Surviving and Thriving
Now that you’ve been forced into a homeschooling routine, how can you be productive during this time?
Free Educational Apps and Websites for Math and Reading
Fun Activities to Encourage Life Long Learning
The possibilities are endless…We have the time….Now find that energy.
Whether you wanted to or not, it’s time we all learn to be teachers. Fortunately in this day and age you have a multitude of websites to help educate your children. From the websites already paid for by your local school districts, to the free ones that are popping up everywhere. You would think this should be easy….. Ha!Ha!, welcome to the daily struggles of your overworked and underpaid teachers.
I went from teaching a class of bilingual 9 and 10 year olds, to teaching early childhood special education, Kindergarten with special education services, 2nd grade, and 4th grade. All of this while figuring out how to teach my actual class virtually.
For a little background, one of those bilinguals is my daughter. Teaching her at school, is nothing like trying to teach at home. If you have suddenly been thrown into a similar situation, I hope these small steps will help you get started.
Now that you’ve prepared you home school “classroom” and schedule, now start lesson planning.
Structured Learning: Choose books for read alouds and independent reading time. Decide on writing topics. Integrating writing with science activities, and writing about feelings during this strange time, are ways to cover more than one content area at a time. Set up computers and devices with the websites and apps that you have chosen to help continue learning in all content areas.
Unstructured Learning: Cooking, and baking are great activities to cover math and science concepts. It’s the beginning of spring, go outside and plant something. Dramatic Play and Art are 2 areas that require almost no prep. Just put out a few supplies and most kids will take it from there.
Project Based Learning: Find a problem in your local community and attempt to find a solution to the problem. Big or small does not matter. Helping your neighbor, sharing supplies with others, caring for pets and plants. Solving problems requires critical thinking skills that can be used to solve even bigger problems later in life.
One last thing…. Just know that perfection is not required. Just do your best in these strange times and know that all of your effort will be appreciated. Don’t stress, and share the love (not the germs).
The original plan this year, was to finally take my youngest bio daughter to Colorado to ski. Unfortunately, with the loss of my husband’s job, and the increased cost of supporting the youngsters, that was not going to happen. Plan A didn’t work out, but Plan B was a success. Thank God for alternate plans. My plans never work out how I think they will.
As a teacher, the income is barely enough to get by, and the perks are few and far between. However, Sea World has a great perk for teachers. I never would have found out about it, if my coworker hadn’t shown off her vacation pics to me last year. Thanks to her, I now know that Teachers get in FREE!!! You have to register by May 31st here. You can add Aquatica to your pass at the park for just $30.
If you’re not a teacher but have kids 5 and under, they get in free too!!! Registration for this is also by May 31st here. I took the littles to their Grandma Honey’s house for Spring Break, so I could spend some quality time with Miss M. So we won’t need the preschool passes until this summer. But I am super excited about this extreme discount for another mini vacation. There are discounts for active and retired military, and even AAA member discounts.
The next money saving tip is one that everyone can use. I bought Miss M a season pass. I upgraded to the Gold pass, which was a $33 increase from the base pass. Get your passes here. Why did I upgrade???
I got most of the $33 back when I drove up to park. The cost for general parking is $23.09. I’ll get the rest back, and then some when we go again this summer. With the free tickets, my husband and adult children can all go for free!!!