Their Math is Hard!!

Their math is hard! Their schoolwork in general is rather difficult. I looked at Carter’s math workbook and was very confused. I could not figure out what was going on. I called my sister, who is a teacher, and she explained it to me. I get what he is doing, but I do not have a good enough grasp on how they do it to teach it. I have decided we are just going to keep up what they have already learned. 

David’s cousin asked how she could use math while her kids were doing laundry. Someone suggested fractions and I thought that was pretty good. I asked Carter to give me the fractions of the laundry. This is what he gave me:

I thought Roslyn’s math was too hard for her. I knew Beckett was doing “Fact Families” – but he struggled with it at first. I took one look at Roslyn’s work and told her it was too hard, I would go find something more on her level. While I was searching, she did the page and brought it to me. She made up her own family on the first one, but used the numbers provided for the second! 

Now, Roslyn’s English Language Arts. That is tough. I can’t figure out what this kid is doing that that the man is not and what the heck is the kid sleeping doing? He seems to be doing more than nodding off. Anybody?

Hunkering Down

The governor issued a “Shelter in Place” order. The containment of this virus is not working with so many people out and about. It takes effect Wednesday. The list of people who can still be out and working (because they are considered essential) is staggering. I can’t see this being any different than it is now. I didn’t know fast food was considered essential. When I was a girl, I was always told if anything like this ever happened – I should know how to make bread. Apparently those days are gone because the drive-through will always be open.

Our mailman, Chuck, is back. He has been out since July because of a torn rotator cuff. His long-term sub, Trong, was really nice. My kids always called him “not Chuck” like the character from Cars. Poor Trong didn’t understand the reference when I tried to explain it. He doesn’t have kids.

Our UPS guy, Erick, stopped to chat. In the 6 ½ years we have been on his route, he has never stopped to chat with me. He always rushes off. I understand, he has a job to do. But, our last guy, Chris, always took a couple minutes to catch up with me. Anywho – this social isolation thing is really hitting people hard because Erick stayed to shoot the breeze with David and I for about 10 minutes. Erick said that his entire truck was just full of toilet paper. People emptied store shelves and now they are buying it en masse online. I’m not sure where they are getting it from because I have it on Subscribe and Save through Amazon and it didn’t ship this month. They said they were out. When I looked for a replacement – they had none. Like ZERO NONE. Not a single roll of toilet paper on Amazon. The rest of these yahoos must be ordering directly from Charmin. I’m good. We were commanded to have food storage, and to me that has always meant supplies. While I have a years’ supply of toothpaste, deodorant, and shampoo – I only have 2 or 3-months of toilet paper.

Yesterday I reluctantly started an incentive program with my kids. We already had a program where the kids could earn tickets for being in bed on time and sleeping in past 7:30 (or at least laying in bed quietly). So, I expanded it to cover good behavior as well. It was my friend Julia’s idea. I didn’t want to bribe my kids with cheap toys that would end up in the garbage soon or candy. But Julia said her kids use their tickets to buy P.E. time on the Wii, choose what she makes for dinner, and get extra time awake past bedtime. So, I let the kids choose. They chose things like buying a toy out of toy jail, extra snacks, and a pass on jobs for the day. This morning I woke up to every job on the list done (even though not all jobs get done every day). Carter has even started doing jobs that I have never asked him to do!

Julia also gave me the letter writing idea (that I incorporated into our writing rotation). I mailed NINE envelopes out today – some carrying a letter from each of the children in it!

Sacrament in our home

Last week, home church was pretty laid back. We had a very informal meeting. This week, David got the green-light to bless and pass the Sacrament. This ordinance reminds us the covenants we make when we were baptized: To remember Christ in all we do, represent Him in all we do, and keep His commandments. In turn, we will be blessed to have His spirit with us.

In preparation, David made his own Sacrament tray. He designed it to hold the 3oz Dixie cups we have in abundance. I had to talk him down from blessing milk and cookies. When I realized he had broken an entire piece of bread into 6 pieces and filled the 3oz cups halfway, I made an audible giggle – not very reverent! I am used to a flake of bread and a couple drops of water. So, these were very large portions.

Our Garden

We prepped the garden. That neighbor boy came over and I told him Carter couldn’t ride bikes until his garden prepping was done. To speed the process up, he offered to help! He pulled weeds with us until the kids had finished their part - it turned out to be 30 minutes! I love this kid.

The governor closed playground facilities and sports courts today. Beaches and trails are still open and holy cow have they been packed. The weather is nice and I have NEVER seen so many people outside, EVER. They are everywhere. People who live in my neighborhood that I have never seen have taken up walking or jogging as their new hobby! The trails are crowded. I think it defeats the purpose of staying home from work when you take a walk on a crowded trail.

Living Scriptures, a website that streams animated scripture videos as well as other good family movies, announced they will open their website to everyone through April 6^th. I signed up for a subscription last Saturday because I was worried we wouldn’t have enough to keep the kids entertained on Sunday. I appreciate what they are doing because a lot of families cannot afford the subscription price. Heck, in six weeks if my husband is not able to get students back in his classroom – I may be regretting paying the subscription fee too. But for now, I am glad we have it. 

I have taught the kids the words to a song we used to sing in church when I was a kid. I'm hoping to avoid a mess like above when we are trying to have a spiritual meeting. I guess all but the "Shop at the store" applies.

Out of the box education

I have decided to add gardening to our homeschool education. This is the time to teach the kids life skills that their teachers cannot teach them. I might try out sewing buttons eventually too. We have two 4’ x 8’ raised garden beds. Tomorrow, we will have the kids weed and till the beds. We can’t plant for at least another month because it isn’t warm enough (We just had snow, remember?). We will probably raise our own seedlings early this year for the plants I usually buy from starts. Weeding will be built into their daily jobs.

David purchased an electricity monitoring thingamabob. He has an app on his phone that shows him how much electricity we are using and how much it is costing us. He sat down with the kids this morning after breakfast and showed the kids how much it was costing us because they didn’t turn the lights off around the house. He showed them what it was costing us the current state, then had them turn the rest of everything on, then they went and turned EVERYTHING off. This is the comparison chart:

And it gets worse!

We have finally gotten into a groove with our schoolwork. Beckett is whipping through worksheets on currency. Carter started emailing his teacher and other classmates. In addition to journaling for writing time, we are going to add writing letters to our friends. It will be the social part of our day since we can’t do playdates. I still let them ride their bikes in the street with the other kids, but it won’t be long before we are ordered to “Shelter in Place” – meaning we have to stay at home away from everyone.

California went on lockdownor “Shelter in Place” today. We have had more deaths than any other state! California is at 18. But 74 people in Washington have died and 60 of them were in my county! I measure this virus by the death toll because testing availability and rates varies widely and just because one state has more positive tests does not mean they have more cases of the virus.

Utah experienced a5.7 magnitude earthquake yesterday, with roughly 80 aftershocks! As if a pandemic wasn’t enough! The trumpet from the Salt Lake Temple fell off the statue of Moroni. There were a couple funny memes about that.

The hoarding was just as bad in Utah, before it even hit there.

Carter wanted his hair died red. A neighbor lent him her hair dye. Unfortunately, his hair is too dark and it didn’t take.

David is home

Teaching three kids at three different levels is challenging. I was blessed and cursed today that David was sent home form work.

The campus is now closed. He was told to stay home for four weeks. The college suspended in-person meetings last week, but now they aren’t allowing people on campus at all. They said they are going to delay the start of next quarter by one week and they are going to require all classes to be done online for the first three weeks of class. 

When David was hired on full-time three years ago, he spent the better part of three weeks getting all their book work online. He put quizzes and instructions up for each of nine or 10 classes. At the time, the other instructors didn’t care for it. They were slow to adopt it and still asked their students to do it all on paper and submit to them to grade. But as they saw the benefits for them, they acquiesced. Well, because of the work he did then, all the automotive instructors are still going to be paid during this shut down. The first three weeks of the quarter are spent doing the bookwork anyway – which the students can now do at home. We are fortunate because we will still get paid. So many people are not so lucky. Our economy is going to go into a real tailspin over this, and we are going to see things that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression.

So, David is home. Today, he was able to help the kids make their pencil boxes (Carter just wanted to finish, so he didn't put any stickers on his) and help with their schoolwork. I am spread really thin and it is hard to help them all at the same time. He taught Beckett about money, and Beckett caught on right away. He is a very quick learner.

But, we also clash a bit. I have a schedule with the kids, even before homeschooling. I am used to doing things a certain way. I am also used to talking everything out. He just doesn’t communicate with me as well as I’d like. So, I am happy to send him out to his shop to get his projects done!

But because he is home, I was able to run to the school one last time. I grabbed anything else the teachers left for the kids before they lock the doors for good this year. I know they have only called it until April 27^th, but there is no way we’re going to get this virus squashed in six weeks.

I am still in school. I was worried that I was going to fall behind now that I am not able to work on my classwork during the day. However, the Lord has blessed me so much! I have not only not fell behind, but I have gotten ahead by a few days. I am so grateful to have maintained my A during this time. I don’t think I will sign up for classes next semester, but we’ll see how it goes.

I was supposed to go visit my Aunt Darla. I needed to interview her for one of my final projects. Unfortunately, she has health problems and my visit might end up killing her. I did the interview over the phone instead.

Our "Green Food Tasting Party"

Roslyn was sad because her teacher had promised the class a “Green Food Tasting Party” today for St. Patrick’s Day, but there is no school. I recreated it here with the supplies we had on hand: cucumber slices, pickles, green apples, sugar cookies died green, and green smoothies. The smoothies were not very well received. I had to put less fruit and more spinach and kale to achieve the green color. They weren’t that good. 

The kids made leprechaun traps last night and were rewarded with some chocolate coins that fell out of the leprechaun’s bag when he struggled to get free from their traps.

We got our first school breakfast/lunch: dry cereal, milk, and dried fruit in a small bag and make your own cheese pizza, carrots, an apple, and chocolate milk in a cardboard tray. I promised the kids they could play on the playground, but it was all locked up.

I have a loose schedule for the kids. Carter made his own schedule, like I posted last week. However, it just isn’t going to work with all three kids. I had to make something a bit more simple. I have four rotations: reading, writing, worksheets from their teachers, and computer learning time. We do an activity in between: Outside playtime, a P.E. game, a video (Mo Willems and the Cincinnati Zoo), snack, and lunch. We also have to start out the day by getting dressed and doing jobs around the house. I worried this would be a fight, but it hasn’t been. They have been eager to help.

Carter threw a HUGE fit today (for about thirty minutes). He did not want to do schoolwork. He told me I was the only one making their kids do homeschool. Well, while he was writhing on the floor, a boy who lives down the street rang the doorbell. He asked if Carter could ride bikes. Carter came running over and asked him if his parents were making him do school at home. Of course! Then he told us all the things he did at his house. It was great to be vindicated.

I know we are not supposed to be getting together because we risk spreading the virus. However, I feel okay with Carter riding his bike in the street with the other boys. They aren’t able to get close enough on their bikes to catch airborne particles and they aren’t touching each other’s things. So, I told the boy he could come back in thirty minutes when Carter was done reading. I let the rest of the day’s work go. I must be flexible if I want this to work.

Very few people who were alive during the Flu epidemic of 1918 are still alive to tell about it. However, lots of people who lived through the Polio outbreak in the 50s are. The common theme I hear from them is fear. They still talk about how scary it was and how they hid inside so they wouldn’t get sick. I do not want my kids to remember this time in that way. I want my kids to come away with better hand washing skills, a knowledge that they could get really sick, and grandmas and grandpas could die if we do not protect them. However, I do not want them to live in fear or debilitating anxiety over this.

Shutting down but staying busy

The governor closed bars and restaurants, gyms, and movie theaters. He also dropped the number of people allowed at a social gathering from 250 to down to 50. The original ban cancelled all sporting events. Most sports just ended their season to avoid playing in empty stadiums or continually postponing games. No concerts or events (like Comic Con). It is getting real here. 

Today, the stock market also took a plunge. It dropped 12.94%. On 28 October 1929, our stock market fell 12.8%, triggering what is now known as the Great Depression. The 29th, it fell another 11.7%, dropping the total of 24.5% in 2 days. Let's pray we don't drop any more after today. That would be catastrophic right now. 

I took the kids back to the school to get Carter’s homework packet. I have been doing the copying for all of 4^th grade – which is usually 400 – 600 pages a week. They had to scramble to make 6 weeks of that without me! I wish I had known, I would have gone in and done it while my kids played on the playground. Especially since I’m not copying all the homework for Kindergarten and 1^st grade as well (which is never as many copies as 4^th grade). The office manager, Pam, gave my kids a wood craft to build pencil boxes. David will do that with them sometime this week.

David’s classes were basically canceled last week. The college told the instructors to instruct remotely. The auto shop cannot teach students to work on their cars from home. This is going to be a tricky thing for us. He still had to go in to develop solutions – so for now we are still collecting a paycheck.

The libraries closed on Friday for the foreseeable future. I am pretty sad about that. I wish I had known it was coming. I would have gone and checked out a bunch of books and printed worksheets for the kids.

The Cincinnati Zoo is live streaming their Zookeeper Talks each day (7 days a week!). Today was their newest hippo, baby Fiona. My kids learned about baby Fiona in school, so they were very excited.

Mo Willems, the kids’ favorite author started “Lunch Doodles with Mo” today. It wasn’t as instructional as I was hoping, but the kids loved it. He just as a special way to talk to the kids. And, they follow along pretty good without being told exactly what to do.

There are so many free online resources for kids - I don't have time to do all the good things!

What I thought I knew

My testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has never been stronger. In October, our doctor prophet Russell M. Nelson – who is a doctor – told us to take our vitamins and get our rest. We all believed it was a metaphorical joke for us to keep up with his monumental changes, when really he was telling us to get healthy because of disease. But, even more importantly, he knew we would not be able to attend church on Sunday so he commissioned the Come Follow Me program so we could still have a spiritual structure in our homes. If that wasn’t enough, he gave us time to practice it in our homes before it was necessary.

I have all the tools I need to homeschool my kids, but the fact that I haven’t had a chance to organize it in a way that works for us and try it out yet makes the first bit stressful and difficult. The Lord did not want our Sundays to feel that way, so He rolled Come Follow Me out early and gave us time to practice! We did not get the Come Follow Me going in our home as much as I would have liked, but we have been doing it at church with the same manual, so it was familiar enough. When we set up church in our home, it went smoothly.

Beckett said the opening prayer (which was a miracle because he has refused to pray in our home for a very long time). Roslyn led the music. Carter played a musical number on the piano. I conducted the meeting. And we used the microphone Beckett got for Christmas to make the meeting feel more official.

I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows we cannot be insulated from all the bad in this world, but who protects us just the same.