Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Adventures in Home Learning: Episode 12




Well, MOST of  the seeds in our little kitchen garden came up. Okay, maybe 60%. The seeds were older so I'm happy with that. We've got a good chance at some cucumbers! 

Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the last week of lessons for my daughter’s school. Having her do some online school work has been useful for me because it kept her occupied instead of watching videos all day long. There are many things I’d love to do with her, but I have to do my own work too.

As a child, my mother was usually busy cooking or cleaning, then she went back to work when I was around my daughters age. I spent most of my time at home in some combination of watching television, reading, or playing by myself, and later schoolwork – usually any 2 at the same time. I read a lot once I was able to get myself down to the library and back on my own. (We lived in a small town.)

Unfortunately, books just don’t seem to have the same kind of pull for my daughter that they did for me or my husband. Reading doesn’t seem to hold her attention the way I might wish. She read the first three books of the anime series I bought her, seemed to LOVE them, then she put them aside.

During the school year, my daughter would be at school for most of the day, come home and do homework, then have a little bit of time, less than an hour, before dinner. During the summer she was typically at daycare which limited her time with these things as well, and helped to keep her moderately active.

So, the question becomes, how are we going to keep her offline and active during this summer at home while we have our own work to accomplish?

My husband and I have been having her write a list of things she could do during the summer here at home while we work. So far, she has come up with lots of things to watch and do on the computer, like things to watch and playing Minecraft, but she also included baking, playing hide and seek inside like we used to do, and learning choreography. My husband has added some and I have a few of my own to add.

We’re more focused on things like painting, drawing, crafts, sketching, exploring old and new music, learning to play soccer, baseball, basketball, learning Japanese since she likes the anime, explore different instruments, drawing anime characters, and learning mythology.

I’d like to figure out a way to make this less of a struggle than I suspect it is going to be so please let me know if you have any ideas, and I will share what I come up with in the coming weeks.

Thinking back to last week’s entry, as well as the ongoing protests and discussion growing out of them, I’d like to end by sharing a link to this 20 minute video that came across my radar. It’s from a storyteller who wanted to explain to kids in a gentle way what is going on in our world and why they may see so many adults around them upset this past week and what the protests are about. 

Unfortunately, it is on Facebook instead of accessible to anyone on the Internet. I plan to watch it with my daughter so I wanted to offer it in case anyone else was looking for something like it.

Queer Storytime - The Black Lives Matter Edition from Ayesha Ali



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