5 Great Virtual Experiences To Stave Off Boredom

Today I sit in day 8 of self isolation.  Home schooling is going better than expected and I'm actually getting work done with the kids home.  So far we haven't heard the dreaded call of "I'm bored" from anyone in this house and I'm hoping to keep it that way.

As Molly likes to say, from a motto she learned in kindergarten, "Sharing is caring" and my community has done an excellent job of sharing online resources for people of all ages to enjoy while they're social distancing and self isolating so I thought I'd do the same.

Some drawings from our second day doodling with Mo Willems

Nature & Science Related

Live Shark Tank At Ripleys Aquarium

Canadian Polar Bear Habitat Live Webcam

Games & Activities

Harry Potter Escape Room

Art

Molly's Pigeon

Weekday Live Drawings by Mo Willems

We've integrated this into our weekday routine as art class and the kids love it.  This happens live each weekday at 1PM, but you can also catch past episodes on YouTube and doodle along.

Geography

360 Cities 

Pick a city, any city, and stroll around it from the comfort of your home with a virtual 360 tour.


Stay safe, busy, healthy, and home!

5 Home Schooling Ideas To Help Get You Started

Now that we're home and in self isolation following some time in the US (13 days to go), we're trying to start up some routines.  We needed one that will allow the minions to stay on top of their learning and let Chris and I both get work from home completed without relying on TV as a constant babysitter.

From all of the research I've looked at, elementary school students only need around an hour and a half to two hours of more formal structured study because you are working with your kids one one one (or one on two in our case).  We've started with three, half hour blocks of time each week day.  The first one of the day is more traditional study using math work sheets and reading exercises with Q&A courtesy of their tutor (Thanks R!).

via The Nelson Daily

Here are some other ideas we're going to be working on for self study to help inspire you:

History

Molly is watching each episode of the CBC Show Back In Time For Winter and writing a short journal response about 5 things she learns about life in winter in Canada from each episode, which focuses on a different decade through history.

Nature/Science & Art

The kids are each picking animals of choice, we're researching about the animal, writing down 5 things we've learned about the animal and then drawing a picture of the animal.

Reading

There really is nothing than sitting down and reading together and talking about the story and answering questions together to work on reading comprehension.  Thankfully we have a family full of readers so this isn't like pulling teeth.

Gym

In addition to this each morning we've been starting our day with breakfast followed by kid friendly yoga.  The kids are loving the stories offered by Cosmic Yoga on YouTube.  So far we've enjoyed yoga with a Moana and Frozen based story.

Cooking Class

Also separate from lesson time is cooking. Each night the kids are helping me make dinner, which involves fine motor skills for chopping and cutting, reading recipes, math, as well as teaching them a real life skill that will last them a life time.

How are you tackling self-study?