December Homeschool Life

The rest of December before Christmas break, we tried to keep it simple.

The kids worked on the spreadsheet I gave them. Their main focus was their assesements through Exact Path. Then they had a list of choices from different shows, games to play, penpal letters, reading and more.

Here are a few pictures I grabbed during the holiday craziness though overall 2020 we have kept pretty simple this holiday season.

This really cool STEM kit from our library called Gadgets and Gizmos

They had their Homeschool Support Group cooking class where we made cake balls and decorated sugar cookies.

They learned about genetic traits in their My Tech High Science Club

Of course we played some games. 
We borrowed Cat Crimes from our local library. It's a fun logic game that is technically played as a single player, but we did it together at first to help them learn the game. I even enjoyed playing this game on my own. 

We played a new game, The Mind, that their elves brought them. It was recommended by their My Tech High advisor. It's a quiet, cooperative game =)

My oldest's words about this week.
"I played with some cool toys and board games. One board game that I really liked was The Mind Mom bought. I liked it because it helped me with teamwork and made us laugh. The toys we played with was a STEM Kit from the library that were like cog wheels. I made a bunch of cars with it, and I made a cog wheel staircase. That was really fun."


My daughter's words about this week.
"We played the game, The Mind. It's a really fun game. I learned that you have to learn a strategy since you can't talk. The most fun part of the game is teamwork."

Heading into December

MONDAY

Today is my oldest's 12th Birthday!

We celebrated with an Among Us theme. I attempted to create an Among Us Birthday Party that was social distanced approved, but no one replied back to the invite or messages I sent which made me sad since it's the first time he hasn't had a party with friends. 

I made his shirt and decorated his cake. The kids all baked the cake together. 

With the scrap pieces, I made my daughter a shirt too. 

For December, I gave the kids a list of things they need to complete each week, and they can decide when they want to complete them. That way I can get all my holiday stuff done and other projects I've been putting aside. I'll still play games with them this month and focus more on gameschooling. At least they know what to do and I can still help them as needed. 

TUESDAY

The elves (we don't do traditional Elf on the Shelf) came and shared the truth about Santa. My daughter was a bit disappointed to find out though she's been asking for years now. With my oldest being 12 now, I figured it was time to share and this was the sweetest way. 

We did our morning routine with a new affirmation: I am healthy and blessed. 

Then we played my oldest's new game he got for his birthday, Cover your Kingdom. It takes more strategy which the kids could use more practice in. It was a nice change and the kids caught on pretty quickly. 

The kids also tried another new game that my son got for his birthday called Quick Pucks. I tried too, and it's pretty fun actually. It's like a larger competitive version of those small puzzles brain teasers that you had to move around to put the numbers in order or create a picture. It can also be played single player too which is great.

WEDNESDAY

Internet is out and has been since 1:30am - not a major deal school wise (just for my husband's work), but another reason I'm glad we did homeschool instead of online/distance learning, because it was nuts when we were doing online learning in the spring. 

We did our morning routine. The kids did some quick cleaning. We all had some turns on Bop-It which gets them moving and their memories practicing.

Then we played Cover your Kingdom again. This time my daughter won. 

Then the kids did some workbook pages with Beast Academy and BrainQuest. They used some Toothpicks to do some of their math problems and they had fun just creating with them too. 

Internet came on by lunch time so they were able to join in their Let's Move Homeschool Support Group class.

THURSDAY

The kids finished their Exact Path - I had them do 2 Reading, 1 Math, and 1 Language Arts.

FRIDAY

National Cookie Day so my daughter made cookies!

The kids then watched some homeschool shows on geography to finish up their list. 

Pie Crust, Turkey, Homeschool, Oh My!

We had an extra Homeschool Support Group Cooking Class on Sunday afternoon. They created it just for my kids because we requested Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread. We also made Pie crust which has always been intimidating for me! After doing it, it still was, but we did learn some things. Using a food processor was a bit easier though. We had to put ours back in the fridge so we'll try to roll it out later. Maybe I'm just a slow cooker, because this class went fast. I was running around like crazy trying to help the kids...I prefer to take my time with cooking and baking especially if it's something new because I want to get it right haha. 

Our pumpkin chocolate chip bread turned out great. My son has eaten almost half of his loaf already. We will freeze my daughter's loaf for later.

MONDAY

Today I guess was my turn to have a rough day...like really rough. I struggle with depression and this year some anxiety. Last night I started to feeling a bit like this and today was extreme. Lots of tears today that would just leak out. Luckily I have a very calm, patient, supportive husband who though he doesn't completely understand, he asks questions to help him understand. He offered ideas to help me get through the day. I'm so grateful for him. 
The kids were pretty good. The youngest got pretty mad though and went to his room and ended up putting himself to bed for a good nap which helped give me time to talk to my husband. 

My oldest watched a science video he found on DNA and cells. 

My daughter worked on a painting. She chose this one for her My Tech Art Club. I printed her out the basic directions and helped her gather supplies and she had at it. She loves using her creativity. 

My youngest wanted to get in on the painting action too. He said he painted Sirenhead.

TUESDAY
Today was a bit better. We did our morning routine. They took forever on their compliment and gratitude videos because they kept messing up so by the time we were done, it was snack time. Then my son chose to learn some family stories for their Temple Bingo. Even though he's not in Primary in more, I had him participate in it. He doesn't even know the Primary sent it to us. Yesterday he wrote in his journal for it. 

Then we played a new game called Perfect Timing. My daughter was a quick thinker in it and was able to look several steps ahead to figure out the right times to add to get Perfect Time. They both still struggle a bit reading time especially when it's closer to the next hour, but they're pretty good at adding time. 

Then it was lunch time. After lunch they had a Sleep Spray order and so we went on a walk to deliver that to someone in our ward. 

My oldest actually asked me if he could read his book instead of doing something else. He's on the 3rd or 4th book from Alan Gratz' Refugee series. This one is called Projekt 1065. He enjoyed the other books, but never asked to just read them unless it was bedtime. 

My daughter chose to watch Standing in Holy Places for her Temple Bingo. Yesterday she wrote in her Big Life Journal. Then she wanted to show me a video she liked called Come Unto Jesus which I just bawled through thinking maybe I'm doing an okay job as a mom and I am teaching them the gospel and the good things in this world. Between her wanting to share that video and my son choosing to read today...tender mercies that I cherish. <3

WEDNESDAY

As part of our morning routine, I read from the scriptures how the Jared and his people were in the barges for 344 days....relating it to social distancing. I always relate to the start of Covid on St. Patrick's Day of this year because that's when I first started hearing things so it's been 252 days. It would be nice to be out of this in 3 more months or less, but 3 months I expect with winter months. I'm hoping for summer to be more back to normal. We will see. 
Also my thoughts are if they lasted that long in a barge with 2 stone for light for that long, we can wear a mask. We can social distance. This is a test, another trial in life. Our Bishop shared AoF #12 when he re-emphasized the wearing of masks at church. Mandates are temporary laws. Once we through this, maybe there's more blessings to come like for the Jaredites. I know you could take these scriptures a lot of ways to liken them unto yourselves, but those were my thoughts this morning that I shared with my kids. 
Remember growth hurts and requires change. We cannot grow if we are the same. 

I've seen growth in my children just from the simple practice of reciting affirmations each day. These are the ones we've started with even my youngest remembers them and recites them during challenging times. 

We played Perfect Timing again, but made our own version to be competitive. Each person gets 5 times. Then they have 5 move the clock cards in front of them. Each turn they can use as many of their move the clock cards to make one of their times in their hand. Once you complete 5 time cards, you win.

THURSDAY

Happy Thanksgiving!
The kids peeled the potatoes and the yams. My oldest prepared the green bean casserole. My daughter set the table. 

We ate our Thanksgiving Dinner early so we could Zoom with family, play games and get started on some Christmas decor (earliest we've set it up in a long long time).

We played Apples to Apples and Cover your Assets. 

FRIDAY

We watched Mandalorian this week and again I thought if Mandalorians can wear their helmet for so long, then we can wear a mask. This is the way =D

We love Baby Yoda and were surprised to learn his name!

Just the start of our Christmas decor, cleaning and rearranging our front room to fit the tree =)

My son got an early birthday present since he won't be having a birthday party this year despite my efforts at creating a social distanced Among Us birthday party idea. 
My husband saw a game on my son's wish list on sale with Black Friday and offered it to him. 

Pen Pals and the Portal

Over the weekend, my husband and I worked on building their 3D Printer. Glad I have him to help. My husband builds a lot of computers, I think he's up to 9?
We're excited to learn how to use this all together.

MONDAY

Kids were not happy today so we had a rough start. Plus it's BOGO week for me, and I am helping teach another Essential Oil Study this week so busy busy. 

We got our Facebook Portal working again so the kids had fun using that to do their Compliments and Gratitude videos and creating other videos. 

Since they seemed grumpy with each other, I gave them separate lists that they could do without being in the same room to get some peace in the house. It helped some. 

My daughter had 3 Pen Pal letters to write and put out in our mailbox. 

My son learned about the Human Body through Outschool some more and worked more on his game designs. 

We worked together on more leaves this afternoon just in our front yard. It's been like 2 weeks since we did it. Luckily the wind has helped get most of the leaves off our trees. Hopefully we can finish the backyard later this week while it's warm. 

TUESDAY

My daughter still struggled this morning and needed a time out before she started today.
My son wrote a pen pal letter today. 
They both did their compliment and gratitude videos on their own with the Portal after our Morning Routine. 
We submitted our weekly report logs to My Tech High. We stay a couple weeks head with it just in case we forget. 

My daughter then spun the wheel and got PE and Night Zookeeper so they did their Wii Fit test first. After lunch, they watched an American Girl show since they've been reading some of the books. Then they each chose an area to clean. 

My son working on Night Zookeeper and showing me some of his creatures he created.  

WEDNESDAY

Today was all about cooking since they had 2 different cooking classes today. We made Pumpkin Crunch Cake so it was ready to show for their 2nd cooking club since it took about an hour to cook through.

She was so impressed that she could to the can opener by herself. Her older brother struggled with it last week.

All ready to put into the oven.

While their cake was cooking, my daughter and I worked on her desk since it was a warmer day. Originally it was black. 

The kids also made a ship I think in their playhouse. They all used their imaginations and I could hear them doing cleaning and homework tasks plus taking food requests. It always warms my heart when I hear them working or playing together. 

We got the recipe from their Homeschool Support Cooking Class. They learned how to make Green Bean Casserole from that one too, but want to wait to make it on Thanksgiving. They colored their elaborate turkey pages while they listened about some other cooking tips and talked with the other kids in the class. Then they later learned how to make Napkin Turkeys. It was a challenge. 

For My Tech High Mix It Club, they learned about Pumpkins, Squash and Yams. Then they did a breakout room to talk about their favorite foods and share their pumpkin dishes.

While they were doing their next class, I was eating 2 helpings of the Pumpkin Crunch cake =D It tastes best with lots of vanilla ice cream at least to me.

My oldest enjoyed it, but not enough to eat a lot of it. My daughter did not like it which wasn't a surprise. I'm just glad she tried it. 

Since we had time before our school day was done, I had them learn about Setting a Table. They were going to learn this in their first cooking class, but ran out of time with it so I shared with them. 

THURSDAY

I reminded the kids they couldn't use the TV or Kindles before school, so they have been playing games together which I love!
They were sorting the Unstable Unicorn cards to see all the different cards and see different combos.

We did our Morning Routine.

I had this large Library Stack to Return which I did during their snack break. 

I grabbed a Stem Kit about place value because I think that it confuses my daughter sometimes and I also grabbed Cover your Assets game from the library to try! I've played a long time ago with some big gamer friends. Then I've also played Cover your Kingdoms which I seemed to like much better so we'll see how playing with the kids is. 

The kid continued their Pretend Play with Restaurant/School/Home in the play house. 

I helped finish the Holidays Sprays with labels while they played and used their imagination.

After lunch we played Cover your Assets. The kids picked it up easily. My daughter was super lucky! Twice she had just a hand full of Silver and Gold. She crushed us in the first round with over $600K.

I upped my game play and ended up winning one of the games.

FRIDAY

I had to work today, subbing again in the preschool. The lead teacher's daughter was sick so I had to help the other normal assistant. If I was more familiar with the room and routine, I could easily sub for the lead with my past experience in daycare, teaching preschool and teaching in schools. 

I helped the preschooler make these turkeys.

Since I was at work, I made a list for the kids with doing 2 Exact Path Reading and 2 Exact Path Math. My daughter had to do Night Zookeeper while my son had to work on his game for Outschool. They also did their compliments and gratitude videos on their own. When I got home, I had to remind both of them how different division problems can look. My oldest tried to help his sister with a division problem, but forgot that they can look different in set up. 

Since I missed it during work, I had the kids watch with me the Prophet's message of Hope and his #GiveThanks challenge. I guess we'll start sharing some of their gratitude videos in my Facebook Stories =)