Diary of a Homeschool Dad: Week 22

It was back to school time for everyone out there, as we've moved into 2021. 

Sunday - After our usual morning routine, we got to add a new feature to our evenings: Bible Drill!  Our church has been doing this for several years now, and both Curly and Whirly are both involved this year.  This was actually the last thing we did with the kids at church before the Covid quarantine began last March, as Curly had her Church competition just before we left for vacation (and when we got back everything was shut down).  She was bummed that she didn't get to compete at the next two levels, which were Association and State competitions, so she's back for her final grade of elementary school to finish what she started.

Monday - Mrs. Geographist had the final day of her long-term sub position, with the first weekday of 2021 being a teacher in-service day in the local school district.  All the girls stayed home with me while she went to transition her classroom over to the full-time teacher that will handle the spring semester.  While at home, we started receiving some of the online orders we'd replaced with our Christmas gift cards, and Girly now gets to start sharing her unusual obsession with vinyl-era rock and roll.  The evening ended with her return to cello lessons for the start of the new year.

Tuesday - The official end of Christmas break ended on Tuesday morning with the older two girls returning to their campus.  With Mrs. Geo being at home for a couple of days, Whirly got to have her favorite substitute teacher at home while I was able to focus on work from the office.  I was quite surprised at how much more quickly they finished their daily work than when I do things.  Whirly got back into the martial arts studio, although they asked parents to remain outside for the time being so I'm really not sure what all they covered.  Curly was back into the swing of clarinet lessons after school, followed by some pizza to cap off the day.

Wednesday - Unfortunately, worries about positive cases in our area caused someone at our church to cancel children's activities, so the midweek schedule took a significant hit.  I was still relegated to work activities during the day, as my wife continued to handle school work with Whirly.  And since it wasn't a particularly busy day, I decided it might be a good idea to shop for auto insurance (after all, we have a new car and a new driver, so maybe a better rate was out there to be found).  Let's just say 15 minutes ended up saving us closer to 40%.  With nothing to do on a gorgeous evening, I broke out the grill and cooked up some bratwurst for dinner.

Thursday - Hey, I got my job back!  Mrs. Geo was back in a classroom today as a substitute teacher, so Whirly and I were back together in our home office.  If being back for the first time in three weeks wasn't tricky enough, just try doing it in the middle of a week when you don't have a full backstory on all of kiddo's assignments.  We managed to get through everything, however, including the usual trip to martial arts.  I was running a little behind on work, however, so my wife wound up taking Curly to her piano lesson.  That left me behind to handle cooking duties once again, so I threw together some breaded chicken and spaghetti.  I've done the chicken thing several times before, but this time I got in a hurry and muddled everything up by throwing the breadcrumbs into the mixture (rather than keeping them separate and rolling the chicken into them).  Oh well, at least my blunder didn't mess up the taste.

Friday - With such an abnormal homeschool week, it seemed appropriate to finish it up on a weird note.  So Mrs. Geographist handled school until 11, and then I took over as she left the house to work a half day.  Fortunately the back-and-forth schedule didn't seem to impact Whirly much.  Unfortunately, however, my office didn't really seem to need any help until the afternoon, so make of that what you will.  To celebrate the end of our first week back in a "normal" schedule, we headed down to a restaurant in Kemah and ate entirely too much.

Saturday - Curly has long been our most athletic daughter, and after a one-year hiatus she got back into our church-sponsored basketball league this season.  I drove her across town for the first game, and since there's only room for one spectator per player we had some nice one-on-one time along the way.  A friend of hers has been singing songs from Hamilton (the Broadway musical) at school, so because I love history and she was interested I let her watch the first act on my phone.  The team had a decent first game but came out on the losing end, although none of the girls seemed to mind so much.  Some of these girls have been playing together since first grade, so they just love hanging out and having fun.  Mrs. Geo and I did some shopping for laptops at the local electronics store, and wrapped up the day with Chinese takeout.

 

On a side note, I'd like to once again thank everyone who takes the time to hit my website.  Last month was the highest traffic month ever for Geographist.com and I'm glad to think someone out there finds some value or entertainment in what's going on here.  Thank you, and please feel free to leave comments with any questions or suggestions.