I've always had a ton of respect for our educators. If you've never sat in a classroom and observed what our teachers do, I'll tell you, it's ALOT. I think there are some amazing teachers in the world who have done an amazing job raising our little humans.
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*HUGE shout out to Mrs. Rodriguez, Mrs. Harrison , Miss Blatnick and Mrs. Lomazzi at Antelope Meadows Elementary *
During this state of emergency, the schools have been closed for the safety of our children. I know a lot of people who were thinking " What am I suppose to do with these kids for the next several weeks" or " How am I suppose to go work? Whose going to watch my kids?" I took the news of the school closure as a chance to spend with my children ( I'm a working mom also) and I hope this helps other moms as well.
I spend about 1-2 hours each morning, researching different subjects to teach my two kids who are ages 11 and 7. And then we sit down together for an hour to learn what I want to teach them. Yes they have their individual school work that we work on separately and this will help them each stay on track with their current subjects, But I also had to find things that I could teach to them both because lets be serious- I don't want to sit with for 8 hours just going through curriculum. Huge kudo's to our teachers who do that, EVERYDAY.
I spend one hour a day- teaching both my kids what ever I feel like that day lol. Part of this process has also been keeping our family up to date with what is going on in the world in regards to Corona Virus.
One of my biggest concerns is all of the fake news and conspiracy theories that went around and I wanted to make sure to educate my kids on FACTS.
Bacteria VS Virus
I studied Microbiology in college so I have a little bit of education in regards to bacteria's and virus so we spent a day learning about that. Proud to say my kids know the importance of washing your hands
Lesson #1 : What is a bacteria vs virus
There is a big difference in how bacteria's and virus act and respond. So important to teach your kids these things. I think this is sooo important to teach our kids because even as adults, not many people know the difference. Some people think I went a little overboard with this lesson, but you know what WE SHOULD ALL KNOW THIS. We are surrounded by germs! I think this is important to teach our kids as well as learning how to balance their bank accounts * that's another rant for another day*
Lesson #2 - Wash your hands and why
If you want your children to retain information, you have to teach them WHY's. I didn't just teach my kids wash your hands for 30 seconds. I taught them, how bacteria's and virus make us sick- they enter our bodies through different ways and by washing your hands FOR 30 SECONDS your removing those germs. * I plan to do a science project with them about bread and germs I'll update with my own photo*
check out this youtube video :
Learn about Bacteria's and Virus here
check out this youtube video:
Corona Virus
There are so many stories floating around about inaccurate information. I had to get ahead of this to teach my kids why we are self quarantining and why Mommy is so concerned.
Lesson #3 - What is Corona Virus? Why is this so serious? Corona Virus is a family of virus's that causes a lot of illness such as the common cold and flu. One of the things people are saying is that " COVID 19 is just the flu" uhm... partly true- What we are missing here is that it is also HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS, REALLY DETRIMENTAL TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT HEALTHY and is a PANDEMIC and also to add, we do not have a vaccine for this!
( Yes I also taught my kids about what a epidemic vs a pandemic is, If you don't know- look it up, You'll understand why this is so serious. ) This was a tricky subject to teach my kids and I did the best I could, check out this video to help you educate your children.
check out this youtube video:
How did I go about explaining to my kids why everyone is at home on self quarantine:
Lesson #4 - Why we need to avoid people.
The less people we are around, the less likely the germs can spread. If your not near people who are coughing and touching things - you can't get their germs. We are not in school because if one child goes to school who is sick, they can get the whole entire class room sick because everyone is sitting together and touching everything. Kids like to touch things and then put their hands in their mouths- that is how you ingest germs.
By staying away from others and avoiding crowds- we can stop the spread of the germs. Germs need people to cause harm. Yes we are off for a few weeks but this is not a vacation children. We still need to continue learning at home. My boys log into the school website and check in on there classes. Our teachers have done an amazing job sharing education resources at this time. Mrs. Lomazzi shared with us this great website with different educational videos for different levels. It has a wonderful video on how germs enter our bodies and how hand sanitizer kills germs and plus a ton of other educational things.
What other fun things have we done / will be planning :
Arts and Crafts - paper and crayons. We have drawn bacteria and virus, volcanoes and the kids have explained to me what it was they were drawing.
Get school lunch's for free. Check out your local school district and see who is offering free lunch during this time. As a working mom - I'm usually not home during the day so to make breakfast, lunch and dinner - it was a lot for me. I decided we would go get lunch at school just we could all get a small break, leave the house for 10 minutes to grab lunch and enjoy the little break.
One negative nancy made a comment to me " Those are only for kids who don't have food" My response "NO ONES GETTING THOSE LUNCHES' because they don't know its there. I went and shared with MY WHOLE community. The schools have plenty of food to give out- please go get some. The first time we went, the stuff shared with me not many people came, they ended up giving us extra's. From that moment on ,I HAVE SHARED SHARED SHARED. It's not like their giving foods to adults, its only kids. IF YOU HAVE A CHILD- get a free school lunch. That's one extra meal you don't have to cook!
3. Just got some card board box's from a friend to build random things. The kids and I will be building a card board box dome - I'll have to update this blog once it's built. You can do one also see how to make one here
4. Check out this education website also where kids can work on math and other subjects. We will start this website this upcoming week. I plan to have the kids spend 15-20 minutes each to keep their brains fresh.
check out this great resource " bored teachers" here
5. Melt Crayons. Yes , this should be fun. We have wax parchment paper that I plan to use with our electric iron ( used for clothes) I'll probably have the kids create some sort of art piece with our broken crayons. I'll probably even frame it lol.
6. If you have chalk - or you need chalk - I saw some at walgreens for 99 cents by the way- there's a ton of them- you can take your kids outdoors and draw on the side walk. OR you can get clever and use tape to tape patterns for your kids to color in. My Friend @ B.Vega Creations did this and it was sooo cute! I loved it!
7. For families with tiny hands ( my kids are to old for these but I got one of these for my nephew who is 14 months old.) check out these Busy Bee learning books! They are wonderful to teach your little humans. It's laminated so the pages don't get damaged. Various shapes are velcrowed so it sticks to the pages. Super cute and fun for little humans! You can purchase one of these books here
Support local and buy from small business! Kim is located in Sacramento, CA!
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