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7-8:30am: Up, make breakfast, clean up breakfast dishes, get dressed (although see dress code note, above), brush teeth and hair, free play. Note: the 7am start time is an average; the kids were both up by 6:30; I dragged myself out of my cozy bed at 7:30. We also had an impromptu discussion of economics during breakfast, based on my son asking why the government doesn't just print more money when the economy tanks. How convenient that today's planned social studies lesson is about economics! (See 11am, below.)
8:30-9am: Penmanship practice. I reviewed their work from yesterday and had them redo a few of the letters that they struggled with, then added some additional letters to practice: Cursive capitals h through p for the 3rd-grader, and printed lowercase p q r s u for the 4th-grader (who had more review work to do). Additional practice by copying sentences from a favorite book, then pointing out letters and spacing issues to fix and also think about for next time.
9-9:30am: Indoor "Green" Scavenger Hunt. With high hopes of getting outside later in the day, we opted for an indoor exercise to start the morning. I gave each kid a clipboard with paper and pencil and gave them 15 minutes to go around the house and describe every green item they could find, in honor of St. Patrick's Day! We then compared our lists to see what each one had missed and how many unique items each had found.
9:30-10am: By their request, I gave them a times tables speed test. This link has several worksheets that get progressively more difficult. They're designed for a 1-minute test, but I watched to see how far they would get and adjusted the time so they could get a significant amount of the sheet done (2 minutes for my 4th-grader and 3-1/2 for my 3rd-grader was just about right.). I also printed the answer key and had them trade papers and grade each other's answers. (This led to a discussion about how "neatness counts" since my hurried-but-messy 4th-grader's answers were occasionally illegible.) Since this didn't take very long, I suggested my son do Khan Academy math, but he requested using the Zearn website they use at school, and I agreed. My daughter is weaker on her math facts, so we spent the rest of the time correcting her answers and practicing some facts. I definitely plan on spending more time with her on multiplication facts, possibly using flashcards. And of course, all those great Schoolhouse Rock math songs. They were both on a roll so I extended this segment from my originally-planned 15 minutes to a full 30 minutes. My son also spent the last few minutes of this segment looking up information about Jacques Cousteau in preparation of our next segment...
10-10:50am: The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy is presenting a book involving sharks every day at 10am. Today's book is "Manfish - A Story of Jacques Cousteau" by Jennifer Berne. They post the videos after the fact, so you can pull up yesterday's program whenever it's convenient for your schedule, if 10am doesn't work. They've also mentioned that they might change they time to later in the day sometimes, so west coast viewers can watch in real time at a more reasonable hour. The program ran until about 10:30, but we downloaded the book report worksheet and the ocean exploration vessel design worksheet from the AWSC website and spent some time working on our book reports. We'll save the designing for later today, combining science and art!
10:50-11am: Quick snack break and free time!
11am-11:30am: I chose two articles from Time for Kids on economics to read aloud and discuss: "A Look at the Economy" (in light of the COVID-19 crisis), and "Going Cashless." We discussed the difference between debit and credit cards and why it can be difficult for some people to have either of them, and why a cashless system would be very difficult for some people. My husband is much further along in the "going cashless" technology boom so after he finishes work I'll ask him to talk more to the kids about things like Venmo, PayPal, ApplePay, etc. I might even learn a few things myself!
11:30am-1pm: Lunch break and free play time with electronics allowed! The kids were getting fidgety, so I'm giving them a nice, long break. One of the nicest things about homeschool is the ability to go with the flow - when they're in the groove, like they were with math and the Shark Conservancy project today, you can take more time with a subject, and when they're not really absorbing, you can give them a break. It makes me appreciate classroom teachers who have to power through and stick with a set schedule that much more!
My son had requested an egg salad sandwich yesterday and I couldn't oblige, so last night I hard-boiled a few eggs and we made the egg salad together as part of his lunch break. He discovered that he liked egg salad when we had high tea at the Russian Tea Room over Christmas break, so I tried to find their recipe online, but the best I could do was Downton Abbey Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches. I even cut off the crusts and cut them in fancy triangles arranged on the plate in a star shape, because that's the kind of cool mom I am. It was a HUGE hit! This recipe will be making a regular appearance in our lunch rotation.
1-2pm: Reading. I was originally planning on having the kids read on their own, but my son's' 4th grade teacher emailed a link to an audio version of two books she had planned on reading to the class this week, "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds, and "Wilma Jean the Worry Machine" by Julia Cook, so we listened to the first two chapters of "Stone Fox" and all of "Wilma Jean" and then had a short discussion about each. Afterwards, the kids did quiet reading on their own.
2-3pm: Science: Capillary action. We planned to do this experiment using 7 glasses, strips of paper towel, water, and food coloring. It took a lot longer than expected for the water to move, but the kids enjoyed it anyway. It's a good experiment to do in this situation, since you probably have everything you need for it in the house. The video is up!.
3-3:30pm: Pet time. The kids let the hamster play in her playpen, and found various toys for her to play with, including the box from a tube of toothpaste and a toilet paper tube. We often have discussions about how hamsters behave and what they eat in the wild, so I'm considering this a science lesson. Plus, we're all just kind of worn out today and ready to kick back and chill. Even the hamster.
And we're officially toast for today. Free time for everyone (especially mom, who's currently torn between a nap and a long bubble bath)!
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