Homeschool is out for summer!

We survived quarantine school. I honestly didn't know if we would make it starting out. But just like any hard thing, when you take things one day...or sometimes one hour... at a time, you might surprise yourself at what you can overcome.

The last few weeks have been both harder and easier. Being able to go tempt them with an afternoon park visit has been a great motivator in getting them to do their school in the mornings. By the same token, the temptation of riding bikes and going outside has sometimes made it so they aren't quite as focused on what's going on inside.

The last few weeks have been lots of counting down, backyard workouts while the kiddos play (even running over a 100 laps in the backyard so I could get my exercise in while the kids were playing), afternoons on the slip and slide, playground visits and more.

I often blogged about the challenges I struggled with as I became teacher-mom. But the kiddos deserve a lot of credit too, and I probably haven't given them enough.

Isaac really doesn't enjoy changes to his routine. Having home go from his "relaxation place" to double as his work place was difficult for him. Having a new set of rules and routines for home was difficult for him. But I pushed him hard. I have high expectations for him, and while he was home I expected him to do his best. That meant erasing and correcting mistakes, not scribbling them out and writing over top. It meant challenging him to add an extra sentence or two to his writing assignment, instead of the bare minimum. It meant reminding him to pay attention to details like capitals and periods, and to write legibly and on the lines. He resisted as he often does, but by June I could easily read his assignments, he was adept at using an eraser, and he often did assignments without complaint.

He still had battles with following mathematical rules (just because they were rules and therefore in his mind made to be broken), and adding detail to his assignments because in his words "I assume my teacher already knows that, I don't need to tell her". I explained multiple times that the point wasn't for him to assess his teacher's knowledge or to teach her, but for him to prove to her that he understood. The concept seemed to elude him.

But nevertheless, he pushed himself and found out that if he applied his focus he was quite capable of finishing everything that was assigned, and he could do it well. He's also become much more responsible at home with tidying up and keeping his room clean, and he's been allowed to have unsupervised bike rides around the block or to the hill behind our house. He's so looking forward to having more freedom this summer.

My heart was shattered for Mia when her kinder year ended prematurely, but she has been so motivated to keep learning and not let it slow her down. We've been working on her French speaking, writing, and numbers every day. She often completed Isaac's old and too easy worksheets, and learned how to do single addition and subtraction. Her French vocabulary has grown greatly. She knows all her letters, numbers to 30, colours, shapes, many animals and common words. She often made sure her work was perfection in her eyes, always correcting and erasing until she felt it was her best work. B has especially enjoyed having her home and I would often find her reading to her, or dancing with her. She also learned to ride her two wheeler and has been outside on her bike multiple times a day.

I am grateful and hopeful the kiddos will be back in school in September, but there are memories from these days that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

 First vs Last Day of School