Day 9 Update...YAY for positive test results!

 Sounds crazy, right?! 

Check out my update to find out why we are celebrating positive results!

Covid Journey Part 5

Day 8 Update

 It's like Groundhog Day around here!

Covid Journey Part 4

Our COVID Journey

 WOW, so it's been a hot minute. Hadn't posted or updated since March when I shared my Top 5 Words/Phrases during this crazy Covid Time. And I just re-watched the video I made and laughed. Everything about those words are so normal to me now. This IS the life we are living. So crazy.

So this past week, Covid has entered our home. Boo. We've been SO careful. We haven't traveled. We haven't gone anywhere without our masks. We haven't been inside anyone's homes besides Jeff's parents and my mom's since Thanksgiving. Besides trick or treating on Halloween with some close friends, we have done nothing. 

We have said "no" to house parties, play dates, unnecessary gatherings. You name it. 

BUT...we do have Noah in spring sports. He plays soccer 2-3 times a week outdoors and we can safely socially distant at his games. No worries there. He also plays basketball inside a gym with the refs and coaches wearing masks. They do a great job doing temp checks (if those even matter) and having the boys wear masks when they enter and even sanitize the basketballs at timeouts and at halftime. All non-players and spectators are to wear masks at all times. We can only have the immediate family come and watch his games. We are rule followers so we have not had grandparents come. But we soon noticed how many people disregarded that rule. 

On Saturday, January 9th, while at Noah's basketball game, one of Jeff's former players was there coaching a team. He came up to Jeff, with his mask on his chin, gave Jeff a quick bro hug and they talked a good 10 minutes before Noah's game started. Jeff was wearing his gaiter correctly over his nose, but we later find out that this person tested positive. Jeff's symptoms started Tuesday and mine hit hard on Thursday. Fever, chills, aches, fatigue...you name it. While Jeff kicked his symptoms in 48 hours, I was feeling pretty lousy. So I thought I would do a video diary of my Covid Journey to share with whoever wants to listen. Here are my first three days, recorded on day 5, day 6, and day 7 respectively. 

 Covid Journey Part 1 

Covid Journey Part 2

Covid Journey Part 3

I do plan to update daily and will do those as individual posts. Mainly as a way for me to pass the time and have my own documentation of this crazy time. 

5 Words/Phrases to Define this COVID-19 Time in History

Yesterday, while Jeff took the kids on another walk, I decided to make a video...

5 Words/Phrases 

to Define this COVID-19 Time in History

Am I right?! What words would you add?!

And...is it obvious I miss teaching? This brought me so much joy that I could create an iMovie and some slides to share my thoughts. It's like my therapy right now. :) What is your therapy these days?!

41st Birthday and 1st Homeschool Week!

The Night Before Homeschool

Our real school is pretty amazing, if you couldn't already tell from my last post. At McAuliffe, we teach our students more than just the basic academics. We make it a priority to teach our kids about important character traits and life lessons that extend beyond the classroom. We cover these topics during our "Morning Meetings. " So I felt it necessary to carry on our morning meetings with my own kids. This month's word is READY. Ready for college, Ready for career, Ready for military...ready for life.  So the pic above really shows how I was Ready for our first day of homeschool!

I also had printed out our amazing district's At-Home Learning Plans for both kids. They have provided us with the first two weeks to help guide parents in some curriculum-based options for their kids at home. We are ready!

WEDNESDAY, March 25th

LANGUAGE ARTS: 

Myla read a few chapters from a book of choice, Geronimo Stilton, and then recorded her reading in a reading log. She then wrote a paragraph on her rating of the book.

Noah read a Splat the Cat book and completed a simple summary in his writing journal of the beginning, middle and end. 

So far, so good.

Then it was time for me to hop on WebEx for our Virtual Staff Meeting...

 During this time, I was getting Ring notifications of birthday deliveries at the front door from my sweet friends and my 2nd grade class!

 I even had a couple of 2nd graders come by my driveway to sketch out some birthday wishes!!

Took a break around lunch to open a few gifts that arrived. 

Soon enough, it was Math time. The kids partnered up and had to think of 4 examples of math used in everyday life. They were so cute...working together.

Here is their presentation: 

Ha, ha...I think they are liking this homeschool thing...

Next it was Science time: 

Noah drew a plant and labeled its parts. Then he explained their functions. Done.

P.E. with Dad! He had him practice his dribbling skills with his Dribble Up Soccer ball he got from Christmas and only used a handful of times...

Meanwhile...Myla went to Home Ec. and made my birthday cake!

She even saved some of the batter for me. 

My mom had delivered a yummy dinner from Salernos with a gift of toilet paper and paper towels! lol

I loved getting sweet pics and videos from some of my students!

My family and friends spoiled me too.

 My loves...

Then we got on a ZOOM call with my dad, Cindy, Kimberly and Clay. We had a fun virtual chat for about an hour. 

Do you see it? lol

Thursday, March 26th

Morning Meeting topic: GRIT

I thought it would be good to revisit a word from a few months ago: GRIT. I do feel that this is one I see kids struggle with the most....Sometimes kids are so quick to give up or have someone else do it for them. So we had a refresher on ways we have shown grit in the past and how we planned to show it today when we worked through our homeschool work. I think it helped...we had a great day.

Noah thought of 3 things he was thankful for at this very moment: the sun, the trampoline and our house. He then wrote a paragraph in his writing journal explaining why he was thankful for these things. My favorite: "I am thankful for our house because it keeps us safe."

Wow- that makes so much sense, especially now. #stayhome

Didn't take any pics of Myla but she watched an episode of Wild Kratts and then wrote a summary of the show, its intended audience and who she would recommend the episode to.

Later, during "Quiet Time" Myla was excited to call her Jido and Nona (my dad and stepmom, Cindy). Nona read a book to the kids and then the kids read to her. It was such a sweet time for them. 

Later, during math, Noah watched a Brainpop Jr. video on Solid Shapes as we are talking about 2D and 3D shapes. Then he had to find examples from around the house and record in his math journal. 

For Science, we took a nature walk. 

Myla was looking for examples of plants and animals that showed Inherited Traits. So she took her science notebook with her but funny...it stayed in her bag the entire time. Ha

Noah was looking for a plant to observe. We found a lot. 

The kids just had fun exploring. 

Finding turtles and fish...

Apparently, there was a large snake found in this very spot from one of our neighbors. We didn't see him this time. Thank goodness.

"mom, there's a plant!"

And that's a wrap for Homeschool!

FRIDAY, MARCH 27th

Another fun thing our school is doing during this time is having a weekly theme. This week, it was SHARK WEEK! Myla had worked on this LEGO Shark during STEM time and Noah had fun dressing up in his Shark mask.

 Just doing a little reading...

Then we shared this collage on Facebook with our school hashtag #McAatHome and our district hashtag #LISDatHome

For our Morning Meeting, we watched a couple of GRIT videos that led to a great discussion.

During my "office hours", the kids got out some old coloring books...

And yes, notice I have the InstaCart website up on my laptop. Ordering groceries for delivery these days is the way to go!

And then it was time for another reading with Nona over FaceTime...

Noah thought it would be a good time to clip his toenails! lol

Before we knew it, it was math time. Noah made a timeline of a typical day. I had printed out 6 blank clocks for him to cut out and arrange on a large construction paper. He went with the following times/events:

8:27- Wake Up

9:00- Eat Cereal

10:30 Snack

12:00 Lunch

3:00 Play on technology

9:00 Bed time

He then shared his timeline with Myla...

And with dad...

So proud!

Myla completed a FasttMath lesson and generated a couple of numbers and rounded to the nearest tenths and hundreds. No pics...she worked quickly.

Because it was a Friday, we decided to skip science and have an EARLY RELEASE! 

I had hopes of recording another entry for our video diary but decided to relax and scroll through my phone instead. 

Jeff ended up handling dinner....homemade hamburgers and French fries. Then he took the kids for a nice hour long walk while I rested. Awesome!

Maybe we will get to a video diary update tomorrow...maybe. 

Day 8: Time for a Routine

Now that Spring Break is officially over, and although we are not IN school this week or the next, I woke up with the urge to get our family back into some structure. Now, I am NOT starting school with my kids just yet. Our district is giving families and staff today and tomorrow "off" and to use this time to organize and prep for what's to come.

We are so blessed to be in such an amazing district who have leaders who spent their spring break crafting the framework for our at-home learning for these first 2 weeks. And it's incredible! Completely doable for parents at home and only requiring 15-20 minutes per subject area, per day. We got this!

This morning, I created our At-Home Learning Schedule. It may change but hopefully this will work for our family. If you want me to send you an EDITABLE version for you to tweak for your family, I will be happy to. Just comment below with your email!

I showed the kids today and although they grumbled, at first, they realized they only had 2 hours of actual academic time. Then they gave me a big thumbs up! 

Myla: " That's it?! Oh yeah, we can do that!"

Noah: "Ugh...ok, looks good, mom."

So I will be sure to update how this goes after the first week or two and make adjustments if needed. Wish us luck!

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Ok-I'm back!

We had our Teacher Parade today...Cruisin' Curators to go with our Year at the Museum theme. 

SO I had to paint the car a bit...

It's true! I really do!! I miss my students so much. 

Myla wanted to help too. 

Our school's motto!

We are ready!

We prepped some signs for a couple of my teammates who are out of town. 

Some pics from our ride through town!

He loved holding the poster for his teacher and his classmates. 

So fun! It definitely lifted our spirits today and was exactly what we needed!

VIDEO DIARY Day 8: 

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Until next time...