What I read: This week I read a couple of books, the first was The Read Aloud Family. I have discovered the amazing world of podcasts over the past few weeks (yes, I am behind the times!) One of my newest discoveries is The Read Aloud Revival podcast by Sarah MacKenzie. She is a homeschooling mama that loves to encourage other parents to share their love of reading with their kids by embracing read-alouds. I really enjoyed this book. My favorite parts were all of the read-aloud recommendations that she included and the personal stories that were linked to those books. I also liked how the book is chock-full of advice and research on the benefits of reading aloud to your children. I stop reading aloud to my kids generally when they willingly begin to read all on their own. Apparently that is wrong and even older children benefit from read-alouds. How?? By reading aloud to older children you are exposing them to books they might not choose on their own (or be capable of reading yet) this leads to discussions that nurture and strengthen the family bonds. After reading this book, I immediately downloaded several audio books from the library. We plan on listening to these books together as a family when traveling in the car or when putting together the numerous puzzles I picked up to get us through the current pandemic (I am grasping at straws as to how to keep my extrovert children entertained!)
The other book I am reading is The Island of the Mad by Laurie King. I was lucky to visit the library before they closed due to the corona virus, so I grabbed all of the copies from the Mary Russell series I could. This book is set in Venice, Italy and it so far has been one of her better books in my opinion. I’ve enjoyed learning about some of the Italian culture and history as well.
Emma (15 years old) is reading The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. **If you loved Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, you would enjoy this series.
Ben (8 years old) is reading Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days and The Wizard of Oz (the book is very different from the movie…the shoes were silver!)
What I watched: I am currently watching Season 10 of Murdoch Mysteries and catching up on the latest season of Grantchester on Prime.
Struggles this week:
-My children were really sad to be forced into house arrest due to the corona virus. But when their youth groups, college classes, home school co-op, friend meetups, and play practices got cancelled…they were devastated. This quarantine hasn’t effected me too terribly because I am an introvert at heart, but my extroverted kids have really struggled.
-We have been saddened that our church has cancelled all public masses. Going to church is something that we all take for granted. The idea that we will not be receiving the Holy Eucharist for awhile has hit me hard.
But on the other hand….
Blessings this week:
-Yes, we have had to cancel all of our beloved activities, but that just means we got to spend more time together. Translation: We are going to learn to get along, even if it kills us.
-We actually had really nice weather this week (most days) so we took advantage of this and headed outside to bike ride, walk, and kick a soccer ball around.
-Ben voluntarily picked up a book and started reading on his own. He has been able to read for 3 years, but has never been self-motivated to read before. This week, he has finished one book all on his own and then eagerly started reading some more e-books that I downloaded onto his kindle. I have always wished that my children would share my love of books and now they both do!!
-Emma has been kind enough to spend some quality time with Ben this week. She has been such a good sport about it that she played toys with him multiple times and watched Stranger Things with him as well (He gets scared during some of the scenes so she tells him when to close his eyes…how cute is that)
-My mom and I have been sharing food items that we couldn’t find in the stores with each other and talking on the phone lots.
-Our biggest blessing is that we have not been sick and I hope that we keep it that way.
Things I learned:
-That isolation is not so bad when you are with the people you love….and have a great internet connection:)
-That our library offers Hoopla and it is simply wonderful. We only get six downloads per month, but there is no waiting on audio books or e-books, so that is a big bonus.
-That the bad times highlight the fact that there are so many good and helpful people in the world. It simply makes this awful situation so much easier to bear, knowing that we are all pulling together.
Something I was happy to accomplish this week:
-I successfully taught Ben to tie his shoes. He has been reluctant for many years, but something clicked this week and now he is so proud of himself for tying his own shoes.
-I finally turned unnecessary notifications off on my cell phone. I am technologically challenged.
-Paid off our car loan and received the title in the mail. We are officially 100% debt free again:)
Funny things that happened:
-I was buying my husband some new boxer shorts at Walmart and noticed that one of the brands were advertising that their shorts had a “cool zone fly” feature. I guess we have weird senses of humor because the jokes ensued about people keeping their “cool zones” away from other people. Then Ben told Emma to stop saying that because “We might get arrested or thrown out of the store!”
-My husband has been away on business, so we have been staying in touch by using Facetime with him in the evenings. For some reason, the kids have taken to shouting their goodbyes in weird ways. Emma shouts, “Stay safe. Don’t get pregnant.” Ben yells, “Don’t get eaten by beav-coons!” And I always end the call by leaning close to the screen and whispering, “Save me!” **Bonus points if you know where the beav-coon reference came from.
Stay safe and try to keep on laughing!
The Thrifty Educator 