Let's go at 34

Yes, I had to google game quotes to get a title for this blog post because I have never played this game in my life.

We don't own it so the kids have never played it but they have watched gameplay videos from their favourite YouTubers.

How our days went for Fornite week

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put their dirty laundry downstairs.

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed.

930am Journals and a letter sheet. (These are great for H learning her letters and the other children to keep working on letter sounds.)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher, answer clients and make a snack.

10:30 am Snack

10:45 am Fortnite activity or video I fold and put away laundry if they are watching a video.

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.)

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word board. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:00 pm "Online learning" They each get a turn using the learning app on my phone called Khan Kids. They each have a profile and play what I consider one round. One round is playing until they get a prize.

1:30 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

6:30 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:15 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:45 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Videos:

1 

2 

 

Activities 

I loved these as a kid and still do as an adult. Mystery pictures! 

 Colouring page  

 Now I printed this from google and you couldn't read the writing but it worked for what we needed it for and the kids had fun making their own video game and telling me about it.  

Either you die a hero.....

 Or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

 

 Unicorns and mermaids were a walk in the park compared to;
Halo! Yes, the video game. Blaine loves it (no he doesn't play online).

I figured since there are many educational activities around other video games likes pokemon and fornite that it would be easy to find things. Not so much!

How our days went for Halo week

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put their dirty laundry downstairs.

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed.

930am Journals and a letter sheet. (These are great for H learning her letters and the other children to keep working on letter sounds.)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher, answer clients and make snack.

10:30 am Snack

10:45 am Halo activity or video I fold and put away laundry while they are watching a video.

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.)

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word board. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:00 pm "Online learning" They each get a turn using the learning app on my phone called Khan Kids. They each have a profile and play what I consider one round. One round is playing until they get a prize.

1:30 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

6:30 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:15 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:45 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Colouring page 

 

Videos we watched:

Video 1

Video 2



I "borrowed" this image from here. Because I am the horrible mom that forgot to take pictures of their Halo activities that week. OOPS

Magical Sea creatures

 A magical underwater sea creature that is not only beautiful but with the voice of an angel. Do you know what it is? If you guessed Manatee you would be right. I had no idea that the myth of these creatures all started with men at sea spotting manatees sunbathing on rocks.

I mean we all have our taste in partners but it was an oh boy moment for sure when I heard that on the video about the myth of mermaids that I watched with the children.

We did a few videos and activities including felt board songs for this week. Have I mentioned my love for making felt board activities for the kids? No that wasn't said in a sarcastic tone, I do!

How our days went with the mermaid unit.

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put their dirty laundry downstairs.

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed.

930am Journals and a letter book. (This is the last week for letter books and we will be moving onto letter sheets. These are good for H to learn her letters and the rest to practice the letter sounds)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher and answer clients.

10:30 am Snack

10:45 am Mermaid activity or video I fold and put away laundry while they are watching a video.

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.)

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word board. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:00 pm "Online learning" They each get a turn using the learning app on my phone called Khan Kids. They each have a profile and play what I consider one round. One round is playing until they get a prize.

1:30 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

This week we are slowly transiting them to a slightly later bedtime (about 30 minutes) to help when the time charge starts.

6:30 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:15 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:45 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Build a mermaid

Mermaid colouring sheets

Mermaid felt board designs

Songs used for the Mermaid felt board:

Song 1

I changed the words to be Mermaid instead of Fish

Song 2

I changed the animals in the song to match the ones I cut out

 

Videos:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Do you feed your child's curiosity? 

Speeding into Week 5

 I love when I learn something new like the world's smallest car fits one person is only about 8ft long and assembled by hand.

Week 5 was picked by H and she picked cars. This unit was one that I learned things from as well.

Most of the videos we watched were by How It's Made. I love their videos and the kids seem to enjoy them as well. Also, they are short so for littles, one short attention spans they are perfect.

We build cars from paper plates which were great for scissor skills.

How our days went with the car unit.

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put the dirty laundry downstairs.

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed.

930am Journals and a letter book. (We started the letter books to help H learn her letters)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher and answer clients.

10:30 am Snack

10:45 am Car activity or video I fold and put away laundry while they are watching a video.

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word board. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:00 pm "Online learning" They each get a turn in the learning app on my phone called Khan Kids. They each have a profile and play what I consider one round. One round is playing until they get a prize.

1:30 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

6:00 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:00 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:30 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Plate Car

We did ours slightly different as you will see in the photo below

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

How do you building learning around your children's interests?

A magical week 4

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure all children LOVE unicorns, yes both boys and girls. Even though most little boys in the mainstream school system won't admit it for fear of bullying.

L picked unicorns as her theme for week 4. This unit was harder than I had thought it would. Especially finding content that is educational about unicorns. So much so that I gave up and we watched 2 unicorn videos about loving who we are for the way we are and being kind.

We did watch one video about the mythology of unicorns but I do have to say that even I was bored with it.

We built unicorns and made unicorn masks. I even found a boy unicorn mask so that Blaine didn't have flowers and was different from the girls.

How our days went with the unicorn unit.

8 am breakfast, get dressed, hair put the dirty laundry downstairs.

9 am either workbooks or worksheets. I alternate each day so the kids don't get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break. On this 15 min break, I get everything ready for the next activity, put laundry in, hand wash the dishes that need to be washed.

930am Journals and a letter book. (We started the letter books to help H learn her letters)

15-minute break outside. I empty the dishwasher and answer clients.

10:30 am Snack

10:45 am unicorn activity or video I fold and put away laundry while they are watching a video.

11:00 am They have free time to do whatever they would like (this amount of time depends on how long things took us.

In this "free time" I work on client orders and make lunch

12:00 pm LUNCH

12:30 pm reading. They each get to read their book with me and do the sight word cards as well as the sight word board. (The books and the sight word changes every three days)

1:15 PM They have until snack to free play. I sweep, clean up and work on client orders.

2:00 pm snack. I start dinner at this point.

15minutes outside.

Then they have until dinner to free play.

4:30 pm Dinner

5:30 pm walk dogs

6:00 pm start baths. When I start baths I get out the painting I have been working on and work on it while each child gets to play in the tub for 10mins.

7:00 pm snack, stories, teeth and bed.

At about 8:30 pm everyone is asleep, which means I get to work on client orders, cleaning, folding laundry and getting everything ready for the next day's schooling.

Here are links to the videos and activities that we did.

Video one

Video two

Video three

Girl unicorn mask

Boy unicorn mask

Build a unicorn

What interests have your children wanted to learn about?

I scream, you scream Jan 2021

 

 Week 3 is B's week to pick what he wanted to learn about. He decided on ice cream. I figured for this one it would be fun at the end of the week to get a few small containers of cool flavoured ice cream and do a taste testing!

I remembered as soon as he came up with the idea that there are a few "How it's made" videos about ice cream and ice cream treats! I don't even know if it is still on the air. Anyone else remembers that show?

Our schedule for the week:

The kids get up really freaking early EVERY day. B knows to snuggle or quietly do something. The girls, on the other hand, I swear start bickering the moment they step out of bed at 5:30 am. If I am lucky they sleep until 6:00 am.

I am the world's meanest mom and will not make breakfast until 8 am. Pretty much you want to be up that freaking early find something quiet to do. Growing up, I would dare not wake anyone else up that early.

Breakfast at 8. Get dressed. I clean up from breakfast.

School starts after that. With either worksheets or workbooks. I alternate each day so they do not get bored with doing the same thing every day.

15-minute break.

Now is journals, art, or science which are alternated days as well.

15 minute outside break while I make the snack.

10:00 am (could be a few minutes later depending on how long the last activity took) Snack

Learning video, game or activity based on that week's theme ICE CREAM!!!

15-minute break.

Reading. Each child gets to read with me individually. This may or make not take place after lunch depending on how long the morning activities have taken.

Lunch

After lunch is me spent working, starting supper or finishing up our morning activities. If they have finished everything from the morning then they are free to play or do whatever they would like.

2:00 pm snack

15 minutes outside break.

Work, finish dinner, clean up.

Dinner

Walk the dogs

Baths, snacks, stories, teeth and bed

Then I work on anything I need to prep for school the following day, work on client orders and tidy.

When the kids are on their breaks I am either making food, answering clients, working on things I can in a short period of time or tidying. If it is a day they watch a video for part of their learning I fold a basket of laundry in the living room while they watch it.

Even with all that, my house is still never clean enough and the kids still complain they are bored in their "free time".

Our schedule stays the same 7 days a week 365 days a year. It helps C to emotionally regulate if we stay on a known schedule.

These are the video's we watched:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

These are some of the ice cream activities we did. 
Activity 1
Activity 2

On the last day, we did an ice cream tasting because who can have an ice cream week without that.


Goal: Make your dream ice cream snack

Jan 2021 Week 2 homeschool

 C was next up to pick what she wanted to learn about this month. It was cooking. She loves helping in the kitchen so, this didn't come as much of a surprise.

Our days this week will go as follows:

Breakfast, get dressed, hair

Workbooks or worksheets (I alternate daily to keep them from getting bored.)

15 min outside break

Snack

A kids cooking video (I fold a basket of laundry in the living room while they watch the video)

15-minute break

Reading (They each read a book at their level one on one with me)

Lunch

I use the period between lunch and snack to work or if things took longer in the morning, we finish up what we need to.

Snack

15 minutes outside

Each day 2 children will be helping me make dinner as we are learning about cooking this week!

Dinner

Walk dogs

Baths, snacks, stories, teeth and bed.

I clean up and work until I fall asleep.


I found the most amazing cooking videos for kids! We watch 1 episode each day, not the full compilation.

On the kid's breaks, I tidy, put laundry in, do dishes, blog and answer clients.

Not every day is perfect. Some days the kids are not feeling it so, we might skip an activity or two or even the whole day depending on how they are.

I have days as well where I am not up to teaching because I am burnt out.

Despite the amount of tidying I do, it would seem my house will NEVER be spotless again :)

Jan 2021 Week 1 homeschool

 Our homeschool schedule changes so much sometimes I wouldn't even call it that.

I try to keep it relatively the same day to day, 7 days a week for C. It helps her regulate.

This month each of the children picked something they want to learn about on top of our day to day learning.

H being the youngest got to pick what we did the first week. I let them each decide at the start of the month so it gives me time to plan activities and print off anything we need.

H picked "ABCD's" so our first week looked like this:
Workbooks or worksheets
15min break
journals or art or a science experiment
15 min break
a video on the letters, letter sounds etc, or a letter game.

Game one: We have the alphabet taped along the hallway wall and I wrote the capital and lower case letters on sticky notes in random order and they took turns matching the sticky notes to the letters on the wall.

Game two: Letter finishing. They each get a sheet with letters on it, they pull a foam letter out of the bin and match it to the letter on their sheet.

Game three: Letter BINGO. each child gets a BINGO card and I pull the foam letters out of the BIN and call out the letter and put a mark on their card. We do this 5 times so they each get a turn calling out the letters.

15 mins outside

Snack and reading

Normally we are done school before lunch depending on how long each activity takes.

Lunch

I work in the afternoons and they have free play unless things took longer in the morning and we are finishing up.

Snack and I start dinner, usually 1 or more help me with dinner.

After snack, it's another 15 minutes outside.

In the mornings on the 15 minutes between I start laundry, tidy the main floor, answer clients, blog, empty and reload the dishwasher.

Dinner

Walk

Baths, snacks, stories, teeth and bedtime snuggles.

I try to print everything I need at the start of the month, if not I do it at night after the kids are in bed.

I get a lot of printables right from google images. Such as searching ABC BINGO and just printing 4 different bingo cards so they don't get the same one each.


Even though I try to have everything together not every day goes according to the plan. Having children with special needs (or children in general) means following their cues for that day and some days are just tougher than others and that could mean very little seated school work or none at all. Sometimes I am just burnt out too (that happens to parents) and I need a break so we take the day and play.

Yes, I tidy A LOT but with 4 children, 3 adults and 2+ dogs (depending on fosters) you will never be able to eat off my floors.

Some of the videos we watched are: video 1

                                                            video 2 

                                                          
I printed the BINGO from here.  

EVERYONE: HOMESCHOOL

Kind of like everyone wang chung tonight? no? I'm likely the only one who actually gets that anyway lol

So the schools are closed, some are closed until the fall, some are closed for a few weeks or until they announce that they are actually closed until the fall. Don't want to freak parents out all at once.

With the schools closed there are many companies offering free services and things for the children. A lot of these are things I wouldn't have even tried before because of the cost but I am taking 100% advantage of them being free right now!

Get your printer and your ink all ready!!! 

https://fluencyandfitness.com

This site offers a wide range of learning combined with movement. It is free for 21 days just sign up towards the bottom of the page.

https://www.123homeschool4me.com/home-school-free-printables/

This site has a ton of free printables for grades K-12

https://www.amotherthing.com/100-free-unit-studies-for-all-ages/

List of FREE unit studies
 
https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/2019/09/free-butterfly-unit-study/ 

Butterfly unit study

https://www.homeschoolshare.com/space_lapbook.php

Space Unit Lapbooks

https://www.abcteach.com/directory/prek-early-childhood-2761-2-1

Free Printables

http://www.amazingeducationalresources.com/

This is a massive list of resources not all of them will apply

https://www.abcmouse.com/

As you already know, I am a huge fan of this sight!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

This is my main resource that I have always used. They have free and content that you have to pay for

https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/books.htm

This is great for K through grade 5

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

Blaine isn't a fan of this one but the oldest girl likes it.

Don't forget its not a race and you don't need to plan every minute of everyday for child. Home school takes a lot less time than conventional school.

You can do this!!! And the most important thing is to HAVE FUN

Homeschool: Sight word fun

The oldest girl was struggling with reading and sight words. It was a fight to get her to even read the books the came from school through the program book in a bag.

Doing anything homeschool related that had to do with reading was a nightmare. I decided I need to come up with a fun way to learn the basic sight words.

I picked up a cheap box of "tumbling tower" from dollaramma. Each block I wrote a sight word on the block from the master list of sight words.

Blaine also loves this game, he does better with seeing and memorizing the words so this works for him too and it is so much fun!

How the game works:

You take a block out like you normally would. You have to read the word on your block. Playing this game has made it so much fun for her and now she has almost all the basic sight words down pat.

About another week of playing this game after each homeschool session and I will get a new set of blocks and add the second list of sight words on those blocks.

This is an earned game she must complete all of her homeschool activities in order to be able to play this with me.

Using it as a "reward" has made learning less of a fight and more of a fun experience for both of us.

Every child learns different and it is just about finding what works with each child!

Do you have homeschool games that work?

Morning Routine: Homeschool

Snow Days! Today happens to be one of them. With the weather pattern changing we don't get to many snow days anymore.

This routine is the one I use for weekends, holidays, strike days, snows etc. Any day where the two older girls are not in school.

Our morning routine is rather simple and when a child is not at the table doing home school with me the rest are playing. 

If they are up before 7AM they are asked to go watch TV until 7Am

7:00Am: I get up and start breakfast for the children. While I make and serve breakfast, I empty the dishwasher, tidy the kitchen, wash dishes by hand and listen to CBC news on Alexa.

7:30Am: The children all get dressed and get their hair done, I tidy the dinning room prep homeschool for each child into their piles.

8:30Am: I get myself dressed and ready for the day, check emails, answer clients, blog and do other things that need to be done on the computer.

9:00Am: I start with the oldest girl we do her homeschool which includes her workbook, reading books and a fun activity.

9:30Am: The youngest comes and does her homeschool which includes, colouring, stickers and a reading book

9:45Am: I make everyone a snack

10:00Am: Blaine gets to do his home school, this takes a bit longer as we cover a little bit more than what I do with the girls as he is not in school.

10:45Am: The middle girl gets to do her home school which includes, reading books, work books and a fun activity.

11:15Am: We do group which includes reading a book together, learning our address, and other important information, the felt bored and learning about a life skill such as what is friendship.

11:45Am: I start Lunch

Our mornings when the girls don't go to school are all about learning and working together.

We work through each home school activity and the morning just flies by, its crazy how fast it goes when they are learning.