March 27, 2020 – joyful parenting

Home School 10 c

Another week under our belt. I can’t claim today felt as strong as yesterday, but we did enough, and sometimes that’s OK.

8.30: Check-in. We started early because Travis’s teacher had recorded their morning meeting songs. He grinned to see her on video as we went through all the songs and watched her read a story.

Home School 10 a

9-10: ELA. First we played ‘I Spy’, taking turns finding something that started with each letter of the alphabet. “I spy something that starts with B: Banana!” and so on.

Home School 10 b

He also did one ltter page (F), a few worksheets on concepts (wet, hot, cold), and loved sitting down for Lexia online again.

10-11: As a special treat, there was a class Zoom session. The kids took turns doing show-and-tell and clearly loved the chance to see classmates.

11-12: Math: There were three assignments today, which felt like too much. First he hunted for a shape in the house, then took a picture of it with the camera of an online program. The program allowed him to then trace the shape and record himself saying what it was.

From there, he formed the letters 10 through 20, first with colored crayon, then with Legos.

Home School 10 e

We were supposed to go on a hunt for numbers around the house, but I could tell he was tired. Instead we made t-shirts!

12-1: Lunch/free play. Little sister needed to nap.

1-1.30: Science/Art: He watched a BrainPop video on spring and took the quiz, then drew a picture of himself in the springtime. Love those sunshine hands!

Home School 10 f

1.30-2: Outside time: We went for a nature walk looking for items that the school’s counselor had suggested, including something you find beautiful.

2-2.30: Mental Health: It was a low-key afternoon. We played a board game to get laughing and went through a few more of the counselor’s suggestions, including a 5-minute guided meditation video; looking through old photos and sharing memories; and learning something new about a family member.

Is your school counselor providing mental health resources for kids in this strange time? Please share in the comments!

Brother Sister Shirts (10)

It’s such an exciting development for my kids that now they can do projects together, as was the case with these brother-and-sister shirts. Obviously you can tailor the shirts to fit your family, whether that means two brothers, three sisters, or even mommy & me shirts!

Brother Sister Shirts (1)

I purchased blank white tees at the craft store in the kids’ sizes, and first wrote on the front “I am the little sister” and “I am the big brother” with fabric pens. Note: This is harder than it looks, because the fabric kept pulling!

We then wanted to put Veronika’s footprint on Travis’s shirt. I squirted a little fabric paint onto a sponge and pressed it to her foot, then pressed her foot to the fabric. It didn’t come out completely clear, but Travis loved knowing it’s there! If your big kids want to, have them put handprints on the little sibling’s shirt in the same manner.

Brother Sister Shirts (3)

Then the kids loved dabbing the sponge all over the shirts, squirting it first with different colors.

Brother Sister Shirts (5)

The fabric markers were running low on ink, but they discovered that they could squirt a little fabric paint onto a shirt and use the tip of the markers as the “paintbrush”.

Brother Sister Shirts (4)