COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 56

By the numbers:
56 days of homeschool so far
13 days until moving day
12 days until we close on the house
8 days of homeschool still to go
5 Zoom/Google Classroom Meets
1 day left until the weekend

Fridays are a mixed blessing for me these days. On the one hand, we're close to the weekend, and once we're done for the day we all give a little sigh of relief. On the other hand, we're sometimes frantically trying to catch up on all the "weekly" tasks that didn't quite get done earlier in the week. Plus, it's the most "scheduled" day we have, which limits our flexibility by giving us multiple hard stops.

The number of school days left is in the single digits; we're down to less than two weeks before we move. Again, a mixture of terror and relief, but mostly simply the light at the end of the tunnel. And so we soldier on. Today, that looked like this:

7-8:30am: Due to last night's pouring rain, it's already a warm and sticky day, with everyone moving a little slower than we might otherwise. But after a breakfast of French toast, we're ready to get dressed and brushed and washed and face the day!

8:30-9am: My son is finalizing his research and writing assignment for his Challenge class, which his teacher will be reviewing with the whole class during his 11am Google Meet. He wrapped it up pretty quickly, then went on to do a Minecraft symmetry project. My daughter asked to start with reading, so she's working on Lexia for her daily 20-30 minutes.

9-9:30am: We looked back over both their weekly and daily assignment lists to see what was left. My daughter opted to do an EstiMystery, followed by her daily Zearn math for 20 minutes, then moved on to independent reading. My son is doing a reading and a video on Nelson Mandela, followed by answering a few questions.

9:30-10am: My son is moving on to Math Playground geometry games, and my daughter is continuing with independent reading.

10-10:30am: My daughter is watching Circle Time with Miss Tracey. Since my son has a trombone lesson at 10:30am, he's saving the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to watch in its entirety later on, and is doing Zearn until it's time to set up for his lesson.

10:30-11am: My son is having his trombone lesson. My daughter is working on her Epic reading. I am packing our formal china and flatware and padding out the boxes with whatever "soft" things i can find around the house. Small pasta boxes make surprisingly good filler. Also candles. My packing logic has officially switched over from "things that are stored in the same room close by each other" to "whatever fits in the damn box."

11-11:30am: My son has switched over to his Challenge Google Meet. He's wearing his Bluetooth headphones and just wandered down to the basement to put his trombone away while chatting away to his teacher about his project and all I can think of is those annoying people on public transportation who natter away loudly on their Bluetooth earpieces. It doesn't matter in the house, but we'll have to have a chat about headphone and earpiece etiquette as some point. My daughter is working on something called a Graphic Organizer. I didn't really understand her explanation, but it involves the work they've been doing on water conservation combined with some form of organizing information, so I'm just going to assume it's a good thing and not worry about the details.

11:30am-1pm: Phew, lunch break and free time!

1-2pm: My son has a couple of videos to watch for his class, then we finished off by reviewing the states and capitals once again. My daughter has finished all of her regular classroom assignments, so we went back to look at extras like drama, art, and music. There was a science challenge involving watching a video and then carving a rock. The finding and washing the rock has taken 20 minutes, and I suspect the video will take another 15. Based on my daughter's past artistic endeavors, the actual rock carving will either take 30 seconds or all weekend.

My daughter has a dance class from 4:30-6pm, and both kids have an online youth group meeting from 6:30-7:30pm, but other than that, we're off for the weekend! Have a great weekend, everyone!