COVID-19 Lesson Plans, Day 4

It's raining.

I stayed up late last night.

None of us slept very well.

All of us woke up with itchy allergy eyes.

All these factors combined to make me decide that today will be a much looser learning schedule. One of the most important things I learned while I was homeschooling was that having a day like this on a regular basis is a really, really good idea. Unless you're homeschooling 20 kids at once (shudder), homeschool is simply more efficient than classroom learning. You're not dealing with talking over 20 other voices, you don't spend 10 minutes in transition time 5 times a day, you don't have as many disruptions, you're not trying to explain concepts in a way that makes sense for kids with 20 different learning styles. The nature of homeschooling is such that you get more done in less time. That's simply a fact. So take advantage of being able to use that "saved time" as a mental vacation now and then! You and your students will be able to learn all the better for it.

So.

This was today's schedule.

7-8am: Rolled out of bed. Didn't bother to get dressed or brush hair. (I did get dressed, but I'm not wearing a bra. Don't judge me.) Watched a little TV, goofed around with video games. (Not saying whether that was them or me.)

8-8:30am: Cooking. Last night, I stumbled across a cooking show called "Back to Back Chef," where a professional chef (Gordon Ramsay and Bobby Flay were both featured) teaches an amateur chef to make a dish in 15 minutes. The twist is that the two cooks are back to back so they can't see each other, and the professional chef has to walk the newbie through making the dish using only verbal descriptions. It inspired me to try to walk my own kids through making scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. I did watch what they were doing, but I did my best to avoid actually grabbing the spoon and helping out (with varying levels of success). But the kids did a really good job! And the eggs were delicious. A practical lesson that they'll use often (if I have anything to do with it), and one that had an immediate and tangible reward - breakfast!

8:30-9am: Breakfast. We all had a leisurely breakfast, then cleaned up our dishes.

9-10am: Filmmaking. I challenged each kid to think of something they know how to do that they could teach to other people in the form of a short video, much like the videos I've posted so far. My daughter, the artist, chose to teach how to draw eyes in anime style, and my son, the musician, chose to teach how to play the theme song of one of his favorite video games on the piano. I had them sit down and write up a rough draft of a script, along with sketches of what they might draw or show. I figured I would have to help them record it, but they both pulled out their Chromebooks and recorded themselves without any help from me. Ah, the joys of being born in the age of technology.

10-10:15am: Music. Our friend Tracy O'Farrell, a singer and actress, is doing a daily circle time for kids (for those of us who remember "Romper Room," it's a bit like that). Today she also read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," by Mo Willems, a big favorite in our house. My kids are a little older than her target demographic, so we didn't stay for her whole presentation, but we still had fun with the songs (many of which I knew, but had forgotten over the years).

10:15-10:45am: Dance. My husband's family has run a dance studio for over 100 years, and my niece posted a "dance challenge" from the studio in which she teaches choreography to a remix of Ray Charles' "Hit the Road, Jack." Our whole family - even my husband, who had a short lull in his work schedule - learned and practiced the choreography. It was obvious that my husband and daughter are the natural dancers in the family, but my son and I - both strong "movers" with a really good sense of rhythm - could do the moves, but didn't pick up the sequences quite as quickly. But a little more practice and we'll all be ready to record! I've already promised to come up with some kind of family costume. There will definitely be hats. Ray Charles music is definitely hat music.

10:45-11:15am: Spelling. My 3rd-grader struggles with spelling, so I selected from this list and the successive ones on that site, choosing words that she's familiar with but would likely have to think about. My 4th-grader, who is a voracious reader and therefore a very good speller, started at the beginning of this list, which is actually 7th grade words, and skipped through the successive lists as well. I tried to choose really challenging ones for him, as well, but it's tough because he almost never misspells a word once he's read it. (The only words he missed were "embarrass" - that sneaky double R! - and "unconscious" - that sneaky SC!) We took turns, modified spelling bee style, with me reading the word and using it in a sentence, providing a definition if requested, and giving each child a point for every correct word. They were allowed to write the word down before giving their official answer, and if they missed it the first time, they got a second try. Since they're at very different levels, I didn't have them attempt to spell the words the other missed. After two incorrect attempts, I gave them the correct spelling. Final result: 3rd-grader, 12/15; 4th-grader, 13/15. The correctly-spelled word that clinched the whole thing was "mispronunciation." (I told you he was good.) The winner won the right to choose what we bake as a treat this afternoon. See below to find out what he chose!

11:15am-1pm: Lunch and free play. Electronics allowed. It's a good day to be chill and take a nice long lunch break.

1-2pm: Reading. We started by listening to chapters 6, 7, and 8 of "Stone Fox." Then the kids were allowed to read whatever books they chose for the rest of the hour. Well, one of the children was copping an attitude and got sent to his room without electronics, so I'm not sure if he read or not. But that was probably the least boring of his options, so I suspect he did. Don't tell him he got a punishment that was doing what he was actually supposed to be doing during that time period anyway.

2-3pm (or whenever we finish; I'm posting this as we're getting started). Baking. I told my son that as a reward for winning the spelling contest, he could choose what we bake as a treat. His first choice was pumpkin pie, but unfortunately I don't have evaporated milk on hand (required by his favorite recipe), although we've ordered some, so I promised pie in a day or two. Other options were various kinds of cookies, brownies, or cake or cupcakes, especially something made with one of the mixes we already have on hand (I'm trying to save our flour for baking bread). He found a Duff Goldman tie-dye cake mix I'd forgotten we had, so we're baking a cheerful rainbow cake. Much like breakfast this morning, I plan to let the kids do the majority of the work, with me providing mostly directions and safety guidance (e.g., don't lick the beater while it's running!).

We'll end our school day early today. Tomorrow we'll do more, but it was nice to have a light, flexible day today.