Creative Quarantine.

I know some people are loving this time together but I am struggling.
Mostly, because I'm supposed to be working full time from home. That is nearly impossible with THREE kids needs/schedules to manage!

But, I'm doing my best to make this time fun for them.

Lots of play-doh. Marco is getting into it now too!

These are like paint-by-numbers but with pictures!

Our bonus kid loves to cook! 

So, we've been making Paletas

Lots of chalk art!

Luckily the weather has been beautiful!

I've had to encourage a lot of independent play. Barbies help a little.

If a gingerbread house in April doesn't scream desperation, I don't know what does!

Lots of Amazon boxes = lots of box play.

LEGOs have been great!

In-door scavenger hunt was a hit!

Painting and Painting classes.

I'm using every ounce of my creativity around here!
Maybe this is the "Spring Break" she will remember as the best one EVER!

Rey turns 6.

We had birthday plans.

A Unicorn party at the park.

Well, we did our best.

There were unicorns. everywhere.

Also, rainbow pancakes.

 lots of presents.

 She chose noodles for her lunch. with pickles. LOL.

We played with all the new toys. 

 Pokeyo's stopped by.

 We made a unicorn cake.

 Traditional birthday kisses.

It certainly was not what we expected but we had a good time!

She is a joy to celebrate.

Mama-School

While school is out, we are not responsible for homeschooling both kids.
Theoretically, this sounds so fun - for Reyna. She LOVES learning. She's smart and listens well.
But, we also both have to work from home. And, play with Marco. And, host a 12 year-old, spanish speaking foster placement. So, its been challenging to say the least.

While we wait to figure out what the school will require of us, we have developed our own schedule and it's working okay. We are tired every day and I do very little work most days. I feel lots of guilt and frustration but not fear or anxiety. I can be a homeschool teacher and I can be a Baylor instructor but I can't do both well.

But, one day, I'm sure it'll feel like a blip in time and I'd like to remember my homeschool efforts as successful so here are a few lessons I've planned.

We loosely followed this schedule:

 Place value.

 colors.

 triangles and squares.

 clock work.

 spanish

 purple.

 100s board.

 spelling

 addition

 money.

 Eventually, her school sent a list of online lessons that she is assigned per week. 

We did them all. They take very little time and are too easy so we continued Mama School.

 Circles.

 Addition with easter eggs

 Graphing with jelly beans. 

 Book boxes. 

 100s board.

 Tallying with jelly beans

 evens (and odds, later)

 Can't see it well, but we did estimation. 

 Geometric shapes.

 Roll the dice for continuous counting.

Lots of work for Reyna. She would prefer that one of us sit with her but thats not usually posisble. Each lesson for Marco takes more time to set up and very little time to complete but he is doing very well! Play is the preference so we do lots of that too!