April 16, 2020 – joyful parenting

Home School 24 c

It was another day of hits and misses, here in our Covid-19 home school. I’d be very curious to hear from readers what you’ve found that works and what doesn’t. Spreading out lessons all day? Having “school” in larger chunks of time? Please share in the comments!

9-10: ELA. Travis’s lesson today was going through a magazine for sight words. He seemed to particularly enjoy finding familiar words in adult reading.

Home School 24 a

It was also a nice lesson on how some words are more common than others. For example, he realized how many times he’d spotted “the” as we glued the words down after (to cardboard! I’m running low on construction paper). He also happily did 20 minutes on Lexia, which left me free to make beanbag fishfor lil sis.

Home School 24 b

10-10.30: Math. We played a game called Roll and Record, which teaches kids to add the pips from two dice and record the result. Fill in the result on a graph numbered 1 through 12 until a number “wins”! Any adult who has taken a probability course can guess how our chart looked. I was thrilled that it worked out as perfectly one could hope, with 7 the clear winner. He even understood why as we discussed it after, how more combinations on the dice add up to 7 than any other possibility.

Home School 24 d

10.30-11: Recess/snack. Travis wanted to play Legos instead of heading outside, which turned out to be a mistake. It was impossible to rope him back in for just about anything after.

11-12: Specials: We tried to do Music; he had a tantrum.

Home School 24 e

We tried to do Spanish (a silly video teaching likes and dislikes). Nope. We tried to do an emotional wellness handout from his school counselor. Nope.

Home School 24 f

At a certain point, I realized I was hindering his emotional wellness for the day, so we just played Uno.

Home School 24 g

12-1: Lunch/cooking. Travis helped make a salsa recipe, which helped reset his mood.

1-2: Yoga! On a whim, I started up a Star Wars-themed yoga from Cosmic Kids. Wouldn’t you know, it kept Travis entranced and active for a full hour. This counted as his teacher’s suggestion to act out a story too! We ended on that high note, which left time to socialize with friends online and enjoy free play.

Home School 24 h

Fishy Beanbag (4)

This little craft is great fun for a toddler to play with, and simple to make with items you likely have at home.

Fishy Beanbag (1)

Start with an old sock and fill it about three-quarters of the way with dried beans. Twist the end to make a tail, and secure with yarn or string.

Fishy Beanbag (2)

I drew on eyes, fins, and scales with a fabric marker; if you want to get a little craftier, cut out pieces of felt for these details. To make the fish mouth, poke the fabric in slightly where a mouth would be and use hot glue to secure.

Fishy Beanbag (3)

I wriggled the fish up to Veronika, and she was delighted! She loved how heavy it was, and began “swimming” it around the room. I actually wouldn’t make it quite so heavy next time, or we could have played catch with it and worked on her catching skills!

Fishy Beanbag (5)

I next showed her how to toss the fish into the laundry basket “ocean”. This was good fun but we quickly realized we needed more fish.

Fishy Beanbag (8)

Since I didn’t want to use up all the extra socks in the house, I simply balled one inside the other and knotted string at the end for a quick version, minus the decorations.

Fishy Beanbag (10)