Final Harvest Outings

 After working very hard for the last couple of weeks on our harvest unit, we decided finish it off with a couple of outings.  First, we went to Hanson's Garden Village.  Normally in the fall, we head to Grampa's Farm in Merrill to do all the fall activities and have some fun.  This year, due to Covid, we are choosing to stay closer to home and not be in big crowds.  Hanson's was the perfect choice for that.  We were able to go on a weekday morning and Grandma Patti joined us.  We marveled at the huge variety of pumpkins, gourds, and squash.  We played pumpkin beanbags and bowling, we visited their adorable cows, and we spent lots of time in the corn maze.  Nolan especially loved trying to find all of the different numbered checkpoints.  It was a fun way to get out of the house and enjoy outside!

The other project we did was to make a meal for the local homeless shelter, the Frederick Place.  The kids were really good helpers and became quite the chefs during our harvest unit.  We made cheesy chicken spaghetti, with garlic bread, baby carrots and dip, cookies, and milk.  Livi helped me deliver it to the fifteen residents who live at the Frederick Place.  I'm so proud of them and hope they will always want to help others in our community.  

Applesauce

 One of my favorite fall traditions is making applesauce.  This year Olivia was a big help.  She washed the apples, helped cut them (with her own knife!), and helped to run them through the food mill!  The end result is tasty, tangy sweet, super silky applesauce that we freeze to enjoy all winter!

Homeschool

After days of having one of the worst pits in my stomach ever, we decided to just take the plunge and get started.  Enough worrying about making the right decision and time to jump in!  In these days of Covid, there are no right decisions in terms of school - all of the options have positives and negatives.  Though there is still some doubt and uncertainty, Eric and I both feel that this decision will allow us to be the best parents for all three of our children and keep our family safe at the same time.  I mean, I've been paying for my education Masters for the last decade...time to cash in its usefulness!

I really wanted to have a morning meeting...a special time set aside to transition from mom to teacher, from home to school mentality.  It was also a tool that was used by nearly all the teachers at Pelican Elementary, so I thought it would provide some comfort in starting the day in a familiar way.  I write out a morning message on my big dry erase board and pick a book of the day.  I'm hoping to include songs, movement activities or short games during this time too, to help tie together the theme of the day.  

We spent our first two days of school making giant self portraits, doing a pantry scavenger hunt, some workbook pages, lots of reading, a hundred things outside scavenger hunt, and making patterns.  Auntie Brigid has been super in helping with some planning resources.  Nolan's first grade teacher, Ms. Kaster, has also been enormously helpful and supportive.  Next week we plan on starting our harvest unit, and per Brigid's recommendation we are going to try our hand at making lap books.  I'll update as we go!  This is going to be a wild ride, but I think it is going to be good for our family, even if it wasn't what we expected kindergarten and second grade would look like.  The time together will be so special and memorable.  

Harvesting Apples and Potatoes

 

School Decisions

Back when school shut down last March, we never fully understood how different life was going to be and how long this would be lasting. I think everybody naively thought that if we got through the couple of weeks, everything would get back to normal and by summer corona virus would be a thing of the past. This has not been the case. Cases are ramping up again, and parents everywhere are having to make decisions about what they want their kids to do in the fall. Our school district is providing a couple of options:

1. Send your kids back to school. They will have the benefit of in-person instruction. They will wear masks all day. They will have to stay six feet apart. If cases rise, the district may move to a hybrid model (kids are in school part-time and distance learning part-time). If they rise beyond that threshold, they move to all distance-learning.

2. Kids will participate in a distance-learning program through Rural Virtual Academy and the school district. Kids will learn from home, but will follow the curriculum and instruction from staff members. The program is called Hodag Tracks.

Our kids thrive on routine and we didn't want them to have to adapt to the changing instruction delivery model all year. We didn't feel comfortable with adults other than us making decisions about covid surrounding our children. Also, since I am home full time with Simon, we knew keeping our kids home would make the class number smaller for working parents who may not have as much flexibility. Therefore, we decided on Option 2 - the Hodag Tracks program.

We waited and waited and waited for more information about what the program would look like. My anxiety grew as I kept wanting answers, but none came. Finally, less than a week, before the start date, we got our proposed schedule. My kids would each have three REQUIRED zoom meetings daily...that's six zoom meetings for me to facilitate every day with a toddler in tow. That was never communicated from the school district in any of my phone calls or emails with them. In fact, I was told the program was HIGHLY flexible and families could work at their own pace. I worked myself up into quite a state. How was I going to facilitate six meetings a day, help with the technology, and keep Simon out of it?! How was I going to be able to be an attentive mother to Simon, while devoting so much of my time to Nolan and Olivia's needs?! How was I going to keep him quiet during those meetings?! How was I going to utilize my support from Patti in getting through this school year if they have attendance taken three times daily?! How can Olivia, a kindergartener, do all of her learning on a computer?! The questions went on and on, and I had no good answers for any of them. I had envisioned lots of time outside, learning together. I had envisioned games and lots of practice with STEAM activities. I bought handbells for music class, letter learning games, and made book bins for each kid. What I was trying to create was actually a homeschool environment!

So, we the biggest pit in my stomach and every bit of courage I could muster, I sent an email to our school district, telling them would we be unenrolling our children for this school year and they would be homeschooling. I gathered resources as fast as I could, and talked to my teacher friends. There will be a lot of learning on my end, but I know I can do this. And I actually think my kids may thrive this way. I am excited by the challenge. And though some days are going to be overwhelming, I am thankful for this memorable period of time with them, where there mom gets to be their teacher in this whole new and different way.

Back to School Party

 Back to School parties began with my Grandma D back when I was a kid.  She invited all 24 of her grandkids to come stay overnight at her house.  We had yard games, a potluck, campfire, dancing, and a hayride.  These days our Back to School parties are a little smaller scale, but ever since we moved to Timber Heights we have done some sort of party to celebrate the end of summer and the start of the school year.  This year, we did ice cream sundaes and I made some special treat bags for each of them to have on their first day of virtual learning.  While they were playing in the backyard after their sundaes, Cassidy found a bird who was not flying away when they got close.  Concerned that it was injured, she caught it in a towel and put it in their animal tote for a closer look.  Fortunately, upon further investigation, we realized it was simply a fledging robin who didn't really know how to fly well yet.  We were able to find a safe place to release it, but they were pretty excited from their up-close wildlife encounter!