Homeschool Unit Five: Zoos, Animal Habitats, and Diets

 We spent a couple of days talking about animal habitats and built our own nests for birds, mice, and rabbits.  We also made a cave for our bears.  After that, we started our big zoo project!  The kids built a zoo out of cardboard, paint, blocks, magnatiles, and lincoln logs. They made the appropriate habitat for each animal - sand for the camels, water for the anaconda, rocks for the lions, and trees for the giraffe.

They made maps of the zoo and all of the exhibits.

They performed wellness checks on all of the animals, including a weight and length measurement.  Nolan graphed the results to see which animal was the longest, shortest, heaviest, and lightest at the zoo.

We discussed animal diets, including herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores.  We determine which category each of our zoo animals belonged to and provided the appropriate meal for them. They used green rice to represent grass and provided .1 oz of grass to each herbivore using the scale.  They used math cubes for the meat and gave one cube to each carnivore.

We built a souvenir shop in our zoo.  The kids learned to identify each kind of coin and sorted them.  They used their coins to purchase different items at their shop.  One kid was the shopper while the other ran the cash register.  They both practiced counting money.  We noticed how dirty some of the coins were, so we used ketchup to clean them.  The vinegar and salt do a good job of this quickly.

The kids pretending they were zookeepers and made episodes promoting the different species at their zoo, Zootopia.  Nolan did awesome reports on the crocodiles, anaconda, and bullfrog.  Olivia covered the great cats - the tiger, lions, and black panther.  They both spoke so clearly and professionally.  I was SOO proud of how well they did with this.  

We studied alliteration and made names for each of our zoo animals.  We illustrated their clever names and put them together in our commemorative photo book.  It turned out so cute!

This unit was SO much fun for all of us!  They were so creative and curious and blew me away with their insightful questions and hard work.  Our homeschooling experience has been so wonderful for our family!

Exposure and Quarantine

 These past few weeks have been rough.  We have been filled with anxiety, worry, and guilt over the fact that despite being INCREDIBLY careful about Covid all along, we ended up being a close contact of a positive case.  Turns out that when Grandpa Steve was sick back in early October, it was actually Covid.  We treated it like that could be the case and distanced from him for more than ten days, which is the recommendation, but we failed to take Grandma Patti's exposure into account when we gathered with them for his birthday.  Two days after we gathered,  Grandma started to not feel that great.  Nothing major...a tickle, maybe a slightly scratchy throat, but thankfully she told us not to come over that morning as we had planned.  Four days later she decided to get tested, mostly just to get some piece of mind so we didn't have to worry anymore.  Unfortunately the worry got much bigger because a few days after that, she found out that she was positive for Covid and we were close contacts.  Therefore, we needed to quarantine for fourteen days from the time of exposure.  Eric had to stay home from work, as we fretted and worried over every single sneeze, tickle, cough for all fourteen of those days.  On Day thirteen Nolan woke up complaining of a sore throat.  I had been achy for a few days and Eric was too.  We were certain that this was it, and we were in for a wild ride of illness.  I went in to get a test.  It was super quick, but not the most comfortable - they stick a long q-tip up your nose.  Three days later I got the shock of my life when it actually came back negative!  We had Eric get a test just in case mine was a false negative.  His was negative too!  We actually think our body aches and headaches were a manifestation of the stress that we were under...physical pain from mental anguish.  Patti was super stressed and later called those fourteen days excruciating.  And they were...it was so scary.  And we felt so guilty for making a decision that caused our children to be exposed.  Thankfully both Steve and Patti recovered with incident, and we skated through without getting it.  It was a good reminder though of how you can be careful 99% of the time, and STILL end up getting the virus.  We are remaining locked down from other households for the foreseeable future.  We are hopeful that the vaccine prospects will come through and that we can lay low until then.  We are so relieved it all turned out ok this time, but we DON"T want there to be a next time!

Homeschool: Unit Four - Election

 

We've been talking about this election for months.  Ever since the Trump and Biden lawn signs started appearing months ago, the kids and I have been having deep heart to hearts about what makes a good leader, what we wish to see for our country, and what's at stake with another Trump presidency.  Normally, I wouldn't think it necessarily appropriate to discuss politics with a five year old and eight year old.  This year is different.  My children deserve to grow up in a country where women are treated with respect and dignity; where people of color are true equals and their voices (and lives) matter; where people with disabilities are not mocked and publicly shamed; and where CHILDREN OF REFUGEES ARE NOT TAKEN FROM THEIR PARENTS AND LOCKED IN CAGES!!!!  I want my kids to grow up knowing what side of history Eric and I were on.  That we cared.  That we voted.  I want them to know and honor the great privilege it is to have your voice heard in an election, and to remember to use their white privilege to vote for leaders who promote the dignity and equality of every person.  

We made campaign posters, talked about leadership skills, and the kids registered to vote in our own home election.  They watched Eric and I fill out our ballots and went with me when we delivered them to city hall.  And they, like me, were beyond relieved when it was announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won the election!  Of course, Trump hasn't gone down without a temper tantrum.  Despite Biden's overwhelming majority of electoral votes, Trump continues to claim the election was rigged and that absentee ballots are illegal.  He has opened law suits in many swing states.  However, his efforts have proven to be futile and the court has dismissed case after case.   The final count of electoral votes is Biden 306 and Trump 232.  I personally feel such a sense of relief knowing that intellectualism, decency, and diplomacy will be returned to the White House after four years of an embarrassing buffoon representing our interests.  AND one of the most exciting parts about all of this is that Kamala Harris is the FIRST WOMAN VICE PRESIDENT IN HISTORY.  She is also African American and of South Asian descent. It is ridiculous it has taken this long to bring diversity to these high offices. But, I am glad my kids will grow up in a world where men AND women AND people of color can be leaders.  Inauguration Day cannot come soon enough.