Week 6, Day 24 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

This is ONLY day 24 of homeschooling.  

I know it seems like we've been doing this for MONTHS, but honestly, if we are just counting the days of actual school, we haven't hit the first 30 days...yet. 

With spring break dipping into last week, I think I forgot to do the interviews. Since this week we had the announcement that we'll be doing these CrononaCrazy Day Drills until the end of May then jumping into summer, I thought this was a good time to get some reactions of the kiddos.  Olivia always thinks that this might go viral, so she is very much into short, brief answers. Isaac thinks this is a monologue and he could go on for hours. I try to cut him off when he's going off on something that really doesn't answer any questions, he's just talking. 

Today was a pretty good day.  I only had to be online for one class, but it was a pretty important one, as it was my senior capstone students and they were presenting their final projects to the client. Read here BIG DEAL.  So during that time my real kiddos ate lunch and had their free time. 

Both of them had Science work to do today.  I was impressed with Isaac who liked learning about energy. I'm certain I had the glazed over look and found the one video to be absolutely dreadful- no really.  What kid wants to READ the video slides with these hard words? Nope, stupid. 

Olivia worked hard today on her spelling words.  I think she missed three and was losing it, because she is getting to the point where you have to memorize and you can't just spell it like it sounds. 

Then there was their Art project.  SUPER cute project.  Did take HOURS to watch the videos and then get all the supplies and complete the work.  It's also something that can't really be done unsupervised. UGH. I thought the final projects were totally cute though.  I might even run down and get a few blank canvas' to let them do again and hang up in their rooms.  Who doesn't like to look at a bubble gum machine?!

Isaac's machine says go Ohio State- guess who is missing his sports?

Best part of today was the dressing up for the "family meeting."  Apparently they've seen too many meetings where we dress up, so they thought this meant their Sunday-best too! I was cracking up when they came out all spiffed up.  Isaac even had a tie on at one point.  So naturally, I called both sets of grandparents to show them how the kids had dressed up for our family meeting to discuss our summer plans.  My Dad said since the meeting had to do with coming to his lake house, that he should be able to attend the meeting and vote. Isaac said he'd have to wear a tie.  BLAHAHAHA. So Jerm got home from work and we held the family meeting. Things decided included that we would head to the lakehouse, Olivia would get a fastpass to CedarPoint one time to ride coasters, and arcade games would be played. But, the best part was around 7 we got a Facetime call from my mom and dad. Mom had makeup on with her dress and dad had a suit jacket on with a tie. OMG we lost it.  We went back in and reconvened the meeting to give them a vote on whether the boat would be taken out and if we would visit one of the islands. Both passed. LOL.  

Week 5, Day 19 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Awe, man. I liked those three days off.  Of those three days, two of them I still had my own classes online, so it was nice to not have to search for the balance.  Instead I got to grade, plan, and execute without wondering if my own kiddos were doing their work like they were supposed to be doing. 

Easter was great. I mean I did get some grading done. I didn't have to spend countless hours driving or cooking. Sad I didn't get to see all my family in person, but was nice to stay up and binge watch tv with Jeremy waiting on the Easter Bunny to come. 

But as of today, April 14, the break is over and back to whatever this crazy is that we try to schedule out the days and attempt to be as normal as possible. I'd love to be able to keep my kiddos growing and not going backwards during this time. So here we go---week 5. 

Issac and I  started out on time.  Olivia was 2 hours late to school. LOL. We kicked off with hot dots and his Math. He's still working on fractions. When Olivia did eventually get out of bed, she caught up quickly. She is working on fractions too, so we might get out the cool fraction game that they got for Christmas. 

Reading/Vocab/Spelling is still on this week, even though we don't have a full week. 😥 It's fine, but I don't like starting late. Isaac needs every single day to study. The good news with the virtual stuff is you take the test by a certain date and when you feel ready.  We can practice a lot right before he takes the test, so it's all good. 

I've also included our writing prompt for the day.  I was able to send to both their teachers and both responded.  So sweet of them to interact even though we can't physically see them anymore. 

As I said last week, we finished up our Bible time video series, so I was on the lookout for new. Here is what we found. Today was episode 1 and it was about creation. They love laying on the couch and just chilling while watching.  

Because I have to teach so much today, we had to build in some free time. I usually have NO IDEA what they're doing during this time I'm required to be teaching online. I just ask them not to make noise or ask me questions unless it's an emergency. 

Now science is going great, even though this is a self guided (aka mommy inspired) lesson.  We've been reading a book about our bodies. Today's chapter is all about the systems in our bodies. And today they got to read all about why they fart and poop.  Oh boy- potty humor at it's finest. They have been WAITING for this chapter. Check out the videos as each got to read a section. 

Week 4, Day 16 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Here we go... Entering week 4 of this craziness that has become our new normal. If you would have asked me when this started if we'd be finishing up this by now, the answer would have been a resounding NO.  When the universities shut down until at least next weekend upon the initial announcement, there was no way that our children who were younger and more susceptible were going back. Although they have said they'll reevaluate May 1 (Olivia's Birthday!) I am again on the bandwagon that it will be extended throughout the end of the school year. This will be interesting for Elida. I haven't heard much, but this was to be a short summer since they are building our new school this year throughout the 2021 summer. Only time can tell, as everything that is happening now is uncharted and unpredictable.

We do get a short week this week as it's the kiddos spring break week. They'll only be going to school through Wednesday this week!  Then some much needed holiday break. If nothing more, for momma to get caught up on her online classes and grading. Looking forward to some much needed downtime.  

Today we returned to the schedule.  It's much needed in our household. The only time I need to jump online to teach is from 2-3 on Mondays, so we attempt to cram most work into the morning and early afternoon, so during the 2-3 hour they can do something on their own.  I did return to the interview of what life is like right now in the weekly interviews. These two could talk for hours, so I cut them off at 3 minutes because my two talkers could go on for hours...where did they get that from?


We kicked off today with XtraMath and hot dots. Isaac only needs to do hot dots because my ISAAC passed all levels of XtraMath. To say he was excited was an understatement. He had me print off his certificate and write on it like his teacher does. Then he got a special text from his math teacher saying she had saw he passed and wanted him to know how proud she was of him.  Happy tears.  Super proud of how far he has come in academics.  I can tell you he is the HARDEST worker you'll ever find. As a teacher and coach, I'll take that any day. 


Music class had us playing musical chairs with two people. DUMB. Then I suggested we put up Olivia's dance videos from the first comp and she could run through them.  Oh how we (and ever other dance family) miss it. The questions revolving around the unknown send me down a rabbit hole, so moving on. 

Olivia had to write in her journal about Easter.  She LOVES to write. I mean loves it. Knowing this, her teacher actually text me today and sent me via email an entire packet of journal prompts and offered to review them for her. How stinkin' sweet is that?  

Besides the normal schedule, it was so beautiful today so we went to Ottawa Metro park today for a walk/run.  Olivia ran 3.2 miles again today at 33.33. That's around 10 minute miles. I'm so impressed with her and this distance training. She's killing it.  All for the medal. We signed her up for the super grover race. It's a virtual race, so she can do it anytime and then submit her time and receive her medal.  She's so focused and determined right now that it makes my heart skip a beat. 

Week 3, Day 15 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

FRI-YEA!  We tried to put an energetic spin on today.  Trying something different, we listed everything we needed to do for the day on the white board. Starting with Olivia we were able to randomly pick a task and tackle. 

The order? Hot dots/xtraMath first. That is what we typically start with, so not surprised they went with that. It's a good warm up for the day and also teaches us that school is all about schedule and order.  This is what we typically do and they like to have order. 


Second, Bible Time. Today we learned about how the world started and the Garden of Eden. 

Next, we went to Math. Isaac had a test and Olivia said she was done with her assigned work (she was) and so I gave her some worksheets from a workbook I have here at home.  After that, we went to lunch! It wasn't on the board, but the kiddos didn't let me forget about it. 

A cool thing I found on PBS was a kid version of COVID-19 in a video.  They watched the entire thing and seemed pretty interested in what he had to say. The didn't understand the 6 feet rule applied to only people outside our home, so we talked about that. We also discussed why it's important they stay home when I run to the grocery. Of course they wanted to know when this would all be over.  Still didn't have a good answer for that. Probably not before June 1 would be my guess. 

Gym rocked. It's beautiful at 65 degrees here today. We set up my laptop and did Ruthless exercise video outside. Then we all went for a 3 mile walk.  It was perfect to step outside and escape the house. 

The pic of the bat and broom? Well what do you do when mommy is online working and you're bored? Apparently you throw rocks on the top of the pool tarp. Then you decide how to get it off before mom sees the rock. So you try to reach with a ball bat. That doesn't work and you lose the bat too.  So you get a broom. Except you lose that out in the middle too. They you resort to going and getting mom. UGH. 

We finished up today with reading and spelling. Both had tests in both subjects. It took us a good 1.5 to complete our reading assignments with both kids today. The good news is that next week is spring break for half the week, so we will have a nice break and some easy catch up time.  We didn't get to Olivia's closet or Social Studies today, so we'll chip away at those assignments this week and next week. Happy Fri-YAY!