy and Me Time, we cuddled up in bed and watched “Colossal Questions” on Epic.

We’re all looking forward to “Unschooling” day tomorrow…

My sister, Julie, got remarried this weekend!! I told her now-husband, Ken, a few months ago that I’d never seen her happier. He smiled and said, “Yeah…we do that for each other.” I’m so excited for her and for my niece and nephew, Jordan and Dylan…and for Ken…they’ve found a new home together. May it be filled with love and joy and peace. Amen.

Look at this sweet face!!!

Tom and the boys and I had SO much fun geocaching!!! The boys’ favorite part, by far, was trading trinkets. What a great family weekend adventure!

We even figured out some geocaching lingo:
BYOP = Bring your own pen
FTF = First time find
P & G = Park and grab
CITO = Cash in trash out
TFTC = Thanks for the cache

Fridays are PJ days, but Jonas is the only one who took advantage of that today.

Jonas watched a BrainPop on “Strengthening Sentences” and played a Kahoot called “Word Choices and Connotations”, progressed in math at his own pace on Kahn Academy, read on Epic and answered a few questions about what he read, watched a science video on Isaac Newton and answered questions about it, and Zoomed with Pranav. For Mommy and Me Time, we curled up in bed and read and played lawn darts.

Xander read the Social Studies Weekly newspaper and collected adjectives describing people and places and things, progressed at his own pace in math on Beast Academy, read on Epic, built his own robots in our homemade robot lab (his were so cute!!!) and Zoomed with Jeremy and David. For Mommy and Me Time, we searched through his trinket collection for things to trade when we go geocaching this weekend. We also took a walk around the loop (he hoverboarded) and identified trees by their leaves.

Roman filled out a graphic organizer about “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and answered his classroom discussion question and did a roll-a-word activity with his spelling words, progressed at his own pace in math on Beast Academy, read on Epic, built his own robot in our homemade robot lab, and Zoomed with Ben. We walked around the loop (I walked and he hoverboarded) and chatted for our Mommy and Me Time.

Week 4 of homeschool down!!! Only 4 1/2 more weeks to go…

Today went a little better, for the most part. Thank goodness!

Jonas edited a writing piece, read on his Kindle and answered a few questions about what he read, knocked out a slew of math assignments on Kahn Academy, and did a TaeKwonDo Zoom. For Mommy and Me Time, we threw the football and curled up in bed and read together.

Xander finished up his time capsule packet, talked with me about cause and effect in his life, read a few articles on Social Studies Weekly and answered questions about what he read, and did some math on Freckle. We built a fort and played Mexican Train Dominoes for Mommy and Me Time.

Roman put the finishing touches on his time capsule packet and took a spelling test, read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney on the Libby app, cranked out some math on Beast Academy, did a TaeKwonDo Zoom, and FaceTimed with his friend Luke. For Mommy and Me Time, we went for a walk around the block and talked about introverts and extroverts and how they both might be struggling in different ways during the quarantine and how they can both be using coping skills to make it through this time. (He’s our resident extrovert, so we’re trying to help him connect more with his friends in socially distant ways.)

We skipped Science and Social Studies today…might add those in this weekend with science experiments and geocaching.

Oh, today. Roman had a tough time and was in his room for a while, figuring himself out. The pushback was emotionally exhausting for me.

Jonas wrote about the Coronavirus, read on Epic and answered several questions about what he read, progressed at his own pace on Khan Academy for Math, and watched a BrainPop video and answered questions for Social Studies. We played Mexican Train Dominoes for Mommy and Me Time.

Here’s Petra getting pets from Jonas, while he’s reading…she loves having her boys home.

Xander responded to his teacher’s weekly question and reviewed the job of an adjective, read on Epic, progressed at his own pace on Freckle for Math, and read about the battles of the Civil War on Social Studies Weekly. For Mommy and Me Time, we played Mexican Train Dominoes.

Roman reviewed short vs. long “e” sounds, wrote a story with and listed rhyming words for and spelled in shaving cream his spelling words, wrote a few paragraphs of opinion writing, and progressed at his own pace on Beast Academy for Math. We didn’t end up having Mommy and Me Time during the homeschool day today because he spent a good bit of that time in his room for refusing to work, overreacting, being disrespectful, and saying/doing mean things. (We also skipped our science experiment/art activity today…some days it’s just too much.) I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow with him.

Looks like we’ll be adding another week of homeschooling at least, as Governor Bill Lee renewed the stay-at-home order for Tennesseans through April 30. I’ve had a feeling for a while now that the boys will be out of school for the rest of the school year. We’ll see…

The boys and I are kind of loving the pattern we’ve fallen into of having Wednesdays be our “unschooling” day. I think it’s necessary right now for all of our sanities.

We finished up our Peeps science experiment this morning (the boys couldn’t wait)…they wrote down what the Peeps looked like, smelled like, and felt like after 24 hours of soaking in their different liquids and compared the results with their predictions.

After that, we played several rounds of pickle ball. Then, the boys listened to music, coded, face timed with friends, horsed around, and read books in no particular order.

Meanwhile, I cleaned the house, exercised, did laundry, made dinner, and sewed away on my homemade fabric face masks for donating to family, friends, and medical/essential workers.

It was a good day…I think we all went to bed feeling restored.

The boys are enjoying their little exercise warm up before starting the school day. Tom made a list of 10 exercises (jumping jacks, head shoulder knees and toes, burpees, knee highs, inchworms, mountain climbers, butt kickers, skaters, two foot jumps forward and backward, and running in place) for them. They each chose two exercises and rotated through them in 30 second intervals. Of course, “running in place” became “sprinting back and forth across the room” and “jumping jacks” became “running and doing jumping jacks while making fart noises” but still. HaHa!

We tried something different today for writing that they all seemed to enjoy…Roll and Write. They made up their own lists of settings, characters, and plots. Then, they rolled the dice three times and picked something from each column to create their stories. Roman dictated his ideas to me and came up with four or five really creative stories. Xander’s writing involved a tent, Minnie Mouse, and deadly farts. It was pretty funny. Jonas had so many ideas rolling through his head and had so much fun coming up with his list that he barely wrote two sentences and then cracked up because he couldn’t read his own handwriting. (We’ll have to try that one again on Monday.)

The boys all did some independent reading and worked on math with Beast Academy (thank you, dear Sandi, for telling me about this!!!).

For Mommy and Me time, Xander and I played corn hole and read “Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten: A Call to Arms” together. Roman and I played Kubb (thank you so much to the Longs for the Christmas gift that keeps on giving!!!) and made some oatmeal raisin cookies. Then, Mommy needed a BREAK…so, I sent them all outside, where they came up with some sort of run-around-and-hit-each-other-with-beanbags game. After that, Jonas and I balled up the oatmeal raisin cookie dough and baked it and tweaked his Beast Academy math program online.

We didn’t end up getting to our science activity today, so we’ll do that this weekend.

Two weeks of homeschooling down!!! Roman said homeschooling felt “homey” today…so I consider that a win.

You know, this whole thing makes me think of a little kindergartener who I had in the library all those years ago, who stood up in front of the class, showed her drawing interpretation about the story we read, and said, “My name is Maya, and I did the best I know how.” That’s my heart right now…”My name is Jodi, and I’m doing the best I know how.”

We had a better day today…I think the day off helped!

In Writing, I asked Xander to write a letter to his teacher. He quickly said, “I’m done!” and handed me this…oh, Xan-Man.

Math and Coding went well and so did our Mommy and Me Time. I threw the football with Jonas and Xander in turn. Roman wanted me to watch him swat carpenter bees with a tennis racket and then asked me to help him make his bed. Yay for boys!

It was a struggle to get the boys motivated for Science, but once they got going…I think they enjoyed it. They predicted what they would use to build a bird’s nest and drew a before picture. Then, we split up in search of materials…Jonas and Xander trekked off into the backyard and Roman and I walked around our neighborhood trail. We ended up meeting together on the wooded side of the trail to build our nests. The boys were supposed to draw an after picture and write about what materials worked well and what materials didn’t, but we skipped that part. Oh well. We’re all just doing our best here. Week 1 is in the books, baby!!!

I’m excited about receiving grade level specific content resources from WCS this afternoon (SO grateful for all of their hard work)!!! I’m hoping we’ll really hit our groove next week with the new schedule/content.

So, today. Ugh. Let’s just suffice it to say that I did NOT wake up wanting to homeschool the boys, and the boys did NOT wake up wanting to be homeschooled…in such a way that we all had a meltdown in one way or another within a few hours of the day beginning.

My dear husband, Tom, offered grace over FaceTime after seeing the state of affairs, and said, “You know, maybe it’s just not working out today, babe. And that’s okay. That’s the beauty of homeschooling.” I took that to heart, turned them all loose in the great outdoors (it was a beautiful day today), and set to work in my garden transplanting Black-Eyed Susans and Yarrow.

After a good bit of outside playtime, they slowly started coming back to me. Xander asked if he could do some coding, so he grabbed the computer and hung out in the hammock in the shade by the garden. Roman wanted to read a book on my phone (we LOVE the Libby app…get it, if you don’t have it!), and he plopped down in the teal Adirondack chair to read next to the garden. And Jonas, who was already settled into doing math on the computer on the couch inside beside the garden window, opened it up so he could feel the breeze and see/hear us while he worked. Sigh.

I apologized to each of them in turn for losing my patience and temper, held them accountable for their part (whining, fighting, throwing pencils, talking back, punching, etc.), and declared today a day of “unschooling”. Because sometimes…the teacher AND the students just need a mental health day.

We went to the Williamson County Public Library today in Franklin to stock up on books and DVDs for our upcoming lake trip. Roman was SO excited when he saw this monkey on the wall, so I had to walk him out to the van to grab his Ki-Ki so he could pose for this picture. Sweet boy.
He’s also been working on book reviews with Tom for his very own YouTube channel, “RoMo Monkey”. I was not sure at first and am still not super sure what I think of him being on YouTube. BUT his presence and his reviews are great…especially for his age…and he works so hard on reading the books, writing the reviews, editing the reviews, and reading the reviews while Tom is filming him. He’s working with his daddy, being creative, building his confidence, and learning a lot…and I’m all for those things. And it makes me happy to see him sharing his love of reading with other kids. Check out his YouTube channel, RoMo Monkey, if you want to…and get ready for some cuteness!!!

We LOVED our week at the beach…swimming, hanging out, laying in the sun, reading, playing games, taking pictures, resting, going out to eat, kayaking in the bay, snorkeling, shopping for souvenirs, sitting on the deck, going out for ice cream, etc. Hopefully, we can go back next summer!!!

For more pictures, click on the “Cape San Blas 2019” page to the right.

Roman was SUPER excited to help decorate and ride on the Masters Martial Arts float for the Veteran’s Day Parade!!!