Today I put about as much effort into the 7yo's homeschooling as his school is. What do I mean by that? Well, for starters, the curriculum being prepared by the school is supposed to keep the kid occupied for 2 hours per day. The reality is that he blows through the materials in about 20-30 minutes every day. In many of the subjects he is still working on the same concepts that he was working on a month ago when in-person school ended. I don't think any of the teachers have introduced any new materials. In math he's still adding and subtracting dollar figures. In science, he's still talking about insects. In writing, he's still determining the difference between a plural noun and a possessive noun. And that's IF materials have been posted for that subject. Case in point: This week there is no math or science work. When this happens, the students are directed to a series of online science or math gaming apps. It's frustrating that the 7yo is not being challenged, and even he has started to recognize that he's not learning anything new.
What I'm doing today
Scavenging - We have a problematic corner in the garage that is just a cluttered mess. There's a file cabinet with tons of stuff heaped on top, a collection of broken-down boxes, bike helmets, and miscellaneous other stuff. Today we tackled the bike helmets. I scrounged up some scrap lumber and the remains of the dowel left over from fixing a chair a few weeks ago. While the kids played in the backyard this morning, I worked on the deck, cutting, sanding, drilling, etc. When I was finished I had built a rack for organizing all the bike helmets, jump ropes, and other random stuff.
Going postal - When we moved in to this house, we inherited a rickety old rotted-out turd of a mailbox. My next-door neighbor and I have been discussing replacing our mailboxes (we share a post) since last summer, so today we finally pulled the trigger. We social distanced, so I started out with a 3 lb hammer and chisel chipping away at the concrete around the base, while the neighbor stood in line at Home Depot. I don't know who drew the short straw, honestly, but at least I got a good workout in. We already had a pre-fabricated post that we built last summer so that part was done. We set the post in the hole, leveled, and used expanding foam instead of concrete to secure the post. I do not recommend the foam method, because it was an absolute mess. Last we had to cut some lumber to serve as brackets for the boxes. We mounted the brackets and secured the mail boxes. The result looks 1000% better than before. We now just need to do some cleanup around the base where the foam expanded more than expected and overflowed onto the sidewalk. I'm saving that for another day.
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