COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 34

As the days go by, we continue to find ways to tweak our setups. My son often uses his headphones, both to block out the sound from his sister's Chromebook and to leave the room quieter for her and for me when he needs to listen to videos. Right now the dining room is his domain, and the living room is his sister's (soon to be the kitchen, since she has a science experiment to do this morning; science is discouraged in carpeted rooms with non-washable furniture). I continue to putter around the house, packing and scrubbing and pausing for the occasional anxiety attack. We have one more painter coming to provide an estimate today and a call with our realtor tonight; tomorrow we meet with a local realtor to discuss pricing our house and I also have a church meeting. Oh, and I need to clear out the rooms we're having painted so they can get started once we choose a painter, and we also need to continue clearing EVERYTHING (at least temporarily) so we can stage and take pictures for a virtual tour once the painting is done. Might also be cleaning a couple of carpets in there somewhere. So the anxiety is reality-based, at least. Not that that makes it easier to deal with, but at least I know that when the source is over, the anxiety should be, too. Well, THAT anxiety, anyway.

Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, school. Here's today's order of business.

8-9am: We all got a bit of a later start today, so we agreed to hold off starting school until 9. But at least by then we were all fed, dressed, brushed (well, probably upwards of 50% of required/requested brushing was completed, so...win?), and at the table with our laptops.

9-9:30am: My son is reading (well, listening to) Malala's Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai. He also has some questions to answer afterwards, which generally takes longer than I expect it to (and longer than it should).  My daughter is doing a science project learning about how seeds get around the world.

9:30-10am: My son is working on a math challenge from his teacher. They're more like brain teasers than typical math problems, so he's calling on me for help now and then. And my daughter has moved on to a different experiment involving cutting paper into strips, making it into loops, and dropping it from a height. She is currently on the porch making a FlipGrid video (and, I suspect, entertaining the neighbors).

10-10:30am: I love having a reliable programmed half-hour when the kids watch Facebook Live presentations. Having that hard stop means I know exactly what they're doing for half an hour.

10:30-11am: Early break. I let both of them goof around for a while. They also [Editor's Note: I trailed off at this point because I was in the middle of something. I don't know what they did here. I don't really care. They were in the tent. They were getting fresh air. They were laughing. They were apparently enjoying each other's company. No-one was hurt; no property was damaged. That's enough of an accomplishment.]

11-11:30am: Yeah, they both worked on something for a while here. Don't really know what it was. One claimed to be reading and I'm inclined to believe him. Another didn't mention what she was doing but there was a decided lack of the whooping and "Mom, come see!!"s that usually accompanies surfing the internet, so I'm going to assume it was something constructive.

11:30am-1pm: Free time and lunch break. Well, additional free time, and me nagging them to eat lunch before their 1pm and 1:15pm video meets. I'm not entirely sure where they're going to eat because I've moved all the contents on the dining room into the kitchen, rendering both rooms unusable, at least for eating. But I'm convinced they'll figure it out. They're surprisingly self-sufficient where food is concerned.

1-2pm: Child #1 is in a Google Classroom Meet in the tent, followed by chatting with her classmates. Child #2 is setting up the living room as best he can around all the rearrangements I've made, so he can have a band rehearsal at 1:15pm. They both wrapped up at around 2 and immediately asked, "Is homeschool over for today?!??" Yes, yes it is. I accomplished more than they did, but we all accomplished something. And no-one cried. That's what I consider a successful day all around.