6 week Quarantine & Homeschool 2020 begins

It has been over a month since I posted! That's too long!

After our beach trip, we went into quarantine, and it was a good thing, because as it turned out we did have Covid-19. We only found out because I had a cold for 2 days and got tested. That was really the only sickness we had. (A few other kids had sniffles that same week; Gideon had a fever for 2 hours the weekend we got home.) The rest of my extended family got it a little worse, but all have recovered. Because we had been isolated almost 2 weeks when my cold symptoms showed up, and then we had to quarantine for at least 10 days for me, followed by 14 days in case someone got it from me at the very end, we have been in isolation/quarantine for about 6 weeks. (Thank goodness for stores with curbside pickup and Amazon delivery!)

We decided to go ahead and start homeschool the first week of August. (The other kids' school start date was pushed to September - another reason to go ahead and start. I'm not waiting that long; the kids were running out of things to do.)

Some funny quotes

Gideon Singing: "I love Seth, and Dad loves me best!"

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Gideon: "I'm so funny. Hehe." (hides in closet)

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"Is that Johnny Depp?" Natalie asked while we were exercising in the den one Tuesday afternoon, and I followed the twins' gaze out the window, wondering who on earth was walking outside, and why would the girls assume it was a famous actor?

Conversation continues: "No, he has brown spots." "Maybe he molted and changed?"

---It was a bird. Natalie, who is much calmer than Gideon while watching the birds come to our bird feeder, has names for several birds that frequent out front porch. Lol

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I am still "decorating" our office with colorful maps, charts, and posters to help us learn this year. I had prepped the walls with rubbing alcohol and was putting command poster strips on the back of my Spanish vocab when Gideon walked into the room after naptime. 

Gideon: "Can I drink that?" he said pointing to the bottle of rubbing alcohol. 

Me: "NO! If you drink that, you will die." 

And before I could finish explaining the concept of poison, Gideon stomps around the room repeating, "I will die!" And "if you drink it, you will die!"

(We carefully guarded that bottle until it was put away. He seemed a little too excited.)

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Here are pictures from the end of July (during quarantine) through this week (3 weeks into homeschool):

Lego Day (unplanned)

He asked for the "froggy suit" to swim in the kiddie pool.

Admiring the new globe

Typical Sunday

Ready to drive? (She doesn't think she is, but here we go!) She did fine.

Natalie wanted to practice cutting hair, so she cut Carolyn's.

The girls celebrated the last day of summer break (for everyone) with a "Harry Potter party" (because 31 July is the birthday of the book character). Carolyn got up at 5am and planned and executed, and the girls cooked breakfast for us.

They made chocolate frogs, and we had leftover melted chocolate beyond the frog mold, so a few chocolate mustaches were made.

I love when they get together to play music.

To see videos of us making music this summer, check out these videos:

Kaitlyn made a cake and frosting

Gideon loved it!

He keeps asking if he can have another birthday, and he also keeps telling me he wants TWO CAKES on his next birthday.

August 3: First day of (home) school

Alee loves the hands on parts of our lessons.

She loves being finished so she can have free time even more.

I love having family lessons. (This was a skittles activity to practice colors/numbers in Spanish. In Gideon's case, he was practicing only counting and colors in English.)

Gideon put a shirt on by himself for the first time.

He still needs help most days.

Carolyn painted our pencil sharpener backing piece. Isn't it cute?

Gideon and Alee like selfies.

I'm trying to include some activities with Gideon, usually while I'm waiting on one of the girls to finish an assignment or other little in between moments. He loves these "clip cards" that practice math and fine motor skills. I think I'll print a set every month with different themes/skills.

Alee's favorite subject this year so far is science.

Many days, we have a moment when Alee wants to be done before it's time. We are learning to focus and get things done.

We're learning about marine biology for science, so some of the things I print for Gideon is themed ocean animals. Alee drew this squid following a YouTube art for kids channel.

Several of the kids had an art morning. Carolyn's English curriculum has her in medieval things (art, literature in that time period).  

We saw this "fairy circle" on our walk one day. We have had very few walks lately...it is SO hot right now. Carolyn remembered learning about fungi from biology last year and explained to the others. (Score!)

Seth was long overdue for a haircut. I put these off, but it was turning into a fro.

Gideon modified my activity. At least he put 4 cars on my 4 playdough balls. He now recognizes 1-5.

Another math game for the win! (If I can gamify something, or find a pre-made game like this one, Alee enjoys it, and Alee learns and understands.) I am going to get creative and good at finding resources this year! We are going to gamify as much math as I can!

Gideon's favorite aggravating thing to do is to run to a chair Rob is heading towards and jump into it just before Rob gets there. He then giggles and claims that he got there first, or that he stole his seat. He thinks it's hilarious and does it in the den, in the office chair, and at the table.

The next round of pictures is everyone helping to make masks for a service project. It was started by the stake relief society, but we made it a family project with Carolyn also counting it towards her sewing class hours this year.

I would like to say it was a huge success and we all enjoyed working together, but the reality is that it was a success and the kids griped a lot! They also learned some good lessons and we made a lot of masks to donate.

Alee gloating a little over winning "A pescar" (go fish).

Rob will likely be working from home the rest of the year. (We hope longer than that!)

I love when the kids practice music together - especially using their school instruments.

Rob's first day of school. (His classes are both online.)

Memere and Grandpa sent us a Dairy Queen gift card, so we used it to celebrate our last day of quarantine. 

Funny Gideon:

B: Does everybody want small?

(I wasn't sure if anyone wanted a mini like I planned to get Gideon.)

G: I want big.

B: You're getting mini

G: I want big.

B: We're going to get grown up size, and you can get big kid size, ok?

(I said this quickly to distract him with the word "big")

G: ok (short pause) I want grown up size.

He can't be fooled. He did get mini, but thankfully, with their little white insert, he couldn't tell his was smaller.

Gideon loves to have the stuffed animal that goes with the book we are reading. Lately, he pulls out additional stuffed animals need to be able to "act out" as we read or read the book like reader's theater style. I always get assigned Elephant, and he always takes Piggie. I also get the dog and the duck in this story "Today I will Fly." He takes the snake in "Can I Play too?"