Weekly Homeschool Roundup - 4/10/20

And so it continues… more isolation.

How are you doing? If I’m being 100% honest with you - this was a hard week for me and one of my children.

Check on the extroverts you know - they might be having a hard time. We miss talking to people not in our family, going places, and just the everyday interactions of life that we used to take for granted.

It took some creativity and an attitude adjustment, but I think we’re all ok now.

For me, I immersed myself in some SQUILT lesson planning (music is such great therapy!) and a couple of good audiobooks.

My son (my extrovert!) started learning the basics of iMovie and using it to make a couple of presentations he has for end of the year projects. This was the PERFECT way for him to utilize his creativity and sense of humor.

This is all going to ebb and flow over the next several weeks, so it’s good we’re getting some coping mechanisms in place now for when we feel a little down.

Oh - and brownies help. Thank you to my lovely daughter for making The Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Browines. I might have eaten TOO many of those this week!

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Enjoy these 5 good things this week - again, something for all ages.

• Cursive Writing Practice: Jokes and Riddles

  I’ve been doing a lot of Bible copywork myself the past few weeks, and it got me to thinking about the ways I taught my own children cursive. The best resource I used with my youngest was a series of cursive practice books from Scholastic - inexpensive and wonderful!

  He always loved jokes and riddles, so learning cursive with them was a perfect fit.

• 25 Benefits of Homeschooling Your Teen

  Homeschooling my teens has brought me a lot more joy than I thought it would - plus you have such a feeling of accomplishment when they can tackle hard concepts and have big conversations with you!

  This is a post I wrote a while ago, but it’s applicable now - my favorite is still “They Mature Earlier, but Stay Younger Longer”. Let that one sink in.

  A few days ago we were able to have a Zoom call with my dad (he’s almost 90!), who lives in an Assisted Living in South Florida. We were being so silly and he was having a great time. After we finished I was just so thankful for my kids - they are happy, well-adjusted, smart, and just fun people.

  (As you can see, one of my children always has a silly personality - the other one is generally sweet and thoughtful. Can you guess who is who?)

• Homeschool Music Appreciation and Homegrown Learning

  I had such a lovely video chat with Amy, from Humility and Doxology. We talked about music appreciation and also a lot about how I got started homeschooling my children all those years ago. I hope you get a chance to watch this video interview, and Amy has several others Homeschool Conversations on her site that are very interesting, too.

• On The Bright Side…

  I just finished reading On The Bright Side, by Melanie Shankle. It was just what I needed to read right now - funny, touching, just a little bit serious, and so many “aha” moments for me (as a mom who is pushing the age of 50). If you want a dose of nostalgia and happy I suggest you get this book!

• Easter Cross Chalk Art

  This is a beautiful art project tutorial for Easter. You know we are HUGE fans of Chalk Pastel (and NANA!) over here.

Easter is this Sunday. We will celebrate in a new way - but the fact remains the same: Christ is Risen and for that, we give GREAT thanks.

I wish you and your families a blessed Easter.

Did you have a particularly GOOD THING this week?

Share it with me in the comments below!

Weekly Homeschool Roundup - 4/3/20

Haven’t you always considered yourself a master of the art of “bob and weave”?

Let me clarify: as homeschoolers we are pretty good at adjusting, adapting, and changing to different circumstances. We can take a curriculum and tweak it to fit the need of 4 different ages. We can take a day that starts poorly and turn it around. We’re good at change.

Well - how good at change are you now?

Circumstances have changed and life has gotten a lot more challenging for everyone.

And, while I still contend that because we homeschool we have a layer of normal right now, there is precious little that is normal about what is going on in the world.

In an effort to keep on keeping on, I want to keep the weekly homeschool roundup going.

There is still so much to be learned, shared, and celebrated.

Let’s get to it!

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• Classical Music Inspired by the Birds

  This is a freebie from SQUILT Music - 10 pieces of classical music with a free printable Draw What You Hear sheet and some ideas to spark discussion in your home. Music is therapy, and these particular pieces are perfect for right now. Enjoy!

• Veteran Parents Share Homeschool Tips

  Such simple wisdom in this post - for those suddenly “homeschooling” and the rest of us, too.

• 15 Games to Play on Video Chat

  This post is golden! My kids had fun playing Battleship with their friends on video chat, and there are other games in this post that will be lots of fun, too. (See how creative people are being right now? Excellent!)

• This is not homeschooling…

  From the opinion section of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, this was a wonderful piece about education right now. I especially loved the fact that it is written by two education professors from the University of Georgia.

• 5 Ways to Make Learning Fun

  This post (by yours truly) was inspired by a friend of mine. She is the mom of 4 children under the age of 8 who is now teaching her children at home because the schools are closed. I love watching how she is making learning fun for her children and adjusting to this new normal. There are lessons here for all of us!

I was also greatly comforted by this video today - not sure if you have seen it, but it seems to give a lot of reasonable suggestions for how we can protect our families right now.

Let me know how you are doing.

Have you had to make changes in your homeschool because of the current situation?

Or, do you find you are carrying on as normal?

Let’s support each other in the comments below!