Week 2: April 6-April 10

Monday, April 6

Crazy day.  The boys are revolting about doing their work.  They keep busy, they just don't like having to adapt to my schedule! LOL But I have work calls all afternoon (one-on-one meetings with students) so they have to adapt! We're getting there. 

If you'd like to buy a flag banner for your classroom, let Sebby know.  I'm sure he'll give you a good deal! ;-)  LOL.

For PE, we've taken 2 walks already today and played baseball.  Probably another walk later and karate.  I'd love to find the time to get them to do different PE activities, but if I'm being real, for now this is all we can handle.

Seb doesn't mind doing his silent reading with a book and he likes Lexia, but he hates doing the BINGO squares.  I'm not sure how long I can make that last without it making the reading hard to get him to do too...I'll keep trying!

Tuesday, April 7

Designing his business logo

Here's his final logo.  It says Camisas con Banderas or T-shirts with Flags LOL

Adrian is recording him doing YouTube instructional videos of--you guessed it--how to draw a gorilla

Picnic lunch outside.  We scattered bread crumbs and watched the ants figure out how to take the pieces away. Fascinating!

A much valued new tradition is an after dinner walk.  We used to do this after dinner every night.  But when Carlos changed jobs last year, he started getting home too late.  Now that we are all home, we can take our stroll again.  The boys have recently been discovering sports...much to my joy!  I love every sport in the world.  Today Seb picked out a soccer ball to take with us...I almost died of surprise!  It was so fun!!  We played keep away (Papa and Mama vs. the boys) the whole way.

Then they played a little basketball as well!!!!!  I'm shocked.

Now Sebastian is teaching Papa--in Spanish--to draw gorillas.

Up next at 7pm...Karate.  Then showers, math facts, and Little House on the Prairie.  Thanks to that book we've had discussions of land policy, racist viewpoints of Native People, and also wasting resources (Seb wondered how Laura and Mary got their art supplies...I was like "There WERE no art supplies."  He seemed humbled that Amazon didn't deliver to their doorstep.  Sigh.)

Wednesday, April 8

Got these wonderful birthday cards first thing in the morning from my boys!
From Sebby:

From Adrian:

This is the gallery wall of his business.  You can choose any one of these to put on your t-shirt...

Small group chat with the class...he loved it.

He has quite an imagination.  He is pretending to be a gorilla.  Yes, those are gloves on his feet.

He doesn't have a bo staff for karate...so he used a water gun.  Resourceful, my boy...

After dinner walk/soccer.  Both boys running like wild animals in their mismatched PJs.  It's awesome to be 8 years old!

Now, Zoom karate.  Then math facts, and then Little House on the Prairie.


Thursday, April 9

Seb had a video call with Mrs. Clinton at 9am.  Totally made his day.  We didn't talk long because we could tell she had her hands full with those beautiful girls, and we know Seb's not her responsibility anymore (lucky you, Mrs. S!), but he sure loved seeing her.  Even Adrian popped in to say hello--and he can be super antisocial! ;-)

After that, he had his class call, which he also really enjoyed.  He gets so scared on those calls and when he's on video...he freezes!

Here he is making his "brochure for his business."  It folds up in crazy ways and is all different colors...

This is a link to Seb's Screencastify debut...he made an ad for his business.  Adrian "helped" him out...OMG they were so awkward and funny to watch.  They each made one and they helped each other on both videos...hopefully they get better at this... ;-)  Make sure you check out sebsflags.com and get your merch!  LOL (I should see if that domain is actually available...Ha!)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fS5JoPug83AITBvclr7gUeJCRMI9PNaD/view?usp=sharing


I lead a group at my work that talks about DEI issues.  Today we discussed how many black people, black men in particular, don't feel comfortable wearing masks (or bandanas/substitutes) into stores because of the stereotypes and fears it evokes in white people.  Seb loves talking about race in general and he loves learning about social justice issues.  So we discussed why the coronavirus is hitting people of color particularly hard.  He was so mad!  He made up this quote, "All people are all people."  It was his response to the unfairness of treating people of color differently.  He can actually have a fairly deep conversation about race and DEI issues.  I love that about him.

As I was posting this, I heard SHRIEKS from the bedroom--Adrian screaming bloody murder.  That boy can scream unbelievably loud...like you have no idea.   I thought Seb and Adi were fighting...turns out a stink bug had dropped onto Adrian's body and Seb told him.  Adrian screamed like he was dying...then they couldn't find the bug...so they thought Seb was lying...turns out it was a piece of leaf that stuck to his shirt...now both boys are mad because Papa is laughing so hard at them...

Friday, April 10

He's sleeping with Adi...that's "kind"

 I caved...they are watching Netflix while eating

I'm currently eavesdropping on a very cute Transformer play session.  Something about Decepticons denying access to some top secret fortress (which apparently is located under my kitchen cart).  There are jumping transformers...people giving up...it's all very elaborate but beyond my comprehension.  I like that he has such a good imagination.  He watches TV or a YouTube but then generally goes off on his own and creates imaginative scenarios.  So I don't mind giving him technology.  He naturally sets his own limits.  His twin on the other hand...

Seb did Lexia, Happy numbers, and Duolingo.  Last night we finished the Little House on the Prairie book.  They loved it.  There is a lot of fodder for discussion in it...race, land policy, minimalism... :-)

Here is the link to the Google Doc of assignments.  We're still working on some of it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SyhKt7TQ-ngjoI344HNqSzkCDwm4fwVd_QBq2t0xpy4/edit?usp=sharing