Adventures in Home Learning: Episode 8

With the announcement from our school that the last day of instruction would be June 12^th, three things are paramount in my mind. 

• I just need to survive this another month. 
• What the heck am I going to do with her after that? 
• Do we really have to come in for a benchmarking meeting?

Most days she needs to do 2 things online to complete tasks assigned by her teacher. They aren’t too difficult. Most of them she can do independently. Sometimes she needs help, especially with math or finding answers in the text that she has just read. It simply doesn’t take up much time, and every time I turn around, she has either put her headset on and started watching a video or got out her computer and opened up Minecraft. 

I realize this is a tough time for her too and that wanting to retreat into that world is natural, but I don’t have to like it. I explained to her that I need a daily list to help me feel like we’re accomplishing something. She seemed to accept that.

She is also still resisting my method of keeping track of her work in a notebook, and of trying to plan extras beyond her assigned work from the teacher. I’m trying not to let it get to me, just keep tabs in between my work and remind her without rancor.

Some friends sent crafts for her birthday to do so I need to learn that with her so she can do them on her own when she wants to. Our local arts council has been posting daily arts activities on Facebook that I’d like to do with her but, again, that means I have to take the time to do them too. (If you can access Facebook, the activities are in their feed here https://www.facebook.com/pg/tiogaarts.council/posts/?ref=page_internal)

So, what are we going to do to least break up the time she spends on her devices this summer? So far, I have a few ideas.

• ·       I’ve found a series of books she actually likes to read on her own – Sailor Moon anime. I’ll take it, especially if it gets her (willingly) off a device for any length of time. I’m hoping the library will be reopened so I can get Sailor Moon books for her without paying for them all.
• ·       I think I’m going to get her a pretty notebook for a summer journal and require she spend at least 20 to 30 minutes a day on it, either writing a journal entry or a story.
• ·       I really want to get her outside so I need to work on the garden plan so that we can plant some things when it is time. I’m going to require she help me weed the garden, whether she likes it or not.
• ·       I’m hoping to get her a 4^th grade math workbook and maybe do one worksheet a day during the week. Not sure how that is going to fly, but she used to like doing those.
• ·       I also really want to teach her to sew. We were going to work on that a bit today with a llama kit she was given at some point in the past, but she quickly got entirely frustrated with it. Now I’m thinking to have her try to help me with a little hand sewing a straight line to start for a quilting project.

The school asking all the students to come in for benchmarking appointments surprised me a bit. I checked with another teacher and found her school is not doing that. I question how much benchmarking is going to tell them right now. I would think they would have an adequate idea of how students are doing based on the assignments up to this point and benchmarking would be better done in the fall when students are returning, but this is the route we’re going.