Tag: Coronavirus

Samurai – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 9

Books

I’m having a hard time coping with being confined to home, sorry there are no pictures in this post.

Activities

Meditation – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 8

Books

“Moody Cow Meditates,” Kerry Lee MacLean, Overdrive
“The magic of meditation : Stories and Practices to Develop Gratitude and Empathy with Your Child,” Marie Champeaux-Cunin, audio book available on Overdrive
For motivated teens to adults “Meditation for fidgety skeptics : A 10% Happier How-to Book,” Dan Harris,” on Overdrive

Activities

  • Try some kids meditation with Peace Out podcast. Each episode tells a story, and helps kids learn a little bit of meditation and mindfulness.
  • Make a meditation jar, sometimes called a mind jar.

Field Trips

Find a lovely spot somewhere in nature and meditate for 15 minutes

Online learning

The Science of Meditation, documentary from ABC Australia, on YouTube, 25:28

Animals & Farms – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 7

This is a tricky theme right now since zoos are closed, the Museum of Science is closed, the Harvard Museum of Natural History is closed, Mass Audubon sites have closed (except for hiking, get out there and take a walk in nature), and there aren’t many farms reachable by public transit, and who knows if they’re open….But we’ll do our best!

Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

Activities

  • Make your own music video to “Baby Monkey”
  • Some art stores might be open, get some paper mâché animals and decorate them at home
  • Ideas for Dairy Cow Learning Activities from Ohio State University, a list of possible activities for learning about this important animal in our food supply. Written for 4H but applicable for anyone interested!

Virtual Field Trips

  • Farm Food 360 offers 11 virtual tours of all kinds of farms, from apple orchards, to pig farms to grain farms. Check it out!
  • San Diego Zoo‘s live animal cams: penguin, baboon, polar bears, panda, koala, giraffe, burrowing owl, elephant, tiger, and condor.

Books


“Zoology for kids : Understanding and Working with Animals, with 21 Activities,” Josh Hestermann, Overdrive
“Birdology : 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds,” Monica Russo, Overdrive
“Who was George Washington Carver?” Jim Gigliotti, Overdrive

Online Learning

Field trips

Head to your nearest pond or park and watch the ducks and other wildlife. I am at my closest pond right now and there are ducks, geese, doves and woodpeckers!

Circus – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 6

And Thoughts On “Quarantine” Supplies

The panic shopping is a only a little out of control here. Today I went to try to get some things I forgot. I wanted a thermometer, kids’ acetomenefen and ibuprofen, and hand sanitizer but the Walgreens was out of all of them. We were able to get one bottle of cough medicine for kids and one for adults though, so there’s that. Maybe I’ll go to another store tomorrow. I really don’t want to brave a crowded store!

Anywhoo, I hope you are coping with everything! Here’s the Circus Theme!

Photo by Vidal Balielo Jr. on Pexels.com

Online Learning

Books

Activities

Snacks

Cooking & Chemistry – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 5

Here’s #5! Click here for the list of themes. Speaking of kitchens, I have a cabinet filled with our “quarantine” treats! We’re allowed to have one of each thing per person per day. Treats include capri sun pouches, pop tarts, assorted single serving chips, powdered lemonade mix, etc. Having school closed counts as a quarantine condition, LOL.

Activities

  • Plastic Milk experiment looks high impact with two ingredients, a microwave and a strainer. Fun with cookie cutters! Here’s another experiment question: Will this work with milk made with milk powder?
  • You could try any of these Cookie Experiments, OR you can just bake cookies with different sweeteners to test their differences. Sugar, honey, Splenda, corn syrup are all on the table!
  • Find out how tall you can build a tower made of marshmallows
  • Grow sugar crystals

Books

“Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat,” Megan, Jill and Judy Carle, available on Overdrive
“Science Experiments You Can Eat,” Vicki Cobb, available on Amazon ($)
“Eat Your Science Homework, “ Ann McCallum, available on Overdrive

Snacks

Anything you make in these activities!!

Plants & Flowers – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 4

Here’s the fourth theme in this series. I know this guide was originally written at a normal time where we could freely go out and get supplies or books from the library. You might not have all the supplies listed in these posts. I hope, however, this series of themed activities can still help you with inspiration to help you get through your days of Social Distancing with your family. My kids haven’t gotten nutty yet, but I myself am on my way there. Having a list of options is always helpful for me when it’s not easy think creatively, so maybe this will be helpful for some of you too!

Field Trips

  • If you can get to a place where you won’t run into people closely, take a nature walk!
  • If you have a yard, go out and collect plants or sticks to make a centerpiece for your table.
  • The Arnold Arboretum is open to visitors but all the facilities have closed. Click here for more information.

Books

“Martha Says it with Flowers,” Susan Meddaugh, available on Overdrive
“The Ugly Vegetables,” Grace Lin, available on Overdrive
“The Secret Garden,” Frances Hodgson Burnett, available on both Hoopla and Overdrive.

Free Online Learning

Understanding Plants, Part 1: What a Plant Knows on Coursera
A list of 4 free Herbalist classes
Becoming an Herbalist Mini Course, The Herbal Academy

Activities

  • Potato Maze Experiment, which requires some advanced planning to get a potato to start sprouting before building the potato obstacle course. Note: Make sure there are not light leaks in the box except for the exit point.
  • Biome in a Baggie Experiment, to learn about the water cycle, Zoom from PBS.
  • Make sun prints with colored construction paper

Snacks

Any kind of fruit plus pictures of the whole plant and flower that fruit comes from.

Oceans – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 2

Here is my second themed group of books, activities, and snacks to help you get through this period of Social Distancing at home. Click here to return to the list of themed posts.

Books

“Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau,” Jennifer Berne, available on Overdrive
“The treasure of the sea : Thea Stilton Special Edition Series, Book 5,” Thea Stilton, on Overdrive
“Dark Day in the Deep Sea,” Mary Pope Osborne, on Overdrive

Field Trips

Visit Castle Island. The weather isn’t very good, and most people aren’t going out, so why not take advantage and get you and your kids some exercise and outdoor time! If it isn’t busy it’s very easy to stay really far from other people.

Castle Island is accessible by MBTA Busses # 7, 9 and 11 and has free parking. Take a walk around Pleasure Bay, look for sea glass on the many beaches, collect sea shells and stones. Fly a kite. Play on the playground but bring hand sanitizer. Ride bikes.

Other area beaches accessible by transit: Orient Heights, Revere Beach.

Virtual Field Trips

Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s live animal cams: aviary, coral reef, jelly, kelp forest, Monterey Bay, open ocean, moon jelly, penguin, sea otter and shark.

Activities

Snacks

  • Bears at the Beach Jello snack
  • Crackers with blue dyed cream cheese and “floating” goldfish crackers
  • Sandwiches + fish cookie cutters = fun

Covid-19 and Homeschooling at Home

All our weekly activities are officially cancelled. I’m betting yours are too. Are you now totally filled with dread at the prospect of having to stay cooped up at home separated from your social circle? I am. I need my external structure and regular access to people in order to stay well.

So to calm my nerves, I’m going to dust off a DIY summer camp guide I wrote in 2013 when I ran a totally different blog in Cambridge. We were broke back then too and since summer camp was off the table I wrote up a plan of themed activities, crafts, books and snacks for 10 weeks.

I’m going to share them with you here to help you survive at home while we all get through this period of social distancing. Maybe some structure to your days at home with your kids will help you too. In general this guide was originally written for younger elementary aged kids, but I’ll try to add things for people of all ages.

For each theme, I’ll write a single post and link them here as I write them. Here are the topics:

  1. Space
  2. Oceans
  3. Fine Arts
  4. Plants & Flowers
  5. Cooking & Chemistry
  6. Circus
  7. Animals/Farms
  8. Meditation
  9. Samurai
  10. Cat in the Hat Cancelled

My original guide included several field trips for every week. I will only include out-of-the-home activities if they take you places where you won’t be in close contact with other people.

Source: BBHS