Corona Homeschool Part 1

On Monday, the kids were in school and the whole country was closing around us.   Schools, restaurants, activities, concerts, EVERYTHING was getting canceled.  Even though Shelley schools weren't closed yet, we knew that it would be coming soon so we decided to go to the library and check out a bunch of books to use for homeschool.  

I got tons of books for each child at their level, plus science kits, history kits, and non-fiction project books.  About halfway through our library adventure the texts and calls came in announcing that school would be closed for three weeks.  Within 10 minutes, the phone at the library started ringing off the hook and people started flocking to the library.  We check out, realized that we had ridden bikes there and found Julie Murdoch and asked her to bring all of our things home.

I was not excited to become a full time teacher.  I had been working hard on my website and vision therapy and had lots of big projects planned for the spring that didn't include checking assignments and keeping 3 kids on task.  The kids were not excited about me being their teacher either.

The first few days were so so hard!  Trying to do everything and making a new schedule and keep Everly out of trouble amidst the world shutting down and so much fear of the unknown made it very hard.  I went through about 4 or 5 daily schedules before we found one that worked.  Now that we are 5 weeks in we are all enjoying things much more!

I actually love teaching my kids and being so involved in their education.  I am learning to roll with the punches and be patient, and the kids are realizing that my projects are pretty awesome.

Our Daily Schedule:
7-9 We all get ready, this means doing jobs, practicing piano, eating, getting dressed, cleaning rooms, family Come Follow Me etc.  Anyone who isn't done by 9, gets to do double after school.
9-10:45 The kids work on what their teachers have assigned and I supplement, usually they need more math!  Eloise hasn't been assigned any math, which I find totally appalling.

10:45-11:15 Recess - Outside play mandatory (now I get why recess is the best!)

11:15-12:15 Learning with Mom

12:15-1 Lunch and Recess

1-2 Quiet reading time

2-3 Computer work (all the computer games that the teachers assign that I think are a little pointless)

3-8 Play, help with outside work, bike rides, watch TV, eat dinner, clean up messes....


I am going to go through some of the different projects that we have done.

One of the first things we did was make a huge map of the world.  We printed out the number of Covid-19 cases in each country and then the kids colored each country according to how many cases that it had.

Eloise LOVED looking up each country and finding it's spot and coloring it in.  She wanted to work on it in her free time.  Teagan was excited at first, but I made him write in the country's names and that made it super hard for him and he ended up really hating this one but he did finish and do a good job in the end.  Addy and Everly colored their own maps, but mostly ran around and played.

We have done several painting tutorials on YouTube which has been really fun.  It is stressful for me though, especially when Everly wants to do it and our chairs have fabric bottoms.  eeeeek. I probably freak out a little too much.  Maybe painting needs to happen during nap time.

Poor Everly's whole world has been turned upside down.  She was used to having so much attention from me, playdates with friends, and watching shows during the day.  Then BAM all the kids were home, I was busy teaching them all and she was banned from the TV because all of the kids get too distracted when it's on and she can't play with Creedence anymore.  She has been throwing lots of fits, peeing her pants CONSTANLY, and getting into mischief of all kinds.  She took pruners and chopped down my raspberries, cut her hair with scissors, got into her sibling's stuff, colored on their papers, snuck food from the pantry and just cried a lot.  I am trying to give her extra love and attention and give her activities to do and attention throughout the day along with the other kids.  It is definitely helping the naughtiness and tantrums, but the accidents are still a huge problem.  I am starting to wonder if she will ever be potty trained.

One of our favorite weeks was all about Medieval Times.  We read booked and watched documentaries about castles and then we built our own out of all the different types of building toys we have.  Then the kids made an epic movie using little characters that they had made.  It was so so much fun to make.  We spent an entire day building, filming, and editing the movie.  They all love it and have watched it multiple times.

Last week we learned all about the lungs and heart and how the blood carries oxygen and other nutrients all throughout our bodies.  It was fun and we did some great hands on activities that they will hopefully remember!

Adeline is probably missing her teacher the most out of everyone.  When I showed her that there was a video of Mrs. Ottley reading a book she was thrilled!  She even teared up and said that she loved her teacher so much it made her cry.  What a darling little girl.

Everyday the kids have to do some sort of writing activity.  They have been writing tons of letters to cousins and grandparents and they have loved receiving letters back.  I think their favorite was from Grandma and Grandpa Daniels when they sent money.  It was a great lesson on division when they had to split it up.

I love seeing what the kids write and do and all their funny things!  Addy especially makes me laugh with her kindergarten ways.

She writes little books and this one was about Zac,  "I like to play tickle monster with my dad" and she is saying "stop" and Dad is saying "no."

Above, Eloise wrote about how Mick's is special because it is where grandpa Durtschi used to take us.

Below, Addy wrote "I like Pete the Cat because it teaches you if bad stuff happens you just keep walking along."  That one made me cry.

We just started into a new project, a club house for the kids.  We went and got wood from Grandpa Durtschi and then brought it home and took off the bark.  This week we learned about inches and feet, measuring, scale drawing and right angles and we are trying to get started, I'm starting to wonder if I am trying for something that is too hard.  I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  Whew.  We do hard things, right?

I am so delighted to say that teaching my kids has been an experience that I have loved.  I have learned so much about them and about myself and we have grown together as a family.  I feel so grateful for the experience!  It is so hard, don't get me wrong.  I loose my temper and get so frustrated when the kids don't listen and follow directions, but it is all worth it.  Every week gets a little better and we are all learning.

Day Trip to Bone

After so many weeks stuck at home with no social life (first world problems, I know we are pathetic) we were dying to get out so we hopped in the truck and decided to go see Grandpa Durtschi's property in Bone.   Unfortunately, there were 8 foot drifts along both sides of the road completely blocking any chance of getting to his property.  There was a little area by a creek with a bridge that we stopped an played at for a while.  Scout and Eloise both fell in the water, Everly peed in the wild for her first time, and everyone had fun shooting the guns. It was the perfect outing and we all loved it!

Zac's Hazmat Suit

All non-essential businesses are closed right now for coronavirus.  We are very blessed that home health physical therapy counts as essential so that our life and finances don't really have to be disrupted.  

Every night Zac gets to call each of his patients for the next day and ask them a series of questions:

1. Have you traveled anywhere in the last 14 days

2. Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19

3. Have you or anyone in your house been experiencing symptoms of sore throat, cough, fever or shortness of breath?

If they answer yes to any of the questions he gets to fully gear up before entering into their houses to treat them.  He has only needed to do this a few times and so far we are all still healthy.  After coming home from one of those houses he strips down right when he walks in and all the clothes go straight into the washer and he showers.

We are taking the stay home order pretty seriously, we aren't perfect. by any means, but we aren't having people in our house and we don't go to their houses.  We wear masks when we go to the grocery store and the kids haven't been playing with friends.  I keep trying to make it to May 1, but I get tempted so easily.  We'll keep trying to hold strong!  We are really trying to keep Zac and his patients from getting it because all of his patients would probably die if they got it.

Home Church

One of my favorite parts about this whole social distancing, "stay home, stay safe," and corona quarantine business is home church.  We've now been going about 5 ½ weeks since our church literally shut everything down.  We have been doing sacrament meeting and Sunday school at home each week and it has been the coolest experience!

The sacrament feels so special and sacred and really makes me think more about what I want to be watching and listening to in our home so that the spirit can be here.  We spend time Saturday night cleaning up and getting the house all ready for a special Sabbath.   Zac blesses the sacrament and then Teagan passes it.  

The kids have enjoyed taking turns doing music time, but aren't quite as excited about giving talks.  We've had some great experiences with feeling the spirit.  Fast and testimony was my favorite.  Hearing each of my kids' simple and sweet testimonies really built mine.  It was Eloise's first time fasting and she was really struggling with being hungry and thirsty.  We all tried to stay reverent when we noticed that Zac had given each person about ¼ piece of bread for their bread and a full 2 oz cup of water.  It made me tear up to see that he was trying to help her make it to the end of her fast.  

It will be hard to adjust to going back to the church building and doing a calling again.  It's been nice just completely catering to our own little family.  Some people really struggle with the social isolation, but I am honestly really enjoying some parts of it.  I feel like like is just so much more simple now and I love the extra time we get as a family to really focus on building relationships.  

Loooong Hair and Shoooort Hair

Well, Everly has been neglected long enough that she got into some serious trouble.  With me homeschooling the big kids, Everly is getting much less attention then she is used to.  She is also watching much less TV which is probably a good thing, but it has left her bored and mischievous.  She has colored on herself and the table, gotten into candy and bread countless times, taken her sibling things and broken them and peed her pants 4035821 times.

Her latest stunt was cutting her own hair.  Of course she decided to chop the very front super short so that there is no way to hide it.  And every hair salon in the world is completely shut down right now so we just get to watch the funny hair grow out in all its glory.  It reminds me of the time Adeline chopped her hair off a few years ago, right before family pictures.  I saw these pictures of her long, beautiful hair and decided it's all good, hair grows fast.  But we are going to try to keep a closer eye on this wild little woman.

Coronavirus Funnies

The madness of coronavirus started in the beginning of March and escalated very very quickly between March 1st and March 15th.  People went crazy trying to get supplies and the stores shelves became empty.  Luckily, my brother Brian was way ahead of the game.  He started talking to us about the virus back in January so I did a big stock up in February.  I went down to the storage room and just ordered 12 of everything that was running low on the Walmart app.   I went and picked it up and filled the back of my van.  It was a few weeks before everyone else was rushing the stores so I try to tell myself that I wasn't part of the problem, but maybe I was.  I only got 48 rolls of toilet paper. haha. That sounds like a lot, but with 4 girls, we go through it quick!

There were some times where I was feeling pretty panicky and scared, especially when Utah had their earthquake.  I finally decided to redo our 72 hour kits that day.  Finding funny memes and sharing them with my siblings was definitely how I found some comic relief to help me relax and have some faith in the big picture.  

It took a week or so, but I eventually came to the conclusion that the 2nd Coming is on the way and this is just part of the process.  We know that the economy will have to plummet, that nations will go against nation (I feel like there is going to be some finger pointing that could turn violent at the end of all this), and earthquakes in diverse places.  That brought peace.  This is all happening exactly according to plan.  Each day I know exactly what to do, I have an amazing brain that can handle anything.

I thought that it would be fun to see all these ridiculous memes in 20 years with this book becomes a historical center peace, or fire kindling or whatever.

Mom and Dad's Birthdays

Mom and Dad had birthdays, just like every year.  Dad turned 37 this year!  We ate peanut butter bars  for the cake which was so yummy.  Teagan had a soccer game that night so we didn't get to do anything too terribly exciting, luckily, we have many more years to make up for the lameness.

My birthday was also lame because we were quarantined at home for coronavirus.  I actually didn't mind it at all.  We got Texas Roadhouse takeout for dinner, Crumbl cookies for my cake and Zac got me lots of fun presents and flowers.  I got lots of calls from friends and the Heaths even came over and sang me an awesome version of "Lean on Me."  It ended up being an awesome