COVID Homeschool Schedule During Quarantine - 3rd Grade

Homeschooling a 9-year old is tough. Although Jace receives weekly packets to work on, he only works on the packet for 1-2 hours per day so it is definitely not enough to fill up the whole day. I decided to put together a blog of some fun ideas and things that he has been doing during the day while I work from home. I have gathered resources from my email, ideas on social media, and from friends and family. The idea of homeschooling can be overwhelming but this is the perfect time to also make it fun while educational. If you have anything to add, please comment below and let me know your thoughts!

Everyday, without fail, I make sure I put together a schedule. Usually I put it together the night before and go over it with Jace so 1. He can have an input on what he wants to do and 2. He knows what to expect. Below are some fun things that we have done together.

Jace and I did some of a Lego Challenge. He has so many Legos so every day is a new challenge. Here was our day one:



Here is the link to the daily challenges: Lego 30-Day Challenge

Jace LOVES animals and I had no idea that Google has a cool 3D animal VR option where you can pick from a list of animals and see them in 3D. Not only that, but you can also view them in your own space. We had a shark in our bedroom and Sue had no idea that there was a Tiger next to her. 



Here are the steps to do this:
On your phone, in the Google search bar, type in "Tiger" or the animal that you want to see in 3D


Hit Enter and scroll down until you see the text, "View in 3D"


Click on that and then click "View in Your Space"

Follow the directions on-screen and you can see the animal in your space


Here are the animal options:
Lion 
Tiger
Cheetah
Shark
Hedgehog
Duck
Emperor Penguin
Wolf
Anglerfish
Goat
Rottweiler
Snake
Eagle
Alligator
Horse
Shetland Pony
Macaw
Pug
Turtle
Cat
Octopus

Those animals have been really fun. Another fun thing has been sculpting videos. My friends stepdad (Gary) is a sculptor. He lives in Arizona and he has made some amazing sculptures. He currently has a YouTube channel where you can watch him create really cool animals. I am getting Jace some clay for Easter so he can start to make some. The best part is that Jace wanted to do an alligator - so I mentioned this to Gary on Facebook and he did a live video today of him doing the alligator. For someone that LOVES YouTube, Jace was SO happy! This channel was made for all ages, but especially kids who love animals and clay!

Sculpting - Gary Lee Price Studios on YouTube

We have watched Gary make a:
Frog
Alligator 
Cactus

And looking forward to others! Since Jace has been home, I thought it would be a great idea to do a Mindful Minute. I haven't done this before but I know sometimes with homework, he gets frustrated so I decided to do this before he starts his day. I printed off the daily forms from SHAPE America. He doesn't do the workout portion, but just the Mindful Minute and the questions that follow. Yesterday he did two minutes where he just closed his eyes and just focused on the present and nothing around him. He then did the reflection questions about how he felt before, during and after and he said that it felt good and he liked it.


To help with several topics including Language Arts, Math, Geography, and Science, I printed off several quizzes and lessons HERE and also the answer key. I felt like some subjects and questions were too hard but for the most part, these are great learning materials. I have him do one worksheet per day. 


When it comes to Math, that is one thing that we don't want Jace to fall behind in. I was able to find an amazing PDF from edHelper.com that provides Math worksheets HERE. I only printed off the ones that I thought would help him but for 3rd grade, this includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, missing numbers, fractions, and so much more. They have Kindergarten through Middle School packets and you can click on your grade HERE.  


Jace loves coloring and Mossy Oak has free printable color pages that you can print and have your kids color. 


One of the most interesting things we have done the past month is virtual tours. 

We toured the World War 2 exhibit 


We rode on virtual rollercoasters from Hershey's Park


We toured the Manchester Mystery House. It looks like it costs money now to tour this home virtually but we did ours for free about a month ago. Kevin and I went there in person so Jace enjoyed watching the virtual tour. 


My friends husband draws and he actually provides free color pages for kids on Facebook. He put them in an album called Color Me Daily to provide print-outs for kids to color. Just download the photos you want to color. I have these printed out and ready for Jace to color! 



If you are looking for a printable Tic Tac Toe game, Melissa & Doug have one ready for you! Jace and I played one round and neither of us won. I'm printing more to play next week. 


I will be adding more, but I hope this is a great start! Please comment below with any other ideas you may have! Who knows, I may add it to the blog!

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