I’m not making light of a hard situation. I’m adding light to a hard situation.
Last week was just about the craziest week. It started Saturday when I drove an hour to our semi-annual training day with Scentsy. This year I was presenting on Team Retention to a crowd of about 250 people. It was nerve-wrecking and I made it and celebrated with a migraine that night. Then the next day I flew to Dallas for my day-job for 3 days of meetings and site visits with our customer. (I work in the aerospace industry hiring contractors).
Prior to flying home Wednesday, I saw on Facebook that later that evening Trump would be addressing the nation with the the current state of COVID-19 aka Corona Virus. As we were in the car home from the airport, the live stream began and heard about the closing of borders from most countries.
As the rest of the week wore on, the neighborhood moms and I were anticipating the closure of our schools. As I sat in the valet line at 11:55am, I received a text that school would be closed until April 13th. Friday was March 13th.
So Now We Homeschool became our home motto (And hashtag on IG). I went to the store to grab some crafting stuff (I don’t like crafts at home. It stresses me out) and I had each of the big kids (Aubrey – 8, Luke – 6) come up with a list of what they’d like to learn over the next 4 weeks. Over the weekend I started planning out some items, searched YouTube and Disney+ to find some related videos. I know this is temporary and I’m determined to have fun with it.
I’m grateful I can work remote from home during this quarantine without fear of losing money or my job. But I also have to be strategic because I do have to work from home amongst the craziness. Going to share some info on what we’re using these next few weeks!
We started with this. A schedule. Why? Because during the 3rd week of Winter Break in January, I came home from work at lunch to a quiet house. Not chaotic – and it was because Jon had written out a schedule for the big kids to abide by (Ryan – 4, was in preschool already). So first thing I did was modify one I saw online because of their ages and needing it to be a little more work-friendly with quieter activities in the am and progressing towards louder stuff. Luke is most excited about working hard to earn a later bedtime.
My friends tagged me on a LOT of resources. It was a little overwhelming but here’s some fun things I bookmarked:
- Art For Kids Hub – all on YouTube and step by step drawing. What’s cool is he has a sidekick (sometimes a kid, sometimes a teen, etc) that is drawing alongside him. So our kids can see 2 different abilities. I took what the kids wanted to learn about and was able to find some to match to tie in to that day (Johnny Appleseed, Sharks, St. Patrick’s Day, etc)
- Aquarium of the Pacific – they will be hosting daily videos learning about all sorts of things! They also shared their YouTube channel so it’s easy to stream on your tv with Roku!
- Wild Free & Crafty – They created a YouTube channel after tons of positive feedback on wanting craft lessons offered online.
More coming soon!
