Weekly homeschool roundup: 8/20/2021

August 20, 2021

It’s our third unofficial week of homeschooling for the 21/22 school year. Here’s a bit about what we did each day and some information on resources and my thoughts for homeschooling planning along the way. The modus operandi for right now: “we’re starting off slow.” Here’s what I wrote last week.

The weekend was a mild one but fun. A fun highlight was a virtual movie watch party of “Alice in Wonderland” (the vintage Disney version.) We made a gluten-free cake with vegan whip cream and added blueberries from our garden.

Monday, 8/16:

The kids started off the day with playdough while I logged a few hours of work. Then we got into our writing and math workbooks. We took a walk in the neighborhood to check out the progress on the fire station construction site and spent sometime at the local elementary school playground. We taught the kids about the monkey bars. Let’s just say the grownups can’t do the monkey bars like we used to.

Tuesday, 8/17

After getting through our morning lessons, we trekked off to the library to return a stack of books. In the evening, we listened in on a “Ask a Scientist: Bioinformatics” workshop offered through King County Library System.

Wednesday, 8/18

The afternoon brought us another virtual jazz/hip hop class (super fun!) and the second installment of our virtual beginner chess class. I ran the kids through a quick assessment of Spelling You See: Wild Tales and they did pretty well.

Thursday, 8/19

The kids did most of their schoolwork outside. They also brought out the sidewalk chalk and are working on decorating every inch of the backyard. I decided to go ahead and purchase Spelling You See: Wild Tales for the upcoming school year. I think it will be a good tool to help the kids brush up on their spelling skills.

Friday, 8/20

After breakfast, the kids jumped into their usual imaginative play. It’s a hard thing to stop for lessons. My youngest tried out Dance Mat Typing Level 1 Stage 1 – HOME ROW (dancemattypingguide.com) before breakfast. He seemed to like it. I’ll have my oldest try it out. I think teaching the kids how to type can be a good thing.

Other things:

I’m still waffling on our schedule for the fall. The idea of doing classes in person right now is a bit daunting with the uncertainty of the Delta variant. I know I’m not alone in this feeling. Many of our friends are facing the same dilemma.

I’m continuing to update my Trello board for the upcoming school year. Trello is a great tool for planning, especially if you are a visual person.

Still investigating these extracurriculars, my goal is to make some decisions this week.

(new) creative jazz/musical theatre class offered through Vitality Dance Center. This is the studio we’ve taken ballet through. (I’ve emailed them about COVID protocols for the upcoming season. In the past, they’ve handled things really well, just need an update on what’s to come, including possibilities for online classes.)
ballet with Emerald Ballet Theatre (ON HOLD)
parkour class at Movefree Academy (ON HOLD)
a karate class in Bothell (ON HOLD)

Advantage Gymnastics is also a contender. They have a Ninja program that would be a good fit for the never-ending energy supply that is my youngest. Just weighing the risks again. (ON HOLD)

Digipen is also down the road from us. They offer enrichment classes in everything from art appreciate to game design. As of this post, most of their classes for the 12 and under set will be offered online. (ON HOLD)

I did approach the idea of having a semi-regular outdoor and masked playdate with some of our homeschool friends. The idea was met with some interest so I’ll be working on figuring out a good time and place for that.

At the moment, I’ve decided to forgo purchasing Dart from Bravewriter. I’m not familiar with the books and I’m concerned I won’t get into the digital handouts as much. I may re-evaluate this in the future. We did enjoy the first book “The One and Only Bob.” I’ve put the next two books on hold through the library. Once we get a chance to look through them, that might seal the deal.