The 8 Parts of Our Home School Adventure
2020 School year is here and this Mama is ready for an Adventure with the NEW back to school plan. Distance learning and homeschooling is not going to be easy in 2020 and we had to do what is right for our Family. We have chosen a mash up path. The kids will be participating in distance learning, a home school POD as well as, participating in recreational sports such as soccer and Tball (all with safety measures of course). Come along for my journey of how I structure our days to be filled with curiosity & fun!
“And then I realized adventures are the best ways to learn”
The 2020 School year is here and this Momma is ready for an Adventure with the new back to school plan and a bottle of Rose.
As I prepare for a distance learning home school mash up my focus is going to be ADVENTURE. I am not sure about your kiddos but mine love an adventure and staying active. YES it can be exhausting, so don’t forget to breathe, smile and take it all in. It is okay to step away from your daily chores once in awhile because the dishes will still be in the sink tomorrow!
I am going to share with you 8 parts of our day. This helps me plan out our day full of adventure with learning at the forefront.
I did a trial run last week and let me tell you we had a blast, made tons of memories and the kids slept well. That is always a WIN in my books!
The 8 parts of our home schooling day!
1 Breakfast: Breakfast is a time for us to start each day as a new day. Yesterdays melt downs and sass stories are out the window. We talk about what exciting things we are going to do and the order we are going to do them in.
I told the kids we were going on a mushroom hunt! They absolutely love treasure hunts so this got them very excited. We chatted about all about mushrooms; their shape, color, name, size, and where they grow.
2 Fine Motor: I always like to get the kiddos using both sides of their brain. Arts and craft seem to be a fun and engaging way to get my kids using their fine motors without tears. Cutting, writing, coloring and building can be hard for the little ones so we want to keep it light an fun!
We made mushrooms. The kids drew mushrooms, cut them out, colored them and then wrote their names on the back. We added a little research in here as well and had ALEXA help us spell and pronounce the 3 kinds we were hunting for. What a comedy show this was. I sure you can imagine the funny sounds that were coming out of their mouths when trying to use Craterellus, Tuvaeformis in a sentence. Laughter is definitely good for the soul!
3 Logistics: Having kids plan and figure things out on their own is a huge accomplishment. Now it won’t always be on your timeline or your way and that is okay. Let your kids plan and hope that they fail as this is the biggest lesson in life we can give the. Now I let my kids fail but definitely don’t let them fail into harms way.
On this day I gave the kids their mission: Climb to the top of Grey Mountain and pick Craterellus & Tuvaeformis mushrooms. I gave my son a piece of chalk and let him plan out our trip and then he told us where we were going. this made him hike leader!
4 Physical Fitness: Have your kids as active as active through the day as possible will keep their brain active and ready to learn. On days where physical fitness isn’t the main focus of the day I build in a variety of movement breaks like getting the mail, 15 mins outside, dance party, going for a short walk, or a little circuit training
After we chalked out the path we packed our backpacks and headed out on our adventure. They were so excited to be looking for mushrooms they didn’t complain once about their legs being tired or not wanting to walk anymore. When we got to the top I had to slow them down on the adventure to eat lunch. It was so wonderful being able to sit up their take in the view and hear them chatter about all the mushrooms they didn’t find!
5 Science: Science has not always been my favorite part of school, but when we are applying it to the world around us the kids don’t even realize it is school. I try to divide up the different strands of science and mix in a little math with is as well. All things nature can be counted, cooking to see different chemical reactions in the kitchen always involves some kind of measuring, and building we build all sorts of structures and inventions out of objects around the house, usually out of recycled materials.
On this day we were looking for mushrooms but were able to catch lots of insects and foliage. The kids looked at them counted their legs, compared colors, and types of bugs. Wow did they ever ask me a lot of questions that I was able to answer oh so generically. so generic Tudor went home and asked ALEXA!
6 Social Interaction: I have a true belief that we as humans need interaction on a daily. With distance learning and our world out here shut down it is more challenging but we do find time to set up play dates in out tight nit quarantined circle of friends, face time cousins, or book a time at the children’s center.
After we got back to the house from our hike the kids were really excited to share their adventure so they called their 3 friends from school in a group chat. They talked about their day for a few minutes and then played with the filters and games provided on Messenger Kids! I used this time to take a break on the back deck with my well deserved glass of Rose! Remember this is a no judgment zone.
7 Competition: In my house we believe that a little fun competition is good for the soul. We play games as a family, both kids are in recreational sports. Yes they are following all the CDC guidelines to keep my kiddos safe, Tudor is playing soccer and baseball this fall adn Aura is doing gymnastics. It is so fun to watch them practice and compete their little personalities come our and they can really express themselves.
8 Relaxation: We all need it even the kids. This is a time of the day where we all get out own corners of the house. I have a list of things the kids can do during this time like read a book, listen to music, watch a show, build with their Legos, yoga I encourage the kids to do something different each day. I feel like I am the one that needs it the most, but let me tel you on days where the kids miss their 20 mins of relaxation we all feel the tension by dinner time, I’m sure you can relate.
I’d love to know, what does on of your better days-in-the-life look like? (I say better, because you know I’ve spent 50% of quarantine shut in doors eating yummy food LOL)
