tales from a far-land

May 19th was a bittersweet day for our family.  In year's past the last day of school was joyous occasion.  The kids would enjoy end of the year parties with their classmates.  They would sign each other's yearbooks.  They would say goodbye to their teachers and friends before heading home to start summer break.   None of those traditions happened this year.  Instead, the school year ended with me picking up the kids' classroom stuff and yearbook from school wearing a mask while social distancing from their teachers.  Such a weird day.   The kids, though, were happy that homeschooling was over.  At least, for now ...   Even the school's mascot as masked up A special goodbye to Mrs. Billings - she is officially retired! Madilyn ~ Last Day of School Aiden ~ Last Day of School Both kids Aiden's Comparison 1st and Last Day of School 3rd Grade Madi's Comparison 1st and Last Day of School 4th Grade Both Kids Comparison 1st and L...

We are a Star Wars family.  We have watched every Star Wars movie with our kids.  We have taken (when movie theaters were in operation) our kids to every Star Wars movie as they have debuted once they were old enough to sit through a full length movie.  We watched The Mandalorian on Disney+ as soon as it was available.  We even dressed up as a family in Star Wars costumes for Halloween three years ago.  No question ... we are a Star Wars family!  So, what do you do when you are quarantined at home and there is an international reason to celebrate Star Wars?  You celebrate!  We incorporated the special day into the kids homeschooling daily curriculum.  Their art assignment was to learn how to draw Baby Yoda.  They also had a read an article about Star Wars day and why it is celebrated.  And lastly, they created an interview video to respond to the Star Wars question of the day that was posed to them. They did a really good job. Then,...

On March 20th, Governor Ducey announced that the already statewide closure of schools would be extended through April 10th, which ultimately then was extended through the remainder of the school year.  With these announcements, our family started homeschooling on March 23rd, the date that they would have returned back to school after spring break.  By this point in time, I was also working from home, so in order for all of us to function under one roof, we needed to start structuring our our days. In order to prepare, I started researching homeschooling routines and curriculum.  I quickly became overwhelmed.  There are so many different approaches and schools of thought.  However, after researching on the internet and collaborating with friends, I came up with daily itineraries for each of my kids to use during the week.  At the beginning, we hadn't been given any formal guidance from my kids' school district on class assignments, so their curriculum incl...