COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 12

It's 7:45am. Homeschool is scheduled to start in 45 minutes. And I'm sitting at my laptop, coffee in hand, and I don't have the faintest idea what we're going to do.

And that's OK. It's OK to fly by the seat of your pants sometimes. It's OK to make it up as you go along. It's OK to ask your kids what they want to do every now and then. It's OK to ask them what they want to do more often then every now and then. And it's OK to decide to not do much at all every now and then.

But since tomorrow is April 1st, I've decided that tomorrow will be our fun, silly, goof-off day, so I do want to get a little bit of work done today. But since it's also an absolutely glorious day today, I think we'll start off by getting outside and enjoying the nice day first. We could all use some fresh air and exercise.

7-8:30am: Get up, make and eat breakfast, clean up breakfast dishes, get brushed, washed, and dressed. Since the kids both have Messenger Kids now, they're already chatting with friends. I need to figure out how to block out certain time periods when they can use that function. 7:30-8:30am is okay with me, but I don't want them jumping online any time we have a 5-minute break, and I don't want them on too close to most people's dinnertimes and bedtimes. But for now, manual parental enforcement (i.e., yelling, "Time to log off Messenger, NOW!") will do just fine.

8:30-9am: Exercise. We're taking a walk around the neighborhood, complete with clipboards and a scavenger hunt! Today is an alphabet scavenger hunt. It's a little harder to do outdoors, so we don't limit ourselves to finding things in alphabetical order, and you can write down two items for each letter.

9-9:45am: Math. I had made a big stack of flashcards with multiplication facts for 6 through 9 (plus a few easier extras) and alternated between kids (no scoring this time). Any time my daughter got stuck, we talked through strategies for figuring it out - for example, 8 x 7 is the same as 10 x 7 minus 2 x 7, i.e., 70 - 14, or 56. Once we went through the whole stack (which took about 15 minutes), I had each of them log onto their Google Classroom site and work through one of their teachers' suggested math assignments or sites. My daughter chose I Know It math which is great, but which allows only 25 practice questions per day. HOWEVER, I discovered that they are offering a free 90-day subscription to students, using their school email address, so I just submitted an application, which means that hopefully she'll be able to work on more problems every day. My son is working on Zearn.  

9:45-10am: Snack and bathroom break. My son chose to play an online game and was disappointed when I wouldn't let him get a snack at 9:59. That time window is closed, dude, sorry. Mom doesn't play that game.

10-10:45am: Science/music. My son loves to watch the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Facebook live feed every day at 10, my daughter loves to watch Tracey O'Farrell's Morning Circle Facebook live feed every day at 10, and I love to have half an hour when I can think about my lesson plan for the rest of the day, or what I'm going to make for dinner, or throw in a load of laundry, or just let my mind go blank for a bit. Today's shark presentation was a little dry, so my son went back and watched yesterday's presentation, which we missed, instead. My daughter's live feed finished at about 10:20, so she joined my son for the end of the shark presentation.

10:45-11:30am: Reading and journalling. My daughter's class has been reading "Peter Pan", and my son's class has been reading "The Tiger Rising," so they both continued with that, then I gave them some time to work on their journals, with a little prompting from me: "Write about what you miss most about things we could do before isolation, and write about at least one thing that you like about isolation - AND WHY." (The latter comment is to avoid having my son write, "I miss my friends. I like not having to go to school.")

11:30am-1pm: Lunch and free time. I'm allowing them both to message friends if they want, but they need to finish their lunches and clean up in time to be sitting at the table, ready to go by 1pm. If they don't get lunch by then, they're going to be very hungry this afternoon. See, "Mom doesn't play that game," above. Consider it a lesson in time management.

1-1:45pm: Classroom Meeting. My daughter's teacher is hosting a Google Meet for her class today, so she's joining in on that. While she works on that, my son is working on answering questions on a book his Challenge class has been reading, "Out of My Mind" by Sharon Draper. This also requires at least one of us (me or my son) to master Flipgrid. My money's on the boy. (N.B. - I won that bet.)

1:45-2:45pm: Science and Baking. We watched a cool meteorology video that explained how tropical storms develop by comparing the process to baking muffins. So after we watched the video, we made some muffins! Snickerdoodle muffins, to be specific. Oh, and we passed the post-video quiz with flying colors!


Since tomorrow is April Fool's Day, don't expect any serious lessons. There will be jokes, pranks, silliness, and fun (I hope). If we're lucky, there might even still be a few snickerdoodle muffins!

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 11

Week 3. Is it really only week 3?!? I feel like we've been doing this forever. And so do my kids. But the positive thing is that as time passes, we're all figuring out new ways to stay connected and to keep our minds and bodies busy and healthy.

One of the ways we've just discovered how to do that with our kids is using Messenger Kids. My husband was out for a walk the other day and saw one of my daughter's friends, along with her mom. He mentioned (from a safe distance!) how much our daughter was missing chatting with her friends, and the mom told him about the app. So last night he got their accounts set up and today we'll see if we can get them up and running with it.

The teachers are also discovering new ways to stay connected. My son's teacher is hosting a Google Meet with his class today. I realized last week that I had missed a similar meeting with my daughter's class, but hopefully that will be a regular thing.

I'm personally getting more comfortable with the various platforms the teachers are posting on. This morning I plan to focus more on working directly from the kids' Google Classroom sites and Clever assignments. Flipgrid looks intriguing.

So here we go!

7-8:45am: Up, make and eat breakfast, clear breakfast dishes, get brushed and washed and dressed. I didn't feel like cooking for anyone this morning so I suggested that the kids could have something they could make for themselves, like English muffins or a bowl of cereal. My son asked, "Can I have anything I can make for myself??" Sensing a trap, I asked what he had in mind. "Can I make scrambled eggs?" Why yes, yes you can. And he made scrambled eggs for himself and his sister with NO help from me. We agreed that it feels really good to be able to cook something that other people enjoy eating.

8:45-9:30am: Reading/Math. I wanted to spend some time familiarizing myself with my daughter's online Classroom and Clever projects, so I got my son set up with reading more of "The Tiger Rising" that his teacher assigned last week. While he's busy with that, I'm sitting with my daughter, logging on to the site and checking out what kinds of assignments are there. I really want to focus on her math skills. Unfortunately, one of the sites only allows 25 practice questions a day, so I let her move on to reading while I make her flash cards for her 6 through 9 times tables. 

9:30-10:30am: Science. I found a (hopefully not faked this time!) video of how to make a bouncy ball using borax (I have some left over from making slime or ooblek or something a while back), white glue, and cornstarch. If you don't want to bother with the video, here are the instructions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve 2 teaspoons of Borax in 1/2 cup warm water and set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of white glue with 3-4 drops of food coloring, then add 1 tablespoon of corn starch.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the dissolved Borax solution. Let sit for 15 seconds, then stir. It will look gross and lumpy, and that's just perfect!
4. Roll between your hands until it becomes smooth.
5. Bounce it!!

Our first attempt came out too sticky to knead - it just stuck all over our hands. So we looked for similar experiments to see if they had any advice and found this one which mixed in a cup instead of a bowl. We tried with a cup the next time, and mixed it up really well before we took it out and kneaded with our hands. We also discovered that stretching it like taffy (or like when you squish a marshmallow into fluff) in the early stages worked well.

The kids were a little disappointed in its lack of bounce - it bounced a little, but not much - but it was still fun to do!

We rinsed our lab equipment and put it in the dishwasher, wiped up the floor where we worked, and scrubbed our hands REALLY well, then had a quick snack break before our next session.

10:30-11:30am: Reading and journaling. While my husband was cleaning out the office, he came across a photo album from my trip to Kenya that corresponded to the journal I've been reading to them from. It was great to be able to not only read to them about the morning we woke up to monkeys sitting on top of our tents, but to show them a picture to prove that it really did happen! We also read a little more from Anne Frank and then they spent more time writing in their own journals. In today's reading from Anne Frank, she talked a lot about how she can't stand her mother, and also had some very unflattering comments about Mrs. van Daan and Anne's sister, Margot. It led to a good discussion about both perspective, how we're only seeing the situation from Anne's point of view, and the reality of the others' behavior might actually have been quite different; but also about how being stuck in a small space with the same few people can make everyone irritable and annoyed. I've had to work really hard at prompting them to write more than the basics (a recent entry from my son read, in its entirety: "Exactly the same as yesterday."), but hopefully today's discussion has them thinking a bit more about our family relationships. I promised them that I would never read their journals or require them to read me everything they wrote, and encouraged them to feel free to write things they feel like they can't say. I hope this helps them vent their feelings, if they need to.

11:30am-1pm: Lunch and free time. I encouraged them to get some exercise and fresh air at some point during their break. My son was interested in doing another "P.E. with Joe" workout, and my daughter braved the cold and damp to go outside for a little while.

1-1:30pm: Video conference! My son's teacher set up a Google Meet for his whole class. My son smiled more during this session than he has for the past two weeks! It was fun to eavesdrop on the kids chatting together and sharing what they've been doing. The teacher let everyone chitchat casually for a few minutes, made sure everyone had a chance to say hello and share for a moment, then she muted everyone and went over the various projects and assignments that she'd posted on their Google Classroom. It was a nice combination of classwork and socializing.

While he was doing that, I went back to the Messenger Kids website and watched their "orientation" video with my daughter, then we worked together to figure out how to get it up and running on her Chromebook. Almost as soon as we had the app downloaded, one of her friends sent her a video call. The two of them are chatting away like a pair of magpies, showing off their respective pets, classrooms, siblings, etc.

This new technology is having a great effect on their moods, although we may now need to practice volume control...

1:30-2:30pm. Socialization. After my son's teacher left the chat, a handful of kids stayed on just to chat longer. And my daughter was still happily talking with one of her best buddies on Messenger. This is really what they both need, so I'm just letting them continue as long as they like.

2:30-3:30pm: Cooking. I'm making lasagna for supper tonight, so I thought they could help me make it. They're getting better at listening to directions, but they still want to go off half-cocked before listening to the complete directions (especially my son). This is as much an exercise in patience (theirs AND mine) as a cooking lesson. We also discussed how to decide what you can substitute and what you can't. I didn't have as much mozzarella on hand as I would like, so we combined it with some other shredded cheeses. Here's our favorite recipe, which we used as a base:

Beef and Sausage Lasagna
½ lb. Italian sweet sausage

½ lb. ground beef

3 cloves garlic

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp basil

½ tsp salt

1 (16 oz.) can whole or diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

16 oz. ricotta

1 egg (optional)

2 c. grated Parmesan

1 tbsp parsley

1-1/2 tsp oregano

2 c. shredded mozzarella

12 lasagna noodles, cooked or uncooked

Cook sausage, beef, garlic and onion till browned; drain fat. Stir in parsley, sugar, basil, salt, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Break up tomatoes. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes. Combine ricotta, egg, half the Parmesan, parsley, and oregano in a large bowl. Spread 1 c. sauce in ungreased 9x13” pan, top with 4 noodles. Spread with 1 c. cheese mixture and 1 c. sauce. Cover with 2/3 c. mozzarella and 4 more noodles, then the rest of the cheese, 1 c. sauce, 2/3 c. mozzarella, and 4 more noodles. Finish with the rest of the sauce, the rest of the mozzarella, and the rest of the Parmesan. Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

Scavenger Hunts for Indoors and Outdoors

It seems like scavenger hunts are a hit with kids of almost any age (and a lot of adults, too). And the best part of a scavenger hunt is that it's easy to adapt to wherever you happen to be able to do one, indoors or out. For indoor hunts, unless otherwise specified, each item needs to be brought to the judge (you) to be checked off and then returned to its original location. For outdoor hunts (which can be done either in your yard or while walking), pointing out the item is sufficient. Clipboards are helpful for outdoor hunts. The game ends when one person (or team) has found every item on the list, or after a pre-arranged amount of time has passed.

Here are a few lists you can use when your kids need to run off a little energy and keep entertained at the same time:

Indoor Hunts
List 1: Alphabet Hunt
Each kid needs to find something (anything!) that starts with each of the letters of the alphabet, in order. No need to bring back the item, just touch it or get near and point if you can't reach (honor system), then come back to "home base" and write it on a list (a big whiteboard or paper flipchart is great for this if you have one).

List 2: Color Hunt
Choose a color (green, red, blue, purple, whatever) and give the kids a set time to go through the house and describe every item they can see that's that color, along with the room it's in. Afterwards, go through the list and cross out every item that more than one kid spotted. The one with the highest number of unique items wins!

List 3: Letter Hunt
Choose a letter of the alphabet and give the the kids a set time to go through the house and describe every item they can see starts with that letter, along with the room it's in. Afterwards, go through the list and cross out every item that more than one kid spotted. The one with the highest number of unique items wins!

List 4: Wearables 
1. Neatly folded t-shirt
2. Anything labeled size 8
3. T-shirt with words on it
4. Sock with a hole in it (does not count if you make the hole during the hunt!!)
5. Loose button
6. Earring with blue in it
7. Bike helmet
8. Baseball cap
9. Paisley necktie (long or bow)
10. Part of any kind of a uniform
11. Dress with a zipper
12. Item of clothing with a picture of an animal on it
13. A pair of something wearable
14. Item of clothing with buttons that aren't round
15. Wearable item with velcro

List 5: In the Kitchen
1. Fake food
2. Food that starts with the letter C
3. Teabag
4. Glass bottle
5. A piece of fruit
6. A can of vegetables
7. A serving platter with a picture on it
8. A fork with only two tines
9. An ingredient used in cookies
10. A holiday-themed kitchen item
11. A food item that's past its expiration date
12. Box of jello
13. An herb or spice that's considered "exotic" or unusual (judge's decision is final)
14. A food or ingredient you've never eaten
15. A food that changes color when you cook it

List 6: Fun and Games
1. Deck of cards
2. Something with a holiday theme
3. Musical instrument (must be small enough to carry)
4. Stuffed version of an animal you'd see in a zoo
5. Toy that's usually used outside
6. Action figure
7. Spinner (like used in Twister or Life)
8. Puzzle piece (must be returned to the right box!!)
9. Toy or game that makes noise
10. Toy or game that needs batteries
11. Two different sizes of batteries
12. Purple Magic Marker
13. Remote control
14. Toy with wheels
15. Blue Lego brick

List 7: Something That...
1. Something that is shaped like a sphere
2. Something that is shaped like a cube
3. Something that bounces
4. Something that has a flower on it
5. Something that doesn't belong to anyone in the house
6. Something that is all the same color
7. Something that is bigger than a breadbox
8. Something that is fluffy
9. Something that is prickly
10. Something that is made of denim that's not jeans
11. Something that has a team logo on it
12. Something you throw
13. Something you clean things with
14. Something you cook things with
15. Something with fringe on it

List 8: Miscellany
1. Empty box
2. Book whose title starts with "The"
3. Tube of chapstick
4. Coin minted in the 1990s
5. Photo of your mom and/or dad before they were married
6. Kitchen gadget you've never seen used
7. Holiday napkin
8. Scented candle
9. Something your mom or dad owned before they were married
10. Something of yours that used to belong to someone else
11. Safety pin
12. Tape measure
13. Greeting card
14. Magazine
15. Bottle of nail polish


Outdoor Hunts (clipboards recommended)
List 1: Alphabet Hunt
As with the indoor alphabet hunt, each kid needs to find something (anything!) that starts with each of the letters of the alphabet, but NOT in order. Point it out and then write it on the list on your clipboard. The one with the most letters completed at the end of your walk (or the end of a set time) wins. Unless there are xylophones and zebras in your neighborhood, no-one will get every letter on the list.

List 2: Color Hunt
Choose a color (green, red, blue, purple, whatever) and have the kids make a list of anything they see that's that color. Afterwards, go through the list and cross out every item that more than one kid spotted. The one with the highest number of unique items wins! If your kids are younger or just not especially competitive, just have them point out the items they see.

List 3: Letter Hunt
Choose a letter of the alphabet and have the kids make a list of anything they see that starts with that letter. Afterwards, go through the list and cross out every item that more than one kid spotted. The one with the highest number of unique items wins! If your kids are younger or just not especially competitive, just have them point out the items they see.

The three outdoor hunts above work equally well on a walk or in your yard; the remaining lists really need to be done while walking around your neighborhood.

List 4: Flora and Fauna
1. Cat or dog visible in a window
2. Flower that's blooming
3. Tree with buds
4. Someone walking a dog
5. Bird with something in its mouth
6. Squirrel climbing a tree
7. Hawk
8. Statue of an animal or bird
9. Empty flowerpot or planter
10. Bird's nest
11. Two of the same kind of animal or bird together
12. Animal or bird chasing another animal or bird
13. Hanging plant
14. Green leaves or buds poking out of a garden
15. Someone working in their garden

List 5: Decorations
1. American flag
2. Wreath on a door
3. Christmas decorations
4. Easter decorations
5. Birdbath
6. Birdfeeder
7. Mailbox with a picture on it
8. Garden statuary
9. A religious statue
10. Car with a bumper sticker
11. Last name on the house or mailbox
12. Fake flowers
13. Potted plant on a doorstep
14. Hanging plant
15. Stained glass window

List 6: Fun and Games
1. Bicycle
2. Scooter
3. Skateboard
4. Basketball hoop
5. Trampoline
6. Swing hanging from a tree
7. Swingset
8. Roller skates
9. Sidewalk chalk
10. Motorcycle
11. Boat
12. Camper/trailer/RV
13. Skis
14. Pool
15. Any kind of ball

List 7: Around the House
1. Open window
2. 2-car garage
3. Garden hose
4. Ladder
5. Trash can
6. Recycling bin
7. Empty bottle or can
8. Garden shed
9. Doghouse
10. Open garage door
11. Rocking chair
12. Rake
13. Snow shovel
14. Gravel driveway
15. House with a porch or deck

List 8: Miscellany
1. Blue car
2. Storm drain
3. Someone pushing a stroller
4. Someone riding a bike
5. License plate with the letter L or P in it
6. Two sequential numbers or letters (e.g., house #12 or 23, or a license plate with "AB" or "BC")
7. Out-of-state license plate
8. Wheelbarrow
9. Brightly-colored front door
10. Pine cone
11. Acorn
12. Piece of broken glass
13. Tree stump
14. House with more than 2 cars in front of it/in the driveway
15. House with a chair on the porch or deck


Photo Hunts
If your kids are old enough to use a camera, indoor or outdoor photo hunts can be fun, too. Kids can either take selfies or work in pairs and trade off being the model and being the photographer. Here are a few ideas for those:

List 1: Pose (Indoors)
1. Put on a fancy outfit and pose like a supermodel
2. Find an apron and pretend to be a famous chef
3. Peek out from behind a door
4. Brush your teeth
5. Style your hair
6. Hide, badly
7. Pose like a body builder
8. Put on as many pieces of jewelry as you can
9. Sneaking a treat from the kitchen or candy dish
10. Sitting under a table
11. In a pillow fort
12. Pose like a ballerina
13. Do origami
14. Build a house of cards
15. Dress like your mom or dad and do something they'd do

List 2: Pose (Outdoors)
1. Point to a sign
2. Do a silly walk
3. Pretend to fall down
4. Do a cheer
5. Walk like a zombie
6. Hide behind a tree
7. Look at your reflection (in a puddle, a car window, a car's rearview mirror, etc.)
8. Walk an invisible dog
9. Jump in the air
10. Photo taken from a weird angle (overhead, looking up from the ground, etc.)
11. Do a handstand or cartwheel
12. Smell some flowers
13. With an animal (real or statue)
14, Climb a tree (not in someone's yard)
15, Lie on the ground

List 3: Something that... (Indoors)
1. Something that you'd see at a birthday party
2. Something that you'd use to fix something
3. Something that YOU would never use
4. Something that you can play with
5. Something that keeps you healthy
6. Something that goes on your face
7. Something that is tiny
8. Something that is huge
9. Something that is wet
10. Something that smells
11. Something that is colorful
12. Something that is sparkly or glittery
13. Something that is alive
14. Something that moves
15. Something that doesn't get used very often

List 4: Something that... (Outdoors)
1. Something that grows
2. Something that has wheels
3. Something that is yellow
4. Something that is only around for part of the year
5. Something that should be in a trash can
6. Something that was lost by someone
7. Something that is empty
8. Something that needs to be fixed
9. Something that is above your head
10. Something that can move
11. Something that looks out of place
12. Something that you step on
13. Something that is flat
14. Something that is rough
15. Something that smells


Happy hunting!

A Breath of Hope: The Story of Ezekiel

[Note: You can also watch this lesson in video form here.]

Our Alleluia class lesson for today is called “Breath of Hope.”

This is our opening prayer:

O God, when things go wrong and situations seem hopeless, 

help us to trust in your promise to be with us always. 

Be with us now as we learn more about you. Amen.

Today’s theme is Hope. 

Have you ever felt hopeless? Everyone feels hopeless sometimes. Maybe you were learning something new in school and you thought you’d never understand. Maybe there were changes happening in your family that you couldn’t control. Maybe you made a mistake and you didn’t think it could ever be fixed.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about different people in the Bible. 

Many of them felt hopeless sometimes, too. Do you recognize the people above from our stories? There's Adam and Eve, Moses, and Abraham and Sarah.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and he sent them away from their home in Eden. They had to work hard for food, and protect themselves from dangerous animals, and build themselves a home, things they never had to do before. Adam and Eve must have felt pretty hopeless.

Abraham and Sarah wanted children, but they weren’t able to have any. God promised them they would be the parents of a great nation, but they grew old, and still had no children. Abraham and Sarah must have felt pretty hopeless.

Moses asked Pharaoh to free the Israelites, over and over, but Pharaoh said no, over and over. When the Israelites were finally freed, they wandered in the desert, trying to find food and water, and complaining to Moses, over and over. Moses – and all of the Israelites - must have felt pretty hopeless.

But in all these stories, God cared for his people. He made animal skin clothes for Adam and Eve. Abraham and Sarah had a baby boy, Isaac. And Moses led the Israelites to the Promised Land.

Time went by, and the Israelites settled into their new land. Their second king, David, was anointed by God’s prophet, Samuel, when he was only a young shepherd boy. King David, and his son, King Solomon, were both good and wise kings. They listened to God and his prophets, and they worshipped God and thanked him for his blessings on them and their people.

But over time, the kings of Israel stopped listening to the prophets. They – and the people of Israel – stopping worshipping God. Soon wars broke out and the kingdom began to fall apart. The prophets warned the kings that disaster would come unless they turned back to God.

But still they didn’t listen. And disaster came. The city of Jerusalem was captured by enemies and many people were taken away as prisoners. 

One of those prisoners, taken to the city of Babylon, was a young man named Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest, and later, a prophet. His story is in the Old Testament, in a book named after him: The Book of Ezekiel! Let’s read the story of how he became a prophet (from Ezekiel chapters 1 and 2).

In the fifth year since King Jehoiachin had been taken into exile, I, Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, was living with the Jewish exiles by the Chebar River in Babylonia. The sky opened, and I saw a vision of God. There I heard the Lord speak to me, and I felt his power. This was the dazzling light which shows the presence of the Lord. When I saw this, I fell face downward on the ground. Then I heard a voice saying, “Mortal man, stand up. I want to talk to you.” While the voice was speaking, God's spirit entered me and raised me to my feet, and I heard the voice continue, “Mortal man, I am sending you to the people of Israel. They have rebelled and turned against me and are still rebels, just as their ancestors were. They are stubborn and do not respect me, so I am sending you to tell them what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them. Whether those rebels listen to you or not, they will know that a prophet has been among them. 

Let’s think about what the story tells us about Ezekiel. He had been a priest in Israel, and was now a captive in Babylonia with other Jewish exiles – other people who, like him, had been taken away from their homeland and were now slaves. Then, God sent him a vision, and told him to speak to the people of Israel and tell them that they are stubborn and rebellious, and have turned against God. Ezekiel was to tell the people to turn back and be obedient to God once again.

Do you think the Israelite captives in Babylon felt hopeless?

Did they miss their homeland?

Did they wonder why God had abandoned them?

Were they ready to listen to God’s prophet now?

Was it too late for them to receive God’s forgiveness?

God sent Ezekiel another vision, showing what God could do, even though the people of Israel’s faith was dead. Let’s read Ezekiel’s description of what God showed him, from Ezekiel chapter 37, verses 1 through 14.

I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and his spirit took me and set me down in a valley where the ground was covered with bones. He led me all around the valley, and I could see that there were very many bones and that they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal man, can these bones come back to life?”

I replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you can answer that!”

He said, “Prophesy to the bones. Tell these dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord. Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life. I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and bring you back to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I had been told. While I was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the bones began to join together. While I watched, the bones were covered with sinews and muscles, and then with skin. But there was no breath in the bodies.

God said to me, “Mortal man, prophesy to the wind. Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life.”

So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies, and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army.

God said to me, “Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future. So prophesy to my people Israel and tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to open their graves. I am going to take them out and bring them back to the land of Israel. When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the Lord. I will put my breath in them, bring them back to life, and let them live in their own land. Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this—and I will. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

What do you think the Israelites thought when Ezekiel told them about his vision?

Do you think it gave them HOPE that God still loved them and wanted to take care of them?  Do you think it gave them HOPE that God had the power to bring them out of slavery again? Do you think it gave them HOPE that God would forgive them for not worshipping him?

Right now, a lot of people are feeling hopeless about what’s happening with the corona virus. But God can still give us HOPE today! The Bible gives us HOPE that God loves us and wants to take care of our needs! The Bible gives us HOPE that God has the power to heal people who are sick! The Bible gives us HOPE that God forgives us for being afraid and struggling to trust him! The Bible gives us HOPE that God loves us, no matter what.

Let’s close with the Lord’s Prayer, then as a benediction (which means, simply, a blessing), the same Bible passage we heard at the end of the children’s sermon last week, about hope and trust.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.

And, from Psalm 91, comes this benediction and this promise: 

Whoever goes to the Lord for safety can say to Him: “You are my defender and protector, in you I trust.“ He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with His wings, and you will be safe in His care; His faithfulness will protect and defend you. God will put his angels in charge of you, to protect you wherever you go.

15 Things to Keep Your Kids Busy on a Stay-at-Home Saturday

Weekdays are full of homeschooling, and if your kids are like mine, their free hours at the end of the day are full of video games and TV or movie watching. But now the weekend is here, and how can you keep the kids busy when they can't go to sports practices and dance classes and playdates? Here are 15 ideas to keep them busy and happy.

1. Scavenger Hunt - Make a list of things around the house that they need to find: a hardcover book whose title starts with "The," a piece of fruit, a stuffed animal with stripes, a pair of earrings with blue in them, a striped sock, a t-shirt with words on it, a musical instrument, a scented candle. Go on a walk and give them a list of outdoor things to look for: a robin with something in its beak, someone walking a dog, a wreath on someone's door, an American flag, a blue car, a motorcycle, someone working in their garden, a purple flower. Tell them to go through the house and write down one thing they see that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Be creative!

2. Bake Something - Whether it's just slicing up a tube of pre-made cookie dough and throwing it in the oven or making your grandmother's super-secret, never-written-down recipe for apple tarte tatin, teach your kids how to bake something they love to eat.

3. Cook Something - Make a pot of soup, scramble some eggs, toast a grilled cheese sandwich. Choose a simple recipe and teach your kids how to cook, and especially how to taste and adjust flavors as they go along. If they already know the basics, teach them something more complicated, or even let them follow a recipe on their own. Help them plan and make an entire meal!

4. Laundry - It may seem like a chore to you, but it can be fun for kids to learn to do laundry. Nothing feels quite like burying your face in a load of freshly clean clothes, warm and fragrant from the dryer. Be sure they complete the process by organizing their drawers and closets, folding or hanging their clothes, and putting everything away neatly.

5. Board Games - Checkers, chess, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Ticket to Ride, you know you have some kind of board game tucked away somewhere in the back of a closet or behind the couch. Pull one out, relearn it and teach your kids. Let them beat you now and then.

6. Organize Something - Take advantage of the free labor and get your kids to help you sort old family photos and stick them in an album (or scan them into an electronic album!), have them go through their clothes and bag up anything that no longer fits or that they don't wear, ask them to clean out their toybox and set aside anything with missing or broken pieces or that they've outgrown. Go through the attic and organize and re-label boxes.

7. Learn a Song - Let them teach you their favorite song, then find a karaoke track online and film you all singing it together. Teach them one of your favorites from your youth and do the same.

8. Make a Video - Help them to make a music video to a song they like, or film them acting out a story with their dolls, or telling each other silly jokes, or doing a magic trick, or simply explaining how to do something interesting that they know how to do. If they're too shy to be on camera, download a stop-motion movie app (here are some options, many free) and have them make a movie with action figures or stuffed animals.

9. Put on a Family Talent Show - Challenge everyone to come up with an act for a talent show, and put it on to entertain each other!

10. Explore a Cool Website - NASA's Space Place, Yellowstone Park National Tour, How Stuff Works, National Geographic Kids, Pottermore. Search for sites on whatever your kids think is cool.

11. Color - Pull out some crayons or markers, go online and print out some cool coloring pages, and get creative. Just Color has categories like Mandalas, Art, History & Stories, and Travels. You can find free downloads on various sites that are as simple or complicated as you like.

12. Listen to a Podcast - Search around for topics your kids enjoy. Try But Why?, This American Life, The Past and the Curious, The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, or Tumble.

13. Listen to an Audiobook - Audible is streaming stories for kids for free as long as schools are closed. Lots of celebrities have posted videos of themselves reading kids' books (check out this site and this one). Listen to one of the kids' favorites or explore and find a new favorite. After they listen to the pros, have them practice reading out loud expressively.

14. Write a Story - ThinkWritten has a list of 300 storytelling prompts for kids. Have them read their stories aloud when they're done. If your kids like to draw, encourage them to add illustrations. If they aren't as artistically inclined, have them find appropriate illustrations online. They can type their stories into a document and add the pictures then print up the document and staple it together to form an actual book. Be sure to include a cover crediting them as the author!

15. Have a Video Chat with Friends and Family - If you haven't already, let your kids have a video chat with their friends or some family members (especially young ones). If they've done some of the creative projects above, let them show grandma or their cousins or their classmates their color pages or read them their stories or sing them their song. Zoom is a good service that has both free and paid levels (the free version is generally enough for this kind of thing - you get 40 minutes per session if there are 3 or more participants). It's very user-friendly.


Hopefully these ideas can get you started, but there is lots more out there, so think creatively and encourage your kids to come up with their own ideas!

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 10

We've made it into double digits, hooray! And also, it's Friday, double hooray!!

Today's Spirit Week theme was Disney, so we dressed up as Disney characters. My daughter chose Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, and my son opted to be Prince Eric, from The Little Mermaid. (Yes, he is holding a dinglehopper.)

Wearing - and choosing - costumes was a natural lead-in to give them a shortened version of the theatrical costume lectures I had recorded and posted online last week (here and here), so that's how we started our school day.

7-8:30am: Get up, make and eat breakfast, clean up breakfast dishes, brush hair and teeth.

8:30-9am: Costumes! Choose and put on our Disney costumes, take photos, then change back into our "civvies".

9-9:30am: Costuming. I gave them a more interactive version of my costume lecture, linked above. My son was in a professional production of The Sound of Music last summer, so I used that as an illustration. We talked about how costume designers do their job in both amateur and professional theatre, and we also discussed the other costume occupations in professional theatre (i.e., patternmakers, tailors and seamstresses, wardrobe supervisors, and dressers).

9:3-10am: Occupations. Yesterday I had asked both kids a series of fun questions to post on Facebook, and one of their answers that surprised me was that when I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, neither of them had an answer. So we talked about different jobs they might get while they're still in school, as well as different types of occupations they might have as an adult. I also talked to them about my career path: volunteer and paid jobs I had as a young teenager, my first "real" job after I graduated from college, jobs I've had since. We had a good discussion about the different types of choices they could make for future jobs.

10-10:30am: Typing & reading. My daughter was intrigued by my mentioning that my good typing skills helped me to get work from a temp agency when I changed jobs once, so she asked if she could work on Typing Club, the online typing practice site they use at school. My son's teacher had recommended an audiobook, "The Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo, followed by writing a summary of the book and a description of the character traits of one of the main characters. I had him listen to a few chapters, and we'll save the writing until he's read further in the book.

10:30-11am: Math. Based on his teacher's recommendation, my son watched Khan Academy's Introduction to Decimals video, CTC Math's Introduction to Decimals, and a video called Decimal Place Value for Fourth Grade, then he played decimal games on Splash Learn. My daughter's teacher recommended a math site called Greg Tang Math that has lots of math games. Since my daughter needs to work on her multiplication facts, she played a game called Kakooma to work on her multiplication facts, then I let her explore some of the other math games.

11am-1pm: Outdoors break and lunch. Both kids were begging for an early break, so I decided to let them play outside for a while before lunch, since it's a nice day. We didn't do any exercise yet today, so they can use a stretch break and some fresh air. And so can I!

1-2pm: Science. We had watched this video on how to make ice turn invisible using just salt and white vinegar (and water and ice, of course). We tried to replicate the experiment without much luck - and then my son noticed: Hey, the ice cubes he's putting in are crescent-shaped, and the clear ones he's scooping out are cubes! It's a fake-out!! Yup, we fell for a prank video. But we turned it into a great discussion of the importance of the scientific method, and recording your experiments in a way that lets others replicate them - or, in this case, prove that you faked it! We looked for some videos of REAL ways to make clear ice, but all the ones we found required you to have enough room in your freezer for a small cooler, which we don't, so we couldn't do them ourselves. But we did watch one of those videos - I chose this one, because the narrator is hilarious (possibly intentionally). And because we saw lots of people using the same - or very similar - methods, we agreed this was a little more believable.

2-2:30pm: Reading and journalling. I read them some more excerpts from my Kenya journal, then gave them time to write in their own journals. I gave them each a chance to read something they had written in their journals aloud. Both of them are struggling to understand how to write more than a dry list of facts, even with my prompts. But we'll continue working on that in the coming days.

2:30-3:00pm: Music. My son practiced his trombone while my daughter typed her journal into a Google doc, then my daughter practiced her cello.

And with that, the weekend has arrived! We have successfully completed our second full week of homeschool. No-one's killed each other, no-one's dissolved into tears for more than a few seconds, I haven't taken to drinking heavily on a regular basis, and I think we've all learned a few things, including some practical life skills. If we keep this up, I think we'll come through this crazy situation just fine. And you will, too.

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 9

Every other Thursday, we have professional cleaners come in and clean our house. Obviously, we're not having them come today (or for the next month or so), for their own safety and ours. So instead of our usual homeschool lessons, today we're going to learn exactly what they do. In other words, today, we're going to learn to clean the house.

7-7:15am: Trash patrol. Before we even had breakfast, I had my son get a big trash bag and had him empty all the trashcans in the house into it, then put it into the big wheeled bin and roll it out to the curb. My husband has been cleaning out our study, so there were two big extra trash bags that also had to be carried out. They were quite heavy so my husband helped with that. I also transferred our recycling from the smaller bin on the porch into the larger wheeled bin and my son brought that out to the curb as well. My daughter - who rarely sleeps late - was still sleeping, so she managed to escape this particular chore, but her room is much messier than his so she'll make up for it when room cleaning time comes. We all scrubbed our hands really, really well afterwards.

7:15-8:00am: Free time. I enjoyed my coffee and caught up on emails while my son played video games and my daughter continued to snooze.

8-9am: Cooking. Since my kids requested pancakes for breakfast (as they very often do), I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach them how to make them for themselves. They measured out the mix, added the appropriate amount of water, stirred, checked the consistency of the batter, adjusted as needed, then carefully poured it into the griddle, watched for the edge to dry and the middle to stop bubbling, flipped it over, and finally flipped it onto the plate and buttered it, cut it up, and added syrup. Pancakes are their own reward. Brushing teeth and hair was required after they cleared their plates and put away the pancake-making supplies.

9-10am: Kitchen cleaning. We started with picking up and putting away toys and shoes that were on the floor and unneeded appliances that were on the counter (like the waffle iron), and moving dirty dishes from the sink into the dishwasher. Then we swept crumbs off the counters and scrubbed them with Clorox wipes, then rinsed with damp paper towels. (It was at this point that my son hilariously requested that we listen to the "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted while we worked.) We took the grills off the stove and scrubbed them in the sink, and wiped out around the burners and the front of the oven while the grills were drying, then put everything back together. Next, we swept and washed the floor. Then, we scrubbed out and rinsed the sink. We ran out of time to shake out the two floor mats, so we left them on the porch and we'll take care of them later.

10-11am: Break. My daughter watched a singalong live feed while my son watched the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Facebook Live feed. They both got really involved in what they were watching and went on to watch other similar feeds when the first ones finished, so I let them keep watching until 11:00. My daughter swapped over to an episode of Mo Willems' "Lunch Doodles."

11-11:45am: Bathroom cleaning. My daughter has been begging to learn how to clean toilets, so I gladly obliged. We learned to carefully shake Comet cleanser around the bowl and scrub the the toilet brush, especially under the rim. Then we wiped down the rest of the toilet, including the handle and behind the hinges, with Clorox wipes. Since she enjoyed that job, she got to do 3 toilets and my son just did one. My son was in charge of using Windex to clean the mirrors and more Clorox wipes to clean the sink and the faucets, and they both wiped out the tub and shower. My daughter swept the floors with a dustpan and brush and wiped them down with Clorox wipes. They also brought the bathmats out to the porch and shook them out really well, along with the mats from the kitchen that we didn't shake earlier.  (We had already emptied the trashcans in the morning when we took out the trash.) We did this for all 4 of our bathrooms (luckily, only 1 is a full bath and only 1 other has a shower that we currently use). We managed to finish them all by 11:45!

11:45am-1:45pm: Lunch and free time. They took a much-deserved break and outside time, since the weather is nice - sunny and a little warmer than it's been. My daughter found a bottle of bubbles and is happily blowing them for the little boy across the street, who's busily riding his Big Wheel in their driveway. She also got out her sidewalk chalk and drew some pictures. My son was a little less excited to go outside, so he ended up reading and playing games in the house for most of his time. They both took charge of preparing their own lunches. If nothing else, this situation is encouraging my kids to develop more self-sufficiency and to learn some practical skills.

1:45-2:45pm: Room cleaning. As mentioned earlier, my daughter slept late while my son learned to make pancakes, so she had to spend more time cleaning and organizing her room than he did, but they both worked on straightening out their rooms, including putting away their clean clothes and making their beds. They're both dawdlers, but instead of standing over their shoulders nagging, I just told them they both need to work for an hour and then they can play, but if there's more cleaning to be done they'll have to do it tomorrow during one of their break times. Hopefully that will be a better motivator.

And with that, Cinderella Day is over!

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 8

We're all a bit laggy this morning, so we're focusing on doing mostly fun things today, lots of stuff in the format of games instead or worksheets or exercises. I also gave the kids their choice of live feeds and educational videos to watch. They're pretty much caught up with or ahead of their classroom work, so we don't need to worry too much about that.

7-8:30am: Get up, get dressed, make and eat breakfast, brush teeth and hair. Today's Spirit Week theme is "Christmas in March," so I'm wearing Christmas socks and a red shirt and my daughter is wearing her favorite Christmas onesie. My son considered wearing a Santa hat, but when we realized they were all in the attic, he opted out of today's theme (with my permission; it's not a hill worth dying on).

8:30-9am: Penmanship, spelling, PE. I had the kids do an Alphabet Scavenger Hunt inside the house. I set up a large whiteboard with two columns, and they had to go around the house and find an item beginning with each letter of the alphabet, in order. Rules were that you had to either physically touch the item (if it were reachable) or get as close to the item as you could and point to it. You then had to go back to the whiteboard and write it in your column. After they finished, we reviewing the spelling of the words and rewrote anything that was misspelled. Other than a few missed capital letters, the only mistake was the spelling of "chandelier" - and let's face it, that's not an easy one even for some adults!

9-10am: Music. Despite (or perhaps because of) my daughter's meltdown yesterday, she has been practicing the song we learned all morning and we decided we would take another crack at singing all three parts together and recording it for their music teacher. I must say, it came out pretty awesome! We finished early enough that I gave the kids free time to noodle around on whatever instrument or music app they wanted. My daughter played "Doe, a Deer" on the piano and my son played Song Maker on Chrome Music Lab. My daughter was curious about what her brother was doing, so she started working on Song Maker, too, then moved to doing karaoke with songs on Alexa. They were having so much fun that I let them keep playing past 9:30, when I had planned to move on to our next lesson. We had a quick snack break before we settled in for our science video.

10-10:15am: Science. We watched our favorite Facebook Live program, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy! Today's presentation was a book reading and a sing-along. It was shorter than usual, so we moved up our next scheduled activity.

10:15-10:45am: Health and hygiene. We watched a video on how hand sanitizer works and talked a little more about how important hand washing and social distancing is and how it prevents transmission of the virus. We talked about the difference between the terms "corona virus" and "COVID-19." We talked about the symptoms of COVID-19 and how doctors are treating them, including why medical professionals are concerned that we won't have enough equipment and supplies to treat all the patients who need treatment. We went on a few tangents and searched online for illustrations and explanations of how lungs work and how penicillin was discovered (and how it works).

10:45-11:15am: Math/reading. I gave the kids their choice of online math practice (which my son chose), reading more of Anne Frank's or my journal, or writing in their own journals (which my daughter chose). My daughter finished writing in her journal after only a few minutes, and despite much coaxing from me on additional information she could add, she was adamant that she had written all she had to say. So I had her do independent reading for the rest of the time, while my son was quite content to work on math for the full half-hour.

11:15-11:30am: I read to them from the Diary of Anne Frank and from my journal, and then we all decided we were ready for a break.

11:30am-1pm: Lunch break and free time!

After lunch, I suggested that we could bake something together if they wanted, but after a brief debate between the two of them, they opted to play with the hamster for a while, read independently a little more, and then take the rest of the day off. And that's the beauty of homeschooling - sometimes, when you're not really motivated but you got a lot done earlier (whether "earlier" means two hours ago or two days ago), you can just end the day early and be that much more ready to begin the next day.

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 7: Distance Learning

Although my kids' school district is not requiring online learning, teachers at all grade levels are posting curriculum and optional exercises to help maintain what the kids were working on prior to school closure, and to continue them along that path if possible. We've already incorporated bits and pieces of those suggestions into our home curriculum, but today, I'm going to try sticking mainly to the school's recommendations. Two additions, though: We're celebrating our own Spirit Week this week (someone posted it online; no idea where it came from), so yesterday was Pajama Day, today is Silly Sock Day, tomorrow is Christmas in March Day, Thursday is Social Distance Twin Day (dress like one of your friends and send them a picture!), and Friday is Disney Day. And second, I'm continuing with the reading of The Diary of Anne Frank, including having the kids write in their own journals, and also sharing with them a journal of a trip I took to Kenya in 1990 (and, if I can find it, my journal from when I lived in Zimbabwe for three months in 1988).

So, here is today's schedule:

7-8:30: Get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth and hair, put on silly socks. Silly Sock Selfie on the couch.

8:30-9:15am: ELA. Last week, we finished reading "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner, which was suggested by my son's fourth-grade teacher. As a followup, she suggested that the kids write a summary of the book, and then describe some traits of the main characters, including examples from the book. It was a little tricky since we didn't have a physical copy of the book to look back at, just a video of someone reading the book aloud, but we discussed it together and helped each other remember. They read their responses aloud and we reviewed punctuation, spelling, and grammar of the written responses together. Both kids still struggle with remembering to use capital letters where needed, and occasionally end marks as well, so I'm always careful to review their written answers to anything.

9:15-10am: PE. Both kids seem to be lagging a little today, so we need to get some exercise! I saw a link to some YouTube videos by a teacher named Joe Wicks, so we tried out this video today.  Whew, it was hard work but the kids loved it! We'll definitely be using his videos on a regular basis. My son especially loved that his warm-up and cool-down stretches are almost exactly the same as his gymnastics class uses, so it was a nice sense of familiarity and continuity. (My daughter especially loved that Joe has a cute accent and floppy hair.) The workout was a full 30 minutes long, and it took us a minute to get the video set up, so we gave ourselves a 10-minute break at the end of the hour before our next Facebook Live feed started.

10-10:30am: Today's Atlantic White Shark Conservacy's Facebook Live presentation featured Fabian Cousteau! It's a nice followup to their reading of a book about his famous grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, last week - which inspired my kids to do some research on Cousteau's career.

10:30-11:30am: Math. Since the kids are at very different math levels, it worked out well that their school website has online practice worksheets. They each used their Chromebooks to log into their school accounts and first review the last module they had worked on at school, and then moved on to the next module. Although I'm not posting these links, since they require a school login, there are plenty of online math sites that walk students through grade level exercises. We encountered some issues logging in to my daughter's account (her "restricted access" Chromebook was a little more restricted than we had intended), so she also spent some time writing stories and drawing, then playing other math games on my laptop while my husband played Help Desk and got her Chromebook up and running. Oh, those unexpected complications of homeschooling!

11:30am-1pm: Lunch break and free play time!

1-1:45pm: Music. One of the music teachers at the school suggested that the kids teach their parents one of the songs they learned at school, then asked the parents to teach their kids a song that THEY learned as kids. He also asked families to submit videos of the results! My kids swore that they hadn't learned any songs at school that my husband and I didn't already know (and they're probably not wrong), but we sang "Frere Jacques" together (in French and English) anyway. One of my favorite camp songs is a three-part song where all 3 parts are sung at the same time, with harmonizing melodies. The immortal lyrics are:
Part 1: One bottle of pop, two bottle of pop, three bottle of pop, four bottle of pop, five bottle of pop, six bottle of pop, seven, seven bottle of pop.
Part 2: Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar. Fish and chips and vinegar, pepper pepper pepper salt.
Part 3: Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard. Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard's full.

I tried to teach it to the kids, and although my son managed to catch on pretty quickly, my daughter had a difficult time and ended up melting down. We canned that plan and took a little snuggle break. We'll try again tomorrow.

2-3pm: History and reading. I read them a few entries from my travel journals, then we spent some time reading some more from the Diary of Anne Frank. Finally, I gave them each some time to write in their own journals. I encouraged them to talk about the things that they like and dislike about not going to school and having to practice social distancing, and especially to feel free to share how this situation makes them feel. I'm also letting them decide whether they want to share their journals with me or not. If they don't want to share everything, I'll also give them opportunities to read me some of their entries that they're willing to let me hear.

3-3:30pm: Cooking. My son loves baking pumpkin pie and had initially requested making one as his reward for winning our spelling "bee" the other day, so I promised we could make one as soon as the ingredients I'd ordered had arrived. This time, he mostly coached my daughter, and I supervised and helped with some of the heavy lifting. We look forward to enjoying the fruits of our labor after dinner!

Tomorrow we'll start with math, since it kind of fell by the wayside for my daughter today due to our technical issues. And we'll start on the next suggested reading book, The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. But I feel like we accomplished a lot today!

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 6: A New Approach

I spent some time over the weekend thinking about my approach to homeschooling. When we started, I was really modeling our program after what I'd done with my son when we homeschooled for a year  a few years back (really, two years; we did pre-k informally, then kindergarten formally). I had written schedules and lesson plans, although I was always willing to deviate from them. We did a mix of worksheets, field trips, hands-on projects, and themes. I chose some topics, and I let him choose some topics. He had already mastered 90% of the kindergarten material in Common Core, which is our state standard, so I wasn't even trying to follow the school curriculum.

But not only are we in a completely different position, where the school system is trying to keep all the kids in the same grade at an even level - which is basically treading water, practicing what they already know rather than attempting to progress and complete the term's curriculum - but their learning is in a context of ZERO face-to-face contact with peers or adults. One of my favorite parts of homeschooling originally was interaction with people outside of my son's age cohort; instead of talking to mainly other kindergarteners, he talked to docents in museums, librarians, store clerks and stockers, lifeguards, dogwalkers, everyone we met. Which, since we were out and about while the other kids were at school, was mainly adults. But now, there's very little interaction with anyone outside the family. And there's very little opportunity to play with other kids in the same sense that they normally play - no chance to work out arguments over who is "It" this time for Tag, or whether that ball bounced outside the lines, or who gets to go first in whatever game they're playing. Having two kids in the house, there is some small degree of problem-solving and working out relationship conflicts, but it's different when it's between siblings. Right now, online chats (and hopefully, video chats in the near future, now that we've mastered Zoom) are their only peer-to-peer social outlets.

So how to give them a sense of normalcy, a sense of control, a sense of actively participating in managing their own studies, and by extension, their own lives? Well, one way that I think will be very helpful to them is journaling. I would love to be able to go back in time and listen to what 7-year-old me thought of being trapped in my house for a week during the Blizzard of '78. I can't do that, but I can make sure that my children can go back, thirty years from now, and read what their 8- and 10-year-old selves though of being trapped in their house for however long during the COVID-19 Pandemic of '20. But since they've never journalled before, it makes sense to give them an example of a very compelling and readable journal that tells a story in a well-organized way, providing background on both the writer and the historical context.  And what better example than The Diary of Anne Frank? I was able to download the linked version on my Kindle for only 99 cents. It's not the best version (it was clearly scanned from a print version and there are a number of weird typos and OCR issues like "cl" coming out as "d" or "i" printing as "l", but since I'm reading it aloud, I just read what I knew it was meant to be, not what it actually said.), but it was good enough for our purposes.

So here's today's lesson plan and schedule:

7-8:45am: Get up. We're doing "Spirit Week Themes" this week, and today is Pajama Day, so we all changed into our coziest pajamas. I had taught my son how to make scrambled eggs a few days ago, and this morning he wanted to make them himself with minimal hints from me. He did fantastic! (And the eggs were PERFECTLY seasoned.) My daughter was in charge of English muffins and toast. It was so nice to be waited on!

8:45-9:15am: I talked a little about the world situation when Anne began writing her journal, then I read her first few diary entries out loud. We discussed the structure of her entries, beginning with introducing herself, giving a brief sketch of her life and where she lives, followed by an introduction of the various people in her life (mainly her classmaters), and then a description of what is currently happening in the world, and a little about how it affects her life.

9:15-10am: The kids started their own journals, modeling their content after Anne. My son chose to type his journal into a Google Doc; my daughter opted to write hers longhand in a bound journal she already owned. I was surprised and impressed by how happily they took to the writing, and what a good job they did in following Anne's model.

10-11:30am: We took a writing break to watch the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's daily Facebook Live presentation. Most days, they read a shark-related book, then answer questions, but today they're doing a special presentation about what makes a shark a shark, including lots of facts about shark anatomy and physiology, so it was especially long and informative. (Tomorrow, they're hosting an interview with Fabian Cousteau, grandson of the famed undersea explorer and innovator Jacques Cousteau, who has followed in his famous grandfather's footsteps.) We took a brief snack break after the webcast, then we quizzed ourselves by completing the worksheet from the AWSC website.  I challenged the two kids to work together and to figure out how to research any of the answers they didn't know, either by looking back at the video or searching the website.

11:30-1pm: Lunch break and free time!

1-2pm: A teacher friend of mine clued me in to the virtual tour of the Anne Frank Annex, which is an absolutely spectacular website! Since we recently discovered how to project from my laptop onto our large living-room television, we put it up on the big screen and toured together. We read a few more entire in Anne's diary, ending right after her family moves into the annex.

2-2:30pm: Math. Instead of having them do worksheets, we did a "multiplication bee" similar to our spelling bee of the other day. They took turns answering questions, each getting questions at their own level, so my daughter answered facts up to about the 7s, and my son answered 7s and up.

2:30-3:30pm: Art & Music. The kids have been begging for more creative time, so I figured we could end the day with art. A friend had dropped off a jewelry-making kit for my daughter, which involves selecting and painting beads and charms to make a charm bracelet, so she chose that for her craft, and my son chose to do some more work on his recycled sculpture of a robot. I also asked both kids to spend some time practicing their instruments during this time, either the ones they're learning in school (cello and trombone) or some of the other instruments we have in our house, including piano, recorder, and xylophone. It was a good use of the time waiting for glue or paint to dry.

It felt like a nice, relaxed day today, with very little of what felt like "standard" schoolwork. And that's what I feel like home school should be right now. Keeping busy learning interesting things, keeping up with and slightly building on the subjects they've been learning at school, lots of breaks to work with our hands as well as our brains, and sneaking in learning practical skills (like cooking scrambled eggs!) that don't even seem like learning.

I hope everyone out there struggling with homeschooling recognizes the benefits to taking a more relaxed and less structured approach to learning. Some kids may really thrive with relatively rigid structures, but so many more will absorb better and keep up their interest levels if we follow their lead and stay less structured. Much like working from home vs. working at the office, homeschooling can be much more efficient than learning in a large, mixed-level classroom, so you can spend significantly less time and still get more done. Most of all, don't feel that you need to keep up with anyone else. My blog is not meant to be telling anyone how they should homeschool!! It's just an example, hopefully one among many, offering options that MIGHT work for you. Use what works, ignore what doesn't. There's no one right way to homeschool, and no-one can judge the best way for YOU to homeschool except YOU!

So don't worry - you've got this!