I think it’s safe to say the 2020-2021 school year was one we were all happy to see come to a close. The year started off remote and ended with a crazy hybrid schedule where none of our kids were on the same rotation. We were thankful to celebrate graduations for 3/4 of our children – from pre-k, elementary, and middle school. Lots of change on the way! We all made it and are looking forward to a fun summer and hopefully a more normal school year next fall. So proud of our kids for their resilience, hard work and positive attitudes through it all.

Grads! Hayden, Avery, Eddie, Hamza & Abdullah

8th Grade Grad!

Pre-K Graduation

Pre-K Grad!

Last day!

That’s a wrap on 5th grade and elementary school!

Done with 3rd Grade! (And that bruise on his thumbnail is from a Phoebe bite!)

Class of 2034?!

Ms. Claire & Layla

End of school year parade at the elementary. We basically all drove through and waved to our teachers.

February 22, 2021 – Silas
March 1, 2021 – Kieron
March 22, 2021 – Avery

These are the days our school-aged children finally returned in person – on a hybrid schedule, of course, but we took what we could get. Silas was going four mornings a week, Kieron was going four afternoons a week, and Avery was putting in full days every Monday and Thursday. Kieron and Silas were not on the same schedule because I wanted to keep continuity with his teacher, and that was the only way to do it. Keep in mind, Layla had also had preschool every Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. It was a crazy few months, but it was better than nothing and it all worked out in the end. Thank God it’s over!

The last day of in-person learning… March 12, 2020!

March 1, 2021 – Kieron

March 22, 2021 – Avery – Happy Birthday!

Jonathan’s new low: reheating school lunches. They were free, and we’ve got four kids to feed, we’re not passing up free meals here!

Our kids went back to school on August 31st. And by back to school, I mean they stayed home. Like most families, we started the school year remote. We are doing a hybrid of distance learning 2.0 through the district and some homeschool, and so far it is going pretty well – or as well as can be expected. I’m lucky that they all get along pretty well and they have good attitudes about learning. The hardest part for me is not having any free time, so a lot of things are falling though the cracks. Like this blog, for instance. I’m retro-publishing this as September 1st, but it’s actually October 18th. The kids each see a couple of friends in person, but they miss seeing everyone and having all those interactions. Avery misses sports. I am learning so much about my kids and their resilience from this experience. It is not what I would have wished for, but I feel fortunate that we can roll with the punches and make lemons into lemonade.   

Ms. McCann
 

Mr. Schaak

April brought more homeschool with it. Here are some pics of what we were up to:

Zoom meetings!

Layla wanted to attend circle time as “Coronation Elsa”

P.E.

Art

Lunch

Layla’s preschool put these signs in our yards.

Checklist

This was part of a teacher appreciation week photo mashup  we did.

Below is some of what we’ve been up to in the first couple weeks of homeschool:

1st Day of Homeschool with Mrs. King!

This pic is from our planning meeting the Friday prior. The kids were all involved in making the schedule.

Handwriting practice

P.E. with Avery

Our pantry door/command center

Spelling practice

Language Arts

Lexia or Typing

Apparently leprechauns don’t have to social distance. Here’s the kids making traps.

Omg, they came!

And they got away! But they left candy.

Zoom piano lessons

More P.E. with Avery

Typing

Math – the old school way

Yep, this is me. I really wanted to be into Common Core, but after eight years of it, I still don’t see how it’s better than the way we learned.

Art with Mo Willems

Silas has been a huge help with Avery in his Digital Media class.

Zoom circle time. That’s Layla’s good buddy, Angelo, on the screen

She was tickled seeing all her classmates!

I needed some surprises up my sleeve to entertain Layla while I spent so much time with her brothers. She got a few Disney Princes and Princesses from an older friend.

I did some book swapping with mom friends since the library was closed.

Yoga practice

Got out the old bin of Beanie Babies for some entertainment

Layla’s Play and Learn kit from her preschool
 

Circle time with Ms. Claire