Week 6, Day 23 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

The Governor of Ohio declared that kiddos will not return to elementary school this year. Sad, sad day.

I can't post the video I made earlier today that I sent to a select few peeps.  One, it's nearly 10 minutes long. Two, it's only showing that it takes ME (not my children who have no clue) incredibly too long to get to one course assignments. Three, it's so frustrating to get on and see a music assignment that isn't optional and instead graded and takes us 2.5 hours to complete. I don't want to divide this up into 5 days and try to remember to do each part and get it uploaded.  Are you kidding me?  I LOVE Art and Music...but I'm already overwhelmed with homework and to have graded assignments that take up that much time when I should be working on my job I'm getting paid for (and students who ARE still meeting remotely online during scheduled classtime and the prep and grading that comes with that so they are getting their $50,000 a year tuition-worth) I was just in a bad place.  I don't want you to see my rant.  Just know that I had one.

Speaking of our beloved music assignment-- the kids love it. The video is them doing their work for it. It's actually just Isaac's assignment, but Olivia made her way into the room too.  This was the fun part.  The Powerpoint Slides we had to review and the submitting of the assignment from an apple device is enough to drive a person mad.

Bible time was eye-opening. We learned about Abraham and how he was willing to sacrifice Isaac.  As Abraham raised the knife the kids both buried their heads and screamed no.  You know how relieved they both were when God spoke to him again before he killed Isaac?

My favorite part of the day was our sweet neighbor girl Lydia who came and saved this momma for an hour while I had class.  Lydia took the girls on a bike ride so I could actually focus on school work.  Novel. THANK YOU!

Week 5, Day 22 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Friday!!!! Who needs to hear those words besides me? What a wonderful day today has been. Isaac greeted me and said, what are we doing exciting today since we do Friday's differently? We decided we would list out the 10 things we'd like to get through today and then draw cards from a bucket to determine how we would proceed.  Agozzino luck definitely played into this exercise. They drew "Free Time" last. 🤣

As luck would have it, Olivia drew #1 first- Reading. So we got that out of the way early. Along with hot dots and Xtra Math. Even though there were fun extras on the list today, they were doing all the required work first. It was perfect.

The first fun thing we did was dancing. We put Olivia's dance competition songs on and she was working on them. When we got to Acro-dance, she needed a spotter. We were cracking up laughing when I tried to lift her. Isaac assured her he could do it.  So we let them try.  There were way too many laughs, and eventually they came close enough. I called it to stop before someone broke a leg. But it was super fun and funny.

Cooking was also on the list. We got out Olivia's fun kid cupcake cookbook and she picked out making "cupcake sundaes." As you can see in the picture, they turned out super cute and they tasted amazing. I love eating the results of cooking class.

Bring on the weekend!

Week 5, Day 21 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Today was Thursday. I suppose to be in Scottsdale at the opening day of PRSSA Leadership Assembly, but like everything else, it was moved to an all-day Zoom meeting.  Thus we had VERY little online school today.  The pictures below are of the breaks I had to go check on them while they were being too quiet. Isaac playing video games, Olivia doing something crafty. 

The only thing I checked that they did for school was Math because it's only active day-of and not before.  That's annoying.  No working ahead.  Ugh.  Everything else for school, Jerm tried working with them both last night for a few hours to get ahead, knowing I wouldn't be available today.  I know they did some Science, Social Studies and Reading already. That was great to not have to worry about doing that today.

Olivia did make a cool rocket ship from a Pinterest template she found.  Watch the video of her rocket below.  Holding out for tomorrow- FRIDAY.

Week 5, Day 20 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Today you are getting an update exactly how I feel about the day. Short because I'm over it.  After the third time asking Isaac to watch a video that start and stopped at least 6 times, I found myself locked in my bathroom sending video chats to Jerm to say he would be walking into a land mind when he returned home from work. I MUST escape from this house.  I need a new environment.  During the school year, my favorite spot is St. Rita's resource center at the hospital.  One, reliable internet. Two, the only Starbucks in town is across the hallway. Three, no one finds me there. I'm really missing my spot to escape. I haven't had to go there as often this year with my move to the business college. People don't know where I went at work.  I'm not complaining because I got more work done while at work than in the last 13 years. But I digress.

Today we kicked off with reading one-on-one while the other did hot dots. We're doing this from now on because this helped tremendously.  This also leads naturally into their reading work. Olivia is much better an Isaac working independently. I've found they both know if I'm not checking they just click submit and don't really read/watch it.  UGH.  So frustrating.  Have to check everything- even if it's not for grade- because later it will be and they need to read it!  

Writing prompt today was if you were a bee, what would you be doing right now?  Their answers were cute. Olivia had so much to say it went to a second page! 

We learned with Isaac he can understand much better when he can see the problem.  I sent a text to Jerm asking about one problem, and I think he summed it up well...

"You have it correct but it’s worded so dumb. I get what they are saying but it is just worded to confuse the child. Why? This is math. It is absolute. It has a right answer so stop confusing the child. This really isn’t math, it’s a critical thinking class. Which is fine but call it that. That question to me is not math."

Bible Time today was Noah's Ark. I typically get other things done while the videos are on, but listen in on the kids conversation. I love hearing them discuss or foreshadow what will happen. For example, when the dove brought back the olive branch, they were cheering and knew it wouldn't be long to find land.  

The Social Studies lessons was were I lost it (it got bumped until after bible time). Olivia is working on biographies. Isaac on the other hand was going to learn about transportation and his movie stopped a million times and he'd have to log out and get back in to make it work. Maddening.  School was cancelled for the day shortly thereafter. 🤣

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. 

Front Porch Project Pictures

The last one we took and might be the best

Not ready, but could be a favorite

B&W helped this one

First picture we took

Olivia about ready to sneeze

Hanging on daddy

We are STRONG... we will get through this! 

Week 4, Day 18 of the CrononaCrazy Day Drills

Last day of school until next Tuesday.  Not that anyone around here is counting. LOL. So as any good administrator would do, we are going to allow for an early release today.

Frankly, we are all counting down the days until we can get a break. I'm looking forward of running my own classes online and not worrying about trying to get through their work as well. Small victories.

Our four hours of Bible Time videos came to close today.  These were awesome. Couldn't have planned it any better either- ended with Easter and dying on the cross.  It's perfect timing.

We finished up the Math and Reading on Schoology that we needed to finish that was mandated . The writing prompts were cute and I shared with daddy that he has a lot of baseball planned for this spring break. Hope he's ready!

Finally, today I put on a video of Olivia reading her Junie B. book.  I think it will be adorable to look back someday and hear her reading.

Tonight we are going to do the Front Porch Project.  I'm setting up my tripod and shooting some photos. Since we won't have a post tomorrow about all the school activities, maybe I'll just post our FPP pictures 😀