Monday, December 21, 2020

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."

Monday, December 7, 2020

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.