Learn at Home (Week 6)

We are starting week 4 of virtual classroom this week, week 6 of learning at home. Learning at home definitely has its advantages. For example, the kids get to sleep in. Sometimes so late (8am!) that we have time to make them muffins for breakfast.

You also get to do your homework wherever you want:

Julia has been using her desk more now, but I still have to stay close to her or nothing gets done. And she has lots to do! Projects in religion, French, art, cooking, shop, health,  etc. She was doing cooking this semester, not shop, but she's been asked to do projects for both. So far, she's made a bird feeder for shop and pizza for the recipe book.

Her health/sports teacher asked them to write their schedule, requiring two spots for sports. So Julia put down that she jumps on the trampoline but it has been harder to do during the colder days...

The first art project was compulsory. They had to reproduce a famous painting (and answer questions, etc). Apparently, this exercise has been a trend in France since confinement. I shared on Facebook the finished results of her teacher's classes. I don't know if you were able to find Julia's but here it is:

The project for this past week was optional and she didn't have much time but she tried anyway. You were supposed to make something out of recycled stuff from home (stuff that would be the same, either same color or same material, etc). She used crayons (as we have lots of those).

Besides all the projects, she also works on French, maths, history and science, but there's no good pictures for that :)

The boys are also working hard. Zack doesn't have as much work as his brother. His teacher gives him the work on Monday and he has to finish it all by Friday. So he gets to choose what to work on every day. He usually works on his writing and maths in the morning and does his reading in the afternoon with the others.

He used to have more to do but the arts and the sports teachers had to quit (they are replacing a grade 4 teacher). They both had a Facebook page and there was a daily art challenge and a weekly sports challenge. Zack didn't always want to participate and Kelden didn't always have the time but they sometimes did it (with Ryan).

The last picture shows Kelden but Zack actually colored the egg. Kelden was too busy that day. He has quite a bit of homework but he is very disciplined and gets it done on time. We are faster now that we understand the platform better. It took us a while...(I am not good with internet stuff..)   and we're still learning. Plus, I had to learn how to write on the documents they send. As you can see from the last picture, our printer doesn't work. Even so, if I had to print everything the teachers send us, I would be out of paper and ink by now! So we now know how to download, change format, save, send to the tablet if needs be, use the pen, save again, re-send, re-put on to the platform, etc..

Kelden's teacher now gives homework every day, with sometimes a project for the week, and then the science teacher gives him homework too that he does throughout the week. One time, she told them to make paper airplanes. Kelden was able to make the first one but then, we had no luck making the more complicated ones...

Kelden works usually all morning on his main subjects and then does his science and reading in the afternoon. He sometimes does extra reading in the sun.

They were supposed to have a couple of pd days recently, but they were canceled. Work ! Work! Work!

Julia's bed

Julia was sharing a room with Ryan. Keld had made her a nice bed with drawers and a big headboard with shelves. It was so big it didn't fit in the other room. We knew we would have to make a bed for Ryan eventually (and he lasted in his crib much longer than the others) and thought maybe Julia would give her bed and go downstairs. But (as we had supposed) she didn't want to go to the room downstairs and neither did the boys. (It's just as well, we can keep it for visitors). The boys wanted to be all together. That's why Keld made the three bunk beds, recycling Julia's headboard as a shelving unit. And he made a smaller bed, but one with a desk, for Julia so we could put it in the smaller room. He actually was able to recycle the top bunk from the boys.

So, before:

After:

And in-between:

School at home is perfect for Julia right now !

Happy Easter !

Keld had a very busy Easter week-end working on Julia's bed. (He has more meetings now for work and church so he has no time during the week). We still took time to celebrate the resurrection. On Sunday, we had our traditional egg hunt, although this year, for the first time, they were able to go outside for a little bit!

After the egg hunt, we had church at home with a special number from Primary.

On Monday, we had ham. I tried to tell Keld that tradition would require lamb but he really wanted ham. Kelden helped with the mashed potatoes, Julia with the cheese bread and Zack posed with our traditional Easter nest.

Happy Easter !

Happy Birthday Zack !

Zack is turning 9 tonight. Since we are participating in a worldwide fast today, we mostly celebrated yesterday. (I say mostly because he received gifts and calls before and after).

All he had asked for his birthday was lots of chocolate and something remote controlled. So we started at breakfast with mini-eggs.

At lunch, he opened Special and Grandpa's gift: a remote control car. It's a brother to the one Kelden got at Christmas!

For supper, we had Chinese food and Special made him a mini-egg cake, as requested. I think it's tradition now for him. This year, it didn't have as many mini-eggs on the outside, but there were more inside :)  You can tell Ryan loved it too!

Then, he opened more chocolate gifts..I think it's Bruce who said it best when he said that Zack had a "yummy birthday."

This last one if from our ministering brothers. The Primary also remembered him and all his family did too. He got lots of gifts/calls/messages/cards. He really missed playing with his cousins but hopefully our fast will help and he will be able to play with them again soon!