Covid-19 Pandemic, Homeschooling, and St. Pat's Day!

On Freaky Friday, March 13th, things with the Corona Virus Disease that started in Wohan China late December of 2019 (COVID-19) became a serious thing here in America.  Schools were cancelled indefinitely, everyone was running to the grocery store to stock up on toilet paper (except me...  good thing we had some in storage), and the economy was starting to close down.  I had to shut down my preschool, which was super sad.  However... I got to homeschool in its place!  The first couple of days, we learned all about dinosaurs.  Gavin had been wanting to build a volcano for a few weeks time and we just hadn't gotten around to it, so we decided to build it and learn about the dinosaurs that lived near them millions of years ago.

Paper mâché volcano

Researching and writing about different kinds of dinosaurs.  I never knew there were SOOOO many!

It was also St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday.  Laynie got all dolled up and put the bow from Sharon (our Irish friend) in her hair.

The kids painted the diorama.

They drew with Mo Willems.

Laynie got into bookmaking.

We went for a hike to find vegitation to put in our dino diorama.

While hiking, we sang a dinosaur song.  "We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching.  We are the dinosaurs...  whattaya think of that?!"

The vista was beautiful...

and so was the experience with these two goofballs!

We had a traditional irish dinner.  However, the whole time I lived in Ireland, I never ate like this!  It was mostly chicken and pasta! LOL!

Our finished dino diorama.

The volcano even errupted!

Day three of "homeschooling" was quite different from the first two days.  Gavin's teacher sent home worksheets and required him to do computer programs.  It was lame.  I didn't like him being on the computer that long.  Pretty sure it's unhealthy for his brain.  I felt like a substitute teacher, not a homeschooling mommy.  So... we adjusted and do about 1/2 of what the teacher has provided (mostly the worksheets to make sure we understand the content) and the rest of the day we explore and learn real "homeschool" style.  I brought out "Mom Bucks" again and it's motivated the kids to get their chores, school work and goals done each day.  

Curbing

We are slowly getting our yard how we'd like it.  We saved up enough money for curbing.  Matt needs to move quite a few sprinklers and we need to put in shrubs, trees, plants, etc.  It should be much easier to mow now, and I'm excited to see the plants grow and beautify our surroundings.

So far, we've planted a peach tree, a couple of boxwoods, and a burning bush.  I also want to get a lilac tree, rose bushes, a shade tree (not sure what kind yet), lavender, 2 more raspberry bushes, strawberry plants and a forsythia bush.  We had such beautiful plants at our other home, and I've missed them!  The soil isn't as fertile here though, so we've had to do a lot of research into what will flourish here. 

Laynie begins to WRITE!

Now that Laynie has her letter names/sounds down and a good grasp of phonemic awareness, she's ready to sound spell!  It's been so fun seeing her pre-writing skills blossom.

I made of list of to-dos for Laynie with ice cream as the reward for getting them all done.  Once she was able to check off her chores, she circled the ice cream then wrote:  FREEDOM.  She was glad to be done with her work, that's for sure!

Laynie whined during preschool, and after class, I talked with her about the way she needed to act.  She felt badly and wrote this apology:  I ma (am) sree (sorry).

In preschool, we made "Healthy Me" posters and wrote down one thing we could do to be healthy.  Laynie wrote:  I can brush mi (my) teef,

Abiyoyo

At the beginning of February, Gavin entered his school's storytelling festival.  He made it his goal to memorize Abiyoyo, a South African Folktale.  He worked really hard at memorizing the story and presented it to his class on Feb. 7th.  Out of 5 students, Gavin was chosen to go on to the next level.  Gavin worked even harder at perfecting his story, adding expression and being relatable to an audience.  On Feb. 13th, he performed it again for his grade.  Out of 3 students, he was once again chosen to go on to the next level.  Then on Feb. 21st, Gavin performed once again for grades K-3 of his school.  He did an amazing job - surpassed his own (and mine) expectations and ended up taking 2nd place.  He was quite pleased to receive a trophy - the first one he's ever gotten.

I am so proud of Gavin.  He set a goal and worked each day to accomplish it.  (There was one day that I had to get after him because he wasn't trying his best and complaining that he had to memorize the story.  I yelled a bit.  He was stubborn.  Then I reminded him that HE was the one that wanted to do this in the first place and he needed to buckle down and do what he said he'd do.  Then he responded, "Oh yeah," went about practicing, cheerfully - I might add, and we never had a struggle with practicing after that day.

Laynie and I wanted to give Gavin a little treat after his final performance - since we were so proud of him.

And... I used my birthday money to buy a REAL ukulele.  So now Gavin can set a new goal and maybe learn a song or two.  :)