New Year 2021, Same Homeschool

We have pretty much the same routine for Homeschool in 2021.

For January, our affirmation is "I'm Amazing and a Success!" and we've started our new book for scriptures, Doctrine & Covenants Family Reader. I love this because it has it narrowed down to a specific set of scriptures to focus on along with several questions to ask pertain to that set of scriptures. Each page of scriptures and questions can take 5 minutes which is great to expose the kids to the words and language of the scriptures and then check comprehension with simple questions. 

You can always go further with activities or videos from the Come Follow Me manual, many other blogs like my favorite Home-Centered Learning that sends weekly PDFs of activity ideas to enrich the reading, and videos.

Of course with our first week back, we're keeping it low key and simple.

MONDAY

After our Morning Routine, the kids wrote a 1 page paper on their Winter Break. Since my oldest skipped lines, his was double sides. 

Then while I did a ton of errands today, they worked on 2 Exact Path lessons.

TUESDAY

Exact Path or Beast Academy Pages

Art - I have a box of miscellaneous kids' craft supplies and my daughter just made whatever inspired her.

Lego - My oldest received a Lego Classic set for Christmas and enjoyed trying out some of the ideas in the book. 

In the afternoon, we tried out a new game my brother sent me for Christmas, Taco vs Burrito....another game created by a 7 year old kid. It was pretty fun, but I kept getting crushed by the Health Inspector card. I will have to check out the expansion to see if I have a better chance at winning! Super creative!

WEDNESDAY

To enrich our scripture study today, I had the kids watch the Joseph Smith Story Living Scriptures video.

They then got to work on their Tinker and Doodle Crates that got behind in shipping with the holidays. 

My son is working on the Motorcycle Tinker Crate.

Can you spot the smiley face she made in the paint below?

Thursday

We made Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes with Peanut Butter frosting, a favorite between my daughter and I. Hers without the frosting. We have our neighbor who doubts its goodness because of the zucchini so we made it for her family. The kids made it all by themselves. My daughter just had to be reminded to not cancel the cooking and just the timer so our first batch wasn't cooked through. The next batches were great. We doubled the recipe and ended up with over 90 cupcakes. We'll freeze most of them for later. 

The kids also had to do the dishes before and after we started along with clean the table. They also had to take out all the ingredients. I just sit at the computer reading off the recipe for them =D

Friday

We finished up the week with some Night Zookeeper and lots more cleaning of the basement and finished putting the Christmas decor away.

Books read in 2020

Books read in 2020 - only about 50 so at least I met my minimum goal.

Lowering my expectations for 2021 just in case

My MTO Goal for reading in 2021 is M: 35, T: 50 and O: 75

Follow me on Goodreads =)

My favorite book from the year was probably Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer. I loved the perspective and hope she continues and does more in this perspective. It was super detailed since it dealt with all of Edward's thoughts along with everything going on.

Resolutions - Single Word Mantra

It’s no secret that the majority of New Year’s Resolutions fail, but instead of discouraging you with those dreary statistic, we want to suggest an alternative that has proven worthy of trying! Try choosing a single word to sum up your resolution(s) (i.e. wellness, fitness, simplify, prioritize, etc.). This single word will guide your year and serve as a mantra to help shape your choices for the next 365 days, so put some thought into it! Once you’ve got it, share it with us below!

My family does something similar for our year. Here are our past years.

2015 is going to be Legend (wait for it) dary
2016 is Astounding
2017 is Triumphant
2018 is Joyful
2019 is Dynamic
2020 is Balanced

It's amazing to see how each word comes to pass and we can see the word come to play with different experiences.

2021 we have decided on 2021 is Exploration which my husband thought of. Most likely travel will still be limited this year, but we are hoping to explore new foods, new local places, our new neighborhood, new friendships and more.

I shared this idea with a friend and her family has chosen Adventure so we're hoping to do some wonderful things this year with them.

Christmas Break 2020

Our Christmas break started off pretty simple. They decorated a gingerbread house which we try to make a yearly tradition even before the kids were born =D

We went outside on the 21st to see Jupiter and Saturn with my camera super zoom lens. They look like hearts. I'm hoping we can invest in a telescope next year.

Finally figured out a recipe for not dry Rice Krispy Treats!

*6 TBSP butter instead of 3
*12-14 oz. marshmallows instead of 10
*normal 6 cups Rice Krispies

Christmas Eve 

We have several traditions for Christmas Eve.

My husband's parents came and brought Sugar Cookies for the kids to decorate for Santa. They got to eat one and then give one to Santa. This was nice that I didn't have to make any this year =D Though my MIL just made stars where I make all the Christmas shapes haha. I love variety.

After we read from Luke 2 while they colored nativity scenes. Usually they play with our Fisher Price Little People Nativity. We always have this out all December to play with as well.

On Christmas Eve, their elves  brought them their gifts of new pajamas!

Then our tradition is to watch The Polar Express.

Then we read The Night Before Christmas, actually my grandma does with a recordable storybook.

Christmas Gifts

They received lots of games for Christmas for homeschool. Thankfully all games, MagnaTiles were reimbursed through our online charter, My Tech High. More info on them on my first post about homeschool plans.

My oldest's favorite gift was his Ping Pong Travel set which can be used on pretty much any kind of table.

My husband received Werewords for Christmas since we love One Night Werewolf. The kids quickly loved this game too. We can't wait to play with a bigger group. 

This fun balancing game was Suspend; even the 3 year old was able to give it a try. 

They also received the Osmo Genius Kit which they all like to play. We got the Kindle edition, but found out later some of our Kindles are little old to support the apps so next Christmas they'll be getting a new Kindle to share and fit more of the games/apps unless of course a Kindle breaks before then.
I love how many different games are offered with this. 

We received new Expansion Packs for our Exploding Kittens game. Barking Kittens and Streaking Kittens! This game has been a family favorite for several years now.

More MagnaTiles, always a favorite. They youngest two even received some glow in the dark MagnaTiles.

Sleeping Queens is a new easy favorite game in our family. Kids got it from my parents for Christmas  

My youngest's favorite gift was this Tornado Toy that he received from his grandparents. He has loved tornados for a long time and can see tornados in every day things.

My oldest's words about this week.

"A gift I got was a Portable Ping Pong set to use for my PE. I played Ping Pong with my sister and my mom. My mom destroyed me, and I beat my sister quite a bit. It was really fun because we can play on almost any table. One fitness goal I have is to be able to do 2 pull-ups. We have a pull up bar to practice on."

My daughter's words about this week.

"We played a new game called Sleeping Queens. To get a Queen, you need to play a King or steal a queen from someone with a Knight. You can play to win by getting the most points or the most Queens. You can also play a Sleeping Potion to put someone's Queen back to Sleep. The Wand can counteract the Sleeping Potion and the Dragon can counteract the Knight."

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."