Helping with school.

 I wish I had pictures today. Mental imagery will have to do.

I was with the kids today again. Here are a few highlights.

Everyone greets me happily, making me feel very welcome. I'm walking in just minutes before the first google meet of the day, and the youngest is very social and wants to be at that meet. She also wants to finish eating breakfast of cereal with plenty of milk, which I won't allow anywhere near her computer. So she eats fast and makes it to the meet.

The middle child is reading about the Midwest in social studies, so I have the honor of adding to the data. It is true that we eat a lot of corn. It is not true that most of the corn raised in the corn belt is used to feed humans as frozen corn and corn on the cob. A lot of corn feeds animals, which feed humans. It is also used  to make ethanol, and many other products. We frequently add in that this land was taken from other people who lived here first. That buffalo were killed, not only for the hides, but also to reduce the food supply for the indigenous peoples, to drive them out.  Mount Rushmore, one of the notable landmarks, was taken from them. I'm not sure if this information is as important to him right now as it is to me, but I want him to have a broader scope of history, so I offer what I can.

The youngest had an art project today, using patterns to decorate the drawing of a blanket wrapped around a rabbit (illustrating a story). The story, Ten Little Rabbits, by Virginia Grossman, included many cultural Native American traditions. The art teacher also included a link to Native American music, to listen to while designing patterns for the blanket drawing. I turned on the music and left my grand-daughter to work while I checked on her older brother. When I returned, she was not at her table coloring. She was in the kitchen, dancing quietly to the music. It was beautiful.

The oldest is taller than me and his voice has changed, and he is ready for more independence. He works that through with me quite graciously. We do some daily negotiations. Most of the time his work is done independently from me, but I'm no good at figuring out whether he has missed something important. That is where the negotiating comes in because I have to ask for help from the remote teachers. Even though I know this has to be tough for him, he is still glad to see me every time I come, and wants to be sure to say a pleasant good-bye when I leave. 

I had the honor of being interviewed for his Kansas history project, about the Hesston tornado, and he did a great job of putting together that presentation with photos and other information about the tornado.

The middle child's class is doing a lot of writing, and currently is working on writing about an opinion. Usually it is hard for him to know what he wants to write, but in this case, he wants to include enough detail to fill a small book. In fact today he was the only one in his class that was going to be writing four paragraphs instead of three to support his opinion. Even so, he was affirming that he thought he would write much more than that to let people know why his favorite video game is the best one. Later, talking to my daughter (who has played this game), I discovered that he is not the only one who likes this game and that there are quite a few great parts of this game that aren't covered yet in the list he has made. It is fun to see him so enthused.

Remote schooling is hard. It is hard for the kids, the teachers, and the family members who help them. I have fifteen alarms set on my phone to get to all the meets in one day of school for three children. But we are doing it, all of us together. There are real bright spots in our days. And it is getting easier as we figure out what works and what doesn't.