As I mentioned in Friday Favorites, last week was our first week of true online learning provided by the school, and we had started out with a schedule for that week. I have now modified the schedule for this week, and am sharing it, as well as, some of the things I have been supplementing with the school learning, and things that have made our day and week easier.
Before we started online learning through the school, I assumed A would need more things to supplement, and J would need more assistance and time on assignments. However, I learned the first day that it was the exact opposite. A was taking longer than his scheduled time on every assignment, and J only needed about twenty minutes of his allotted hour to complete his online work. Which meant A was panicking that he didn’t have enough time and J was spinning his wheels. So this lead to a few adjustments in the schedule.
Each kiddo has a schedule that has the list of tasks and they check off as they go. For A’s schedule (top schedule) I kept it pretty similar to the first week, but took out any extra activities. For J’s schedule (bottom schedule) I added in more activities and we also included some of the daily things he did everyday at school (spelling, sentence correction, etc.):
My hope is that this will keep J more occupied, and give A more time to complete his main assignments. In addition to their schedule that they can color in when complete, we have a master schedule, so we know who has scheduled work meetings, when I’m working out, and who’s in charge of dinner, etc. J most loved last week when I added in daily work that reminded him of school, including this stellar journal entry on carpenter bees:
He was so proud and read it to me after he had combed his hair:
One of the things I’ve done that has made our mornings so much easier is setting up my iPad while they eat breakfast. They watch clips from Disney Imagineering, Cincinnati Zoo animals, Bill Nye, or stories being read from their teachers. The boys argued a lot at breakfast (even before we were at home all the time), and this has made a world of difference:
I also have the boys set up in two different rooms. I really need to be able to listen to J’s lessons, so I can answer questions if he has them, and A’s lessons are also longer. So, A is set-up in his bedroom:
And J is set-up in our study:
This gives them some space, and makes it easier to designate learning areas to help them focus. In addition, I also added in Gold Friday’s for the boys where they get to watch movies in the afternoon:
I get to pick the movie (otherwise they’d be watching The Mandalorian or Mickey Mouse shorts over and over, or arguing over who got to pick what), so last week I picked Disneynatures’s Penguin, which was a huge hit. We will test the schedule out this week and see how it goes!
