Day 22: Keeping sound in mind and body
Home school routines have settled in, but that doesn’t mean it’s getting any easier.
In fact, by design, this week is intended to get a little more intense for students before they take their Easter break.
Brooke is facing a full-length English essay, but that’s her forté so she’s comfortable in that wheel house. Alyssa felt some relief entering into Week 3 because she accidentally read ahead in Romeo and Juliet last week so only had one scene to navigate this morning.
They were both given new challenges this morning as their option courses came online. Now they’ve each got music projects to complete, Alyssa has Spanish homework, and Brooke has been given art work.
Really, this will help them focus their initiatives during their art or music blocks at home, and Alyssa already jumped all over the Spanish assignment. I think she was ready for something new, and a Google Slides presentation on a Spanish-speaking country fit the bill. She’s working diligently away learning about Costa Rica as we speak.
Christian – well, he’s forging ahead with The Outsiders and math assignments, same-old for him.
Hannah is tackling the letter “u” and the number 3 this week, so today I challenged her to find things that begin with that sound, or “three of” items around the house. This is rather tricky with the letter “u,” which means she was occupied for a good chunk of an hour as she hunted for the perfect items to photograph with her little tablet.
Was this a purely educational activity? No. Absolutely not. The main purpose was to get her moving around the house and, frankly, out of my office space so I could concentrate and get the last of my work done for the day.
It worked – I finished up stories, made calls and wrote emails, and she got a good lesson in letter sounds, counting, and perseverance (there were a few moments she was ready to give up – “This is all I can find” – but with a gentle nudge in a different direction she was off again on her quest.
What did she take photos of?
Three Easter egg window decorations, three stickers on her big sister’s computer, three books, three dumbbells, an umbrella, and the word “up” from the worksheet she completed this morning.
That was before she got distracted by Kevin, who had the day off and was using his afternoon to conquer the monsters of Resident Evil 3 in the basement and attempt to save the free world. I guess we still need to work on her focus.
Everyone put more priority on their outdoor/exercise time today and seemed to appreciate it more than last week. Maybe it was the sun shining and better-than-sub-zero temperatures, or maybe it was cabin fever – either way, these four students were certainly more active than the past couple of Mondays.
There was an early morning walk around the storm pond behind our house and some quality time with Wii Fit activities for Christian and Hannah while their sisters did their own workouts.
Alyssa actually received a home fitness regimen from her phys.-ed teacher today as part of the complimentary course roll-out – perfect timing, three weeks into the potential madness of this pandemic isolation.
These are the simple ways we’re trying to keep ourselves sane – fresh air and exercise, and make-work (and fun) activities for the kindergartener. We pause mid-day to catch up with each other over lunch and then get back to it, and set aside our evenings for family time (or sometimes alone time, depending on whether they’re tired of being in close quarters).
The routine of this now-normal but still quite abnormal space we’ve found ourselves has set in. Doing both school and community journalism from home feels slightly more comfortable every day – so even while it doesn’t really get easier, it becomes just a little less rough with each passing week.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
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