Siiiiiiiiiis. 😮 I had no idea. No lie, Monday, 4/20, was a student holiday and I, da lil handicapped homie, almost missed it. I knew the significance of 4/20 but school being out for teacher’s workday? Psssssssft. My 8th grader and 12th grader were joking about it when Academy started at 9:00AM. I didn’t believe it but when they proved it via the school calendar, I happily accepted my wrongness. I still made all four go through all assignments and websites before dismissing them. (DAWG. A brother can used to teaching like this!)
Tuesday? Yuuuuup. Tuesday hit like a “bad case of the Mondays”. The students were playful, distracted but I was slow motion. I can’t blame Multiple Sclerosis or any of my health conditions; ya boi was just worn TF out. I was good and tired homie. I couldn’t get myself excited about “actively monitoring” the students’ homework, assignments or online participation in various chat groups and flipgrids. Not today. Not again. Sure, we’re managing well, stuff getting done, everybody is on their decent behavior but it wasn’t them. It was 100% me. Days like today are what regular folks with regular jobs call, the grind. The whole getting ready for Academy yesterday, finding out there was no Academy, the subsequent “oh-shit-what-do-we-do-now?” moment was all too much for me. Tuesday was the price I paid and I needed a mental health day. Wait, you are familiar with mental health days right? Where you call in sick to work but you’re NOT really sick; you’re just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I didn’t know to pull off a sick day when I was homeschooling but not really sick so I improvised. Principal Mommy offered the kids yardwork in exchange for their P.E. credit with me. They accepted thinking it would be leave me bummed out but DEAD WRONG POTNA. This was part of my plan! I knew how much yardwork needed to be done, flowerbed, garage cleaned, porch washed, the list goes on. These kids thought they’d do a little goofing around outside, ride bikes, talk BIG shit with Mommy and relax. Heeeeeeeeeeell NAW DAWG. This is quarantine season! Ain’t nobody got money to be paying extra dollars for yardwork during the pandemic. I DAMN ain’t finna be wondering if my yardman deserves a little ‘sumtin sumtin’ on top because the virus is jacking up my sick AF ass as is! The way I saw it, if I didn’t say anything, Principal Mommy would have dem kids (err uhm, students) outside the rest of freaking daylight.
So, I DID and it worked!
By the time it was over, only my 8th grader and 1st grader finished their assignments today. Everybody else was bushed and beat down from the working P.E. aka yardwork. We did make sure that nothing else needed to be done; which is why my son came back to Academy and finished his stuff alone. I had to give him PROPS on that because he told us, “Awww. Maaaaaaan, I still got more schoolwork to do.”
Nope, I was NOT gonna double check either. He could’ve said he was done and gotten away with it. As is, he knocked off that flowerbed with his little sister and I appreciate him for that. I’m pretty sure that Principal Mommy is proud too because she rewarded him with candy and affirmations.
Kid #4 has been struggling with her decision making lately. The problem is that her schoolwork is not on level with her actual learning needs. She reads on a 5th grade level, tested and confirmed G/T in Math, Science, Reading and Arts so coloring sheets, make a picture, find an object, 6 math problems is not going to hold her attention. She flies through the simplistic projects and squeezes my poor, little nerves for more interesting junk. It’s getting so bad that I adjusted Gratitude Assignments so she’ll always have something freeform and writing to work on at the end of the day. Today was to be her first day with that buuuuuut… COOL BEANS. I can definitely wait to start that tomorrow!
Kid #3 did NOT finish her work today. She was so content with skipping P.E. to clean outside that she volunteered for the garage action! Then again, she has earned the right to create her own YouTube channel and everywhere she went, she first set up her camera, explained to her followers and made sure they had the best view of her “hard work”.
If you were wondering about kid #1 aka the high school senior, she was on kitchen/cooking duties. I keep bragging; quarantine life has forced her to explore cooking more. She gets bored, boyfriend can’t come inside the house, we ain’t sharing like that during a pandemic so we EAT the food she cooks… She has a rough life and preparing for a virtual prom is not what she and her homettes dreamed. (You doggone right I’m being sarcastic!)
Gratitude Assignment
Gratitude Assignments were intended for the entire classroom set of students (dem kids). We have plenty of time to finish them, discuss them and whatever else because we’re schooling at the crib anyway. Well, I’ve gotten away from Gratitude Assignments; exchanging them for household chores. After rocking an audiobook, How to Have a New Kid by Friday, I put together a remix based on her last child characteristics. She will doing Gratitudes independently as a punishment/reinforcement. Her baseline activity is below, an analysis of her own learning and behavior, and the length is determined by how much I think she needs.
