No Vacation, No Zoo, No Museums!! Spring Break During Quarantine

It's been 2 weeks since schools have closed (for most of us in the Lexington area). Many business have closed down as well. Many of you have been juggling working from home while also managing your children's school work. Finally, you have a break this week!!

Or is it really a break?

Most of the schools in our area will be on spring break this week. So, no more school work, for at least a little while. But those vacation plans have most likely been cancelled. The Zoo is closed, all museums are closed, no gym time or trampoline parks, no library programs ...

So what is one to do??

Here are a few suggestions our Homeschool Association members have put together:

First and foremost, all kids need free play. All the activities listed here are great activities, but don't neglect free play. And don't forget, too, that it's okay to be bored. Kids get creative when they have free time with no activities. It's good for the brain too. 

It's finally starting to feel like spring (hopefully it'll stay that way), so don't forget to get out and take a walk. You can check nearby nature centers or parks, but those might not be a good idea at the moment, plus many may be closed. Take a walk in your neighborhood. Even if you are working from home, the break will do you good. Many neighborhoods are also doing Bear Hunts. Check your Nextdoor app/site to see if one is happening in your area. 

Speaking of good weather, get the whole family involved in washing the car. Or wash the dog, or really any outdoor activity that everyone can work on together. We may be washing our cars this week and starting our garden.

While the weather is good, encourage your kids to play outside. They may need to stay in your yard and not play with neighborhood friends, but they can still kick a soccer ball around or play catch or use their imagination with whatever is on hand. This goes back to the free play idea, let them dig in the dirt, run laps around the house, play with the hose or water balloons, or set up a tent outside. Try to stay away from screens as much as possible.

We've had so much rain this winter that it's a good bet we'll have some rainy days this week. So while you're indoors, have kids draw pictures and write notes/letters to nursing home residents. You don't have to know them, but most of them are not getting visitors and some sweet pictures or letters from kids would help lift their spirits. 

Try some art projects! We have some art projects listed in our post on Growing Creative Brains, and you can find many more on Pinterest or YouTube. Maybe you want to finally learn to knit or crochet, or sew. Dust off those needles and find a YouTube video to help you out. 

Related to the above, check out this fun website: Little Bins for Little Hands. This website is chock full of fun activities involving slime, Legos, slime, tons of STEM activities, and did I mention slime? Kids can have lots of fun with these projects. There are also several Easter related projects on the site.

Build a fort! This is not just for the kids. Get in there with them, grab some pillows and blankets and have fun. When it's all done, get some flashlights and books and have your own story time in the fort. Even older kids will have fun with this if mom and dad are involved too. 

Plan a scavenger hunt (either indoors or outdoors or both). Keep it close to home. Just do a Google search for "at home scavenger hunt" and you'll get a plethora of ideas to choose from. It could keep the kids busy for hours while you get some work done. 

Have Tea Time one afternoon. Seriously. I tried this one summer with my boys. We did it once a week and they loved it. They didn't like tea but I would get pink lemonade just for tea time and they would drink it from tea cups. We would use the opportunity to find new treats or bake something new. When we last did this each kid got a week to help me and they got to choose the snack. Our snacks included things like:

• Cheese and fruit (sometimes on kabob sticks)
• Microwave s'mores (microwave a few squares of chocolate on half a graham cracker for just a few seconds, spread marshmallow cream on the other half and put together when the chocolate is a bit melted. Don't microwave the marshmallow cream.)
• Smiles: Apple slices with almond butter (or peanut butter or whatever your nut/seed butter of choice is) and mini-marshmallows. The nut butter is just to stick things together, apple slices are the "lips," the marshmallows are the "teeth."
• Bake something like a quick bread, cookies, brownies, etc. Most important, get the kids involved.
• Buy the little brownie bites that have the indention in the top. Top with jam or whipped cream or anything else that sounds good. Easy and no baking on your part required. 

Get some exercise!! Try some new exercise videos, check out things on YouTube, get the kids involved too. Ask around, some exercise videos that were behind pay walls may currently be open for anyone to use during the quarantine period.

Don't forget about maintaining skills. I often treat spring break at home similar to summer break. My kids still have some things they have to do even when not in school. Nothing that takes a super long time, but all things that will help them to not forget too much over the course of a week. So my 3rd graders will be required to do math and Latin flashcards each day, practice piano, read for 30 minutes, and do a catechism lesson (mostly because we have gotten behind in that one subject so we're trying to catch up). My Kindergarten kid will do his math flashcards and maybe read a book with me each day. 

Finally, don't neglect the spiritual. Watch Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and much more. I know many churches and religious organizations are streaming these things. Some go up on YouTube so you can watch whenever you like. No matter how you fill your days, be sure your kids know how important it is that we continue to pray and participate in the Mass as much as is possible in the circumstances find ourselves. And FYI, I am planning a post with more spiritual enrichment ideas.

There are so many fun things you can do right in your own home. Many of the suggestions in our previous posts can also be used during this break from school. Allow your kids some free play time, take breaks from your work to enjoy some fun with them, and maybe plan one extra activity a day. We are often so busy running from activity to activity and juggling 3 or 4 or 8 schedules, that we should use this time to enjoy some simple activities with our kids.

It's a great week for making memories. 

Free Homeschool Resources For ALL Families

If your children attend public or private school you may not be aware how homeschoolers put together their curriculum for use at home. For many of us, we purchase a curriculum from one of many (MANY!!) homeschooling publishers. Some of us will pick and choose from a variety of these curricula and assemble something that works for our family. A few of us use online schools or even part-time schools right here in Lexington. There is a plethora of ways to go about it.

Some of the homeschool publishers are currently offering some free resources for all families during this time of quarantine.

The first one is from the Charlotte Mason Institute. They are a Christian-based program and for 30-days they are offering free activities on their blog. You can participate in these #ChoosingBeauty activities simply by going to the blog and starting with their Day 1 post. Of course, you don't have to do Day 1 to see the others, all are available on the blog. Look over what they have and choose ones you think you and your kids will enjoy. Then you can post pictures on social media and use the hashtag #ChoosingBeauty. I'm told you can even search that hashtag on Facebook (maybe other social media sites as well) and see what others are doing, too.

Another publisher is one I had mentioned in a previous post, Memoria Press. Memoria Press publishes lots of homeschool materials, they are also Christian based, and located in Kentucky. In addition to the materials they offer they also have an Online Academy for grades 3-12, so homeschool students can take classes online with expert teachers. Through their online academy they are offering some free classes.

Memoria Press had two literature classes that filled up already, but they are offering two other classes as self-paced. The first one is their beginning Latin course, Latina Christiana for grades 3-7. The second is their Traditional Logic I course for grades 8-12. For both classes you do need to purchase the books needed, although they are making the first week materials available by PDF to allow time for the books to ship to you.

Homeschoolers also have conferences!! Lots of them. And some are online! This week there was a conference (today is the last day) called Homebound. It's a free online conference. You need to register if you want to get in on this last day, but it is free. However, if you scroll down the page linked above, you can see the schedule and further down there are descriptions of the various daily offerings with links to the replays. I clicked on one and as far as I can tell you can watch the replays without registering. Since this is the last day it may not be worth registering now. There are talks for parents, storytelling/read-alouds for kids, and much more.

Does your child need some extra help in math? Why not try Teaching Textbooks? It's a math curriculum that many homeschool families use. You can go in and get 15 free lessons and the free trial doesn't expire. Never hurts to try it out and you can use it just as a supplement to help a struggling student.

Another resource any homeschool families use is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Currently they are offering 3 free months of Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Premium Membership. This could be a great resource for supplementing what your student is already doing or to help a student who struggles in this area.

These are just some of the free resources available. I'm sure there are many, many more. If you're thinking of homeschooling in the future there is even a free Charlotte Mason-based Catholic curriculum called Mater Amabilis. Some even offer a subject free for a year or other incentives.

I hope some of these resources can be helpful to you. If you are one of the many parents who suddenly have your children home and you're managing their schoolwork for the first time, let us know in the comments if you have found anything helpful here or in any of our previous posts. We'd love to hear from you!

Grow Creative Brains with Arts, Culture, and Crafts

There is no shortage of places to go to find crafts for kids. Pinterest, anyone?? You can easily search there and find tons of things to do, from uber complicated to pretty simple. But it's also incredibly easy to get lost and overwhelmed by the plethora of posts. And really, how many of them are educational also? Some, yes, but many will just create more arts and crafts to clutter your home.

Kids like crafts though and we should still be giving them creative outlets during this time of quarantine. So let them do crafts with whatever you can find around the house. But let's also find some other ways to feed that creativity. Keep reading for some links to crafts.

In the meantime ...

Let's explore arts and culture!! The art teacher at my kids' school sent a link to Google's Arts & Culture site. WOW!! There are so many things to look at here. View art work and read about it while focusing in on details and learning about the artist too. I see Klimt, Van Gogh, Monet, and tons of other artists featured. You can also look at architecture (it uses Google's street view). I just looked at the London Bridge and the Milan Cathedral. There is so much more including videos, museum exhibits, virtual tours, facts about dinosaurs, the universe, etc. Definitely check it out and explore the diversity of art and culture in our world.

Want more art in the most Catholic location in the world? Check out the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel available at the Vatican Museum website. After checking out the Sistine Chapel, click on the word Museums in the "crumb trail" above the window where you viewed the chapel. You'll be taken to a list of the various rooms and galleries. You can explore tons art work, some areas have virtual tours, some video, and some just links to follow to view parts of the rooms or the various pieces of art. Lots to explore!

The Louvre in Paris also has several virtual tours of their museum up. I discovered after exploring the ancient Egyptian exhibit that if you mouse over the various art and display cases you sometimes see an little "i" in a circle, click on it, and more information comes up about that particular pieces. It was very cool! The Egyptian exhibit was neat and there is a tour of the remains of the moats under the museum (it was once a castle).

All across the world museums are closed and are making virtual tours available. If you find a neat one, share it with us in the comments on this post. Whatever your kid may be studying in history, or art, or music, or almost any other subject, you can likely find a museum that has something available to help make that subject come to life for your child.

And now for the crafts!!

You may be familiar with Joann's Fabrics, a craft store around the country, including in Lexington. They are offering a variety of "craft at home" videos on their YouTube page that are worth checking out. According to the email I received from them recently you can order online and get things delivered right to your home. They also mentioned curb-side pick up but you may need to call to ask if that's an option in our area.

One of our homeschool members sent me a link to a website called I heart naptime. In addition to lots of food recipes, she has a section on Kids Crafts. Many are easy to do right in your home, hopefully with materials you have on hand. Several are also seasonal, but there is a wide variety of options. One I think looks pretty cool is this paper feather garland.

If you really want to get ambitious, Memoria Press (a Kentucky based company) has several art and craft items for sale on their website. I have the Junior Kindergarten Book of Crafts and used it a lot with the local co-op here last year. All the crafts in that book either go along with one of the read-aloud books for that age group or with a letter of the alphabet. There are several options for older students as well. Take a look at their Art, Music, & Enrichment section for all their offerings.

All the information here can keep you busy for months if not years. Explore museums, architecture, special exhibits, tour the Sistine Chapel, and try some crafts at home. Take a break from math and reading to be creative!!

Homeschooling During the Coronavirus

Homeschool families are used to having some flexibility in their day. If you get a nice day after several rainy days you may take the afternoon to go for a long walk and maybe add some nature study along the way. The school work can be done another day. Homeschooling hours do not necessarily line up with "traditional" school hours, especially if the parent responsible for the bulk of the homeschooling also works part- or full-time.

Currently we are in an interesting situation. With most of us stuck at home (including our peers with kids in traditional schools) we are all looking for ways to not go stir crazy between school work and regular household duties. (Still, go out for those walks on those nice days, it's good for you!)

I hope to create a series of posts here on the blog to share some ideas from our St. Joseph Homeschool Association members to help all of us through these interesting times. We hope these ideas will benefit not just homeschoolers but also our family and friends who suddenly have kids at home 24/7, juggling their own work commitments and the kids' schoolwork while possibly having a toddler or baby to care for too. 

As a quick start to this series, one of our members sent a couple good suggestions to me about keeping a routine. Whatever routine you may have had in the past might not be working now under these new circumstances. If it is, great!! If not, time to establish one. 

Our member's suggestion was to keep a steady routine. Make sure everyone gets up and dressed, and has breakfast at a regular time. Start your school work, take regular breaks (especially if you have little ones) for play, relaxation, etc. Breaks help reset the mind, which is good for all of us. If you also have work to do yourself, set a routine that works with your children's school work. Can you work alongside them as they do their work? Or maybe you need to only work when they have breaks? Come up with a plan and then stick to it. 

I hope you'll come back to our blog and check out more of our posts. We hope these posts will help those of you who are home with your children and managing their school work for the first time. If you have questions or things you think we can address, please add a comment and we'll try and answer it through one of our posts. 

In the meantime, I found this article on CatholicMom that I thought would interest our readers as well: Are You Suddenly a Stay-at-Home Mom?

Welcome to Our Blog and Website!

Welcome to the new blog and website for the St. Joseph Homeschool Association!! I am excited to start this website and have a place where people can find us and we can share events and ideas with the community.

The St. Joseph Homeschool Association is part of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington and has been officially recognized as a Catholic organization under the Diocese since 2003. 

Our members homeschool in a wide variety of ways, from unschooling to part-time homeschooling and everything in between. Regardless of how we homeschool, we enjoy having a group that brings us all together for social activities for both kids and adults, play dates, field trips, Masses, summer activities, and so much more. 

Please be patient with us as we build this site.