I joked yesterday that I was going to homeschool my kids if this week were another snow day(s) bust. They’ve had one and a half days of school in the last 10 days. Ice and snow are North Carolina’s kryptonite. We are expecting more snow tonight and tomorrow so I suspect the kids will see school again on Monday. Sigh. While everyone was else was braving the crowds to stock up on milk, bread, and beer, I stocked up on sharpened pencils. I wasn’t fooling around about the homeschooling. We can’t let these brains turn to mush, so sprinkled in with the screen time, family movie watching, and outdoor romping, Bird and Deal have some activities to keep their synapses snapping.
It’s not quite CLC, but it’s my short-term version of ILC (Ilina Learning Center).
Math on Study Island. Bird’s math teacher even called to give him some assignments (God love her!).
KidzVuz reviews of a LEGO set, The Unwanteds book series, and Rubik’s cubes.
Cursive practice (Yup, I’m old school. Kids can’t read historic documents and letters if they can’t write cursive. Bird learned in school, but I teach Deal now.)
Write letters to our Congressional representatives. I’ve asked the boys what issues are important to them so they can write a letter.
Bake. Math and science make for a tasty treat.
Costco. Seriously. We calculated unit price, price per ounce, whatever. There’s a lot of mental math to be done in those big box stores.
Draw, paint, make art, make a creative mess.
Take photos in the neighborhood. We all took out our cameras and snapped photos instead of snap at each other.
Read.
Study maps to learn about India and plan our spring trip
I’m not going to shift to homeschooling any time soon. I don’t have the constitution for it. But the teachers bear the burden of compensating for mush brain, and yes, a couple weeks out of school will indeed set some kids back. I’d rather keep my sons’ gears turning and not rely on a screen to weather the storm. They didn’t complain about any of these activities, and they might even admit they had fun learning something.