This is boring – feel free to skip – I’m mostly posting for my own reference here. We’ve switched up the schedule and also my jar of slips – there are certain slips we pull that we put back every time, and certain things that just haven’t been working well. Our academic blocks are too long, so I split them up into more frequent shorter ones. It doesn’t work to do chores any time but first thing in the morning. They need more PE. We all need more relaxation on the weekend – parents more than anyone, since we are driving all this programming and also trying to work!! Below is the newest schedule – the last academic block is just there if needed:
And here is our newest list of slips.
STUDY TIME – PINK (the boys have pretty strict lesson plans, so I’ve switched up these slips mainly to pull if they finish their work early and need to fill in that last Academic Block – the point here is not to give them more onerous work, but to keep them quiet and occupied while their brothers finish up)
- Virtual tour of museum, Kennedy Space Center, National Parks, Kansas City Zoo, Monet’s garden, Disney, Georgia Aquarium, the Louvre, the WWII Museum, an Italian museum, Ireland, or any one of these.
- Scholastic Magazine lesson
- Art lesson
- NASA tour/lesson or check out the NASA media library
- Do an imagineering lesson
- Listen to an author read a story or (an astronaut from space!) or (Olaf!) or (some other people!)
- Take a coding class
- Take a cooking lesson
- Stream the Seattle symphony
- Lesson from this symbaloo page posted by a teacher friend
- Listen to something on Pinna.fm (two months free using the code PINNA4KIDS)
- Lexia
- iReady
- Read book of choice – lots available for download online
- Garage band – create a song
P.E./RECESS – BLUE (these have been working great)
- Hide and Seek (indoor)
- Hide and Seek (outdoor)
- Gardening
- Flower Pressing
- Long walk with the dog
- Long bike ride in City Park or at the Levee (places that will not be crowded with people)
- Exercise time (Burpees, Jumping Jacks, Supermans, Sit Ups, Jump Rope, High Knees, Sprint up and down the driveway)
- Sidewalk Chalk in the driveway
- Dance class
- Martial arts class
- Cornhole in the backyard
- Ride scooters
CHORES – GREEN (The music practice has never been pulled, so I’ve made it its own category. Also, they have daily chores they must do (dishes, laundry, etc.) and cannot be subject to being pulled, so I made these “extra” chores only)
- Clean out coat closet
- Organize bookshelf
- Clean out the toybox
- Disinfect counters
- Wash windows
- Disinfect door knobs and drawer pulls
- Vacuum mom’s room
- Vacuum front room
- Organize video games
LEISURE ACTIVITIES – YELLOW
- Make a movie
- Play records/CDs
- Puzzle
- Write letters
- 3-D art project (out of tongue depressors, clay, etc)
- Drawing art project
- Board games
- Card games
- Pick one of these art projects
- Do one of the virtual tours or things listed in Academic Block above!
- Lego
- Marble run
EVENING FAMILY FUN – BROWN
- Percy Jackson night (the boys are all into reading the Lightning Thief series)
- Harry Potter night
- Cook-out or picnic
- Glow stick dark bath time
- Make cookies
- Movie and popcorn
- Read/tell stories aloud
- Pizza making contest
- Camping/fire pit fire in the backyard
- Board game
- Card game
- Snuggle and read in mom’s bed
- Cornhole competition
- Scavenger hunt
QUIET TIME – WHITE (we do meditation every day, but I thought I’d let them choose something else if they want)
- Sit alone in room, no screens, just lay on bed quietly
- Kid yoga
- Read (or use one of the resources listed in the first category to have someone read to you)
- Listen to chill music alone
- Meditate with mom
- Give each other massages
- Bath
This is helpful – I hadn’t seen this approach. My kids are basically reading and riding bikes, we probably need to step it up (but conference calls…). Also you have inspired me to give blood. Take care – just reading his hard hit New Orleans is.
I’m glad it was helpful! We don’t follow it to a tee, but it’s a good loose framework. And all the boys – especially my sixth grader – have an absolute ton of daily work assigned by their teachers. We are full on distance learning here and while I appreciate every single thing their teachers are doing to keep life as normal as possible, it is a LOT of work they have to get through (and it’s all graded!) So peppering the day with breaks is the only way to keep me from losing my ever loving mind. There is a reason I am not a teacher!
NOLA is bad. We have the worst trajectory of anywhere in the world, I believe. The thinking is that it was already here at Mardi Gras, but no one was aware of it. We certainly were not. We had a lot of people who were asymptomatic go out and infect a lot of other people, who infected a lot of other people, and BAM – by the time we woke up and starting testing, it was already everywhere. 🙁