The glorious blooms that abound on my street, in my neighborhood, and the whole way to the Burger King drive thru window wave to me with joy. They remind me that the sun is still rising every morning. There is no new thing under the sun. The world has seen worse. God is still in heaven, and we will get through this too. If the earth is breaking out into such harmonious song, as seen in these pictures, then obviously the fat lady ain’t quite sung yet.

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Luke 12:27

I emailed a few friends with cameras and asked for photographs of spring wherever they are currently. Then I went on Facebook and begged a few spring pictures off of people in my newsfeed. These range from my own back yard to Amman, Jordan. Most of them are in the U.S. because I have never lived overseas. All of these photos, with the exception of the Europe ones (2018-19), were all taken in spring 2020, right in the middle of the world-wide shutdown. And you don’t have to click “NEXT” a thousand times to see them all either because you know I would never do that to you. Enjoy!

My friend Kristin sent me these gorgeous European photos. These first two are from flower shops in Amsterdam.

The picture of the yellow fields is from the village where my friend Kristin lives in in Germany. There is lots of farming in that area, and these are rapeseed flowers that they press to make rapeseed oil.

My friend Laura sent this photo from where she lives in Jordan. She said that the scene above is spring in Jordan in the tiny window when there is actual green to be seen before the sun fries all the grass once temperatures pass the 90s. Sheep are grazing everywhere while there is fresh grass! By the end of May this will all be brown.

Some of you may be wondering how I got pictures of Utah. Remember Jennings? She’s my college days friend who is a flight attendant. Well, airline travel is drastically reduced, but she does still get to work some days. Jennings went to Utah this past week and shared a few photos with us.

People of all ages are passing time outside this year instead of at shopping centers and restaurants. These young folks in the photo are all my cousins. I think we are all getting more time than usual in nature. Aren’t you glad it is spring and not winter?

Spring 2020 is no ordinary season. This is my friend Kristina who, like many people across the country, has been busy at home creating masks. Kristina has made tons of these and delivered them to community and hospital personnel. Her designs are cute too!

Look at all these super cute masks, and here I still haven’t managed to make myself one or find one, so I just don’t go anywhere. I really need to order one of these. I am not crafty, friends. Alan made one out of a bandana which he wore to buy our groceries, but I just haven’t left my car.

I thought the photo above was a fun way to end the post. Kelly’s family staged this so perfectly. In a spring where we are all tied to our electronic devices, I hope you all get a chance to go soak in all that spring has to offer. You know, when it isn’t raining. Of course, you could also be like my son Daniel and go out and play in the rain.

Thank you to all of my photographers!

Kristin Voudouris, Laura Childs, Megan Riley, Olivia Burley, Laura Sheldon, Jennings Rhodes, Amber Townsend, Dave Zimmerman, Kristina Tucker, Alyson Mims, Helena Booth, Katie Hedges, Amy McAmis, Sadie Waters, Stacie Harris, Amy Wilson, and Kelly Divito. Some of these I literally saw their photo in my Facebook feed and asked them if I could pretty please have their pictures. Haha! They were kind enough to share.

The post 60 Triumphant Photos of Spring Around the World in 2020 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We live in Maryland. Our teachers were given less than 24 hours of notice before schools shut down. Therefore, they cannot guarantee that all children have internet access at home or parent involvement. That limits how much the schools can assign. In some ways, I am thankful for that. One of my friends has children in a local private school that handed out more work than they can actually get done.

All of a sudden, I have four children, of all different ages, to keep busy all day long. This is the perfect time to panic, right? I mean just a little…

Those years (2014-2016) that we home schooled the boys have helped me a ton. I have some materials left over to use for the younger boys. Plus, I remember how stressed I got last time, putting way too much pressure on myself. This time, I am trying to take a far more laid back approach to it all. Each day I have a very reasonable list of no more than 6 things I expect us to get done each day.

Thankfully, you can find a ton of stuff online these days to help.

Here are a few websites I have found immensely helpful for daily school work.

#1. 15 Fun Indoor Recess Games and Activities

The very first day that my youngest child was hot on my case to “start home school now now now”, I sat down and asked him what they do first everyday. He is a first grader. His teacher makes school so much fun that he adores her and looks forward to going everyday. She is a quiet, introverted teacher, so I knew she must be running things well to make him love school so much.

He explained that they start each morning with “morning work,” and then they have their morning meeting. At the meeting, they greet each other, they share about their day or weekend, and then they play a game.

That was easy enough to incorporate into our home school. Sure. We can play an indoor game each day to get everyone in a good mood, having fun together. So far we have played Simon Says (only we called it Mom says), balloon tossing, charades, hot/cold, hide-and-go-seek, and four corners. I got almost all of these ideas from this website.

#2. Brain Pop

I have written about Brain Pop previously, here and here. I was already a fan. But now I’m an even firmer advocate for this website because they are providing their top rate services for FREE during the COVID-19 quarantine.

This site offers fun, engaging animated lessons on every subject, from science to art to math. Not only that, but it has games and quizzes to support those lessons. My son’s middle school uses these lessons regularly. They are solid and easy to pay attention to. This one is a big personal favorite at our house.

Go here to sign up for your free account.

#3. Brain Pop Junior

Everything I said for Brain Pop applies here, only this is the one geared towards kindergarten-third grades. I cannot recommend this program highly enough, and no, they are not paying me to say that. I am not on their payroll. We just like it that much.

Go here to sign up for your free account during the quarantine. Once schools are back in session, this website will go back to being a paid service.

#4. National Geographic

Nationalgeographic.com is one of the websites listed on our school’s recommended websites list. My middle schoolers are supposed to read or watch science or social studies articles or videos on there and then summarize them.

#5. Duolingo.com

This is a foreign language program and app. I downloaded the app version of it to my phone. It teaches about any common language you can think of. My sixth-grade son is using it for French. He says it’s fun, and he enjoys it ever so much more than he ever enjoyed going to his French class at school. This is another must-have, and I downloaded the free app version. However, it will only let you play a limited amount with a free account. There are days that we run out of tokens and could use the paid version.

#6. Typing Club

When we moved to Maryland, I was dismayed to discover that all the middle schoolers here have been typing for years. That left my kids in the dust. In fact, my 3rd grader has already begun typing lessons at his school. Apparently, it’s never too early to begin learning typing in our ever-increasingly electronic age.

Typing club is a very clear typing program. It teaches typing the same way we learned it. Only this generation never has to worry about a typewriter or correction ribbon. Aren’t they lucky?

We did pay for this service. My 8th grader is using it everyday while my three younger boys are using it sporadically. Go here to try it out.

#7. Starfall for grades PreK-3rd

This one was also on our public school’s list. The games on it are super cute. My first grader thoroughly enjoys the learning games on starfall.com. They have a variety of subjects too.

#8. Reading Eggs/ Reading Eggspress

This reading skills website is for kids ages pre-k through first grade. Actually, if you go with the reading express version, it serves more of a reading comprehension purpose and is good for all elementary school grades past reading eggs.

You can try it out now free for the first 30 days. They are running this deal to support all the kids currently out of school.

Our family has a long history of using reading eggs. It is a fun and effective program. My first grader LOVES it.

#9. Math Seeds

Math Seeds is the math portion of the reading eggs website. It is also really cute and fun. I highly recommend these. Math Seeds is also doing a free trial.

#10. Stack the States

I could not find this one in Apple’s app store, but it is available for $2.99 in Google’s. I downloaded this app for my elementary sons on our Kindle fire tablet. We also used this app back when we home-schooled before. It is really fun. This one is worth the $2.99.

#11. Library

We have not gotten around to using this one yet because I am such a book hoarder we haven’t needed to. However, I have several friends who are using the library’s ebooks every single day. I need to dig out my library card and try this one out.

I will say silent reading time is my FAVORITE subject of the day. I set my oven timer for 30 minutes, and that is the quietest half hour we have all day. I use it to start cooking dinner.

#12. Prodigy Math

My nine-year-old loves prodigy math. He logs on there and plays math games and battles dragons and wizards and other kids. They battle by solving math problems. It’s a hit.

#13. Helpful YouTube Videos

Here a few YouTube videos we have enjoyed:

Social Studies:

CC Timeline Song in its entirety

Tour the States music video

Tour the World music video

Math:

Geometry Song (area, measurements, etc.)

Counting by 3s

Multiplying by 7s

There are countless fun multiplications songs and such on YouTube.

Science:

Science Songs (atomic number, periodic elements, creation & evolution, etc.)

Cell Songs (parts of the cell)

There’s a whole National Geographic channel. The Weird but True ones are our favorite.

#14. Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems

If your kids like the Pigeon books or the Elephant and Piggy stories, they will love these art lessons with Mo. He started this series specifically for all the kids at home due to coronavirus.

My first grader is a big fan.

#15. NASA Kids’ Club

This is one that I just discovered, but if your kids like to learn about space, this looks like an obvious win.

If you click on “Fun activities to do at Home” it takes you to crafty science projects. There are also puzzles you can print out.

There are videos and photos to look at. This website is more of a resource than a game place, though it does also have a few games.

We are all in this together! Add any of your family’s favorite school websites or apps in the comments below.

Okay, I am off to decompress. I feel like I have earned some Tri-Peaks Solitaire time, or maybe I will just take a nap…

The post 15 Helpful Websites and Apps for Your Quarantine Home School appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Do you have anyone in your house with a quarantine birthday?

It feels ironic that I wrote a post only two weeks ago where I talked about how my birthday party was postponed when I turned eight years old. That was due to chicken pox. Remember chicken pox? Then here I am thirty-one years later “postponing” my son’s ninth birthday party while we all hunker down to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. I told him we will do his party in April, but I have no idea if that will actually happen.

Poor Daniel. He was all kinds of pumped for this party too. It was going to be at a trampoline park, you know, where germs go to exchange hosts. haha!

I still want Daniel’s birthday to be special though, even if he will only see our same ol’ faces on that day. His birthday is on a Sunday, and church is cancelled. It may sound bad, but as a wiggly nine-year-old boy, he will assure you that this is a win.

So here are a few things we are doing to save the quarantine birthday:

#1. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast

As long as they keep that drive thru running, this may be a first at our house. We rarely buy donuts, and if we do it’s usually later in the day. I am not a morning person, out running about town before breakfast!

I told Daniel he could pick anything he wants for breakfast, and that is what he chose. Many of you are wondering why in the world he didn’t choose Krispy Kreme donuts. We live in Maryland. The nearest Krispy Kreme is an hour away, so Dunkin’ it is.

#2. NERF gun war!

Everyone is basically running around with Nerf guns, setting up forts, etc., and it is quite chaotic, but they love it.

#3. Sweet potato casserole and yeast rolls for lunch

Isn’t he cute?

#4. Grocery Store Bakery cake– I am picking this up today, two days ahead, just in case the bakery folds.

Vanilla cake with chocolate icing, per his instructions. He first requested ganache filling with a fondant icing, Haha! He’s my little chef. The thing is I have not found a place like that here yet, and I have not even attempted making fondant icing. He agreed to settle for the standard grocery store bakery cake. By next year we will be more established here, and then I will go buy him the fancy cake he desires.

Don’t worry. We’ve already ordered the cake. It was the only one they were making today, and they said it would be ready by 4:30.

#5. Fortnite Piñata!!!

Shhh! Don’t tell Daniel. This is a surprise. I found it on clearance at Walmart at Christmas time. These were selling for $70 everywhere else because the piñata is filled with Fortnite toys, but I found it for only $40. However, when Christmas time came I realized I had over bought for the little boys. You know, you have to make all the presents fair and even, so I stashed it away, and they have forgotten that this was even a thing they asked for.

#6. Extra Presents

Alan went to Target a few nights ago. He said it was so empty of people and essentials that it was eerie. Toys were still fully stocked though, so Alan went a little overboard. After all, there won’t be any friends bringing toys to a nonexistent party, so a few extra won’t hurt.

#7. He gets to pick a family movie to watch.

This is another thing he requested. I asked him for all the birthday ideas he could think of. He hasn’t decided on which movie yet, but he does love movies.

#8. Extra video game time

Boys tend to be really simple in this way. Things like extra video game time make them quite the happy campers.

#9. Festive decor

No one is coming over, but I will still hang the “Happy birthday” sign, put out festive decor, and maybe even make punch. I firmly believe boys enjoy a festively decorated party every bit as much as girls do. They especially appreciate balloons, not just hanging balloons, but balloons that they are allowed to throw around and eventually destroy. Boys do love to destroy things.

#10 FaceTime & Phone calls to family

All the grandparents will want to wish him a happy birthday, I’m sure.

And last but not least…#11. Hugs, attention, and Mint Ice cream

….because Daniel likes ice cream that tastes like toothpaste. Of course, this is only if I find a grocery store that still has mint ice cream. I had no luck with that at the grocery store today, so picked up some mint Little Debbie snacks instead.

9 is fine.

Just like us. We’re fine. Right? Everything is fine. My neighbor and I were talking about how much cleaning we are getting done.

Keep in touch, y’all! I am getting cabin fever already.

Follow this blog on my Facebook page. That’s where I’m hangin’ these days.

Also, check out my recently published book where I take you on a tour through the Holy Land with 280 beautiful full color photos. It’s FREE today and tomorrow only on Amazon!

The post 10 Ideas for Making a Quarantine Birthday Fun appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

And just like that, the whole country became home school families!

Does anyone else feel like a month has passed since last Wednesday? Our “cancelling school” announcement came on a Thursday night, and that was the day the world felt like it began to unravel. Then we all sort of went underground.

Now you know this all feels extremely ironic to me. I said I would never home school again. It was not for me. Honestly, I was a bit scared of this task. I tried it before. for two years, gave myself v-tach repeatedly, and then they boys returned to school. V-tach is a dangerous heart arrhythmia that is rare, and most of you do not need to worry about it. I have much to learn in the way I handle stress, so I take heart pills now. Really I should probably return to full on anxiety pills too, but that is a topic for another day.

I have good news.

So far the second act of home-schooling our four boys has gone drastically more smoothly than our first try. Still, I won’t count our chickens before they hatch. I am sure this could all still go horribly wrong. In the meantime, when I start to feel like the room is too chaotic for me, I make them all chant that mom is in charge several times, threaten to take away all video games, and then things calm down.

In fact, I did take away video games from two unfortunate ruffians today who forgot Mom was in charge, and that is THE KEY to maintaining order: making good on any threats/promises. Consequences are obnoxiously important.

The hardest thing about home school for me has always been the chaos. I like things to be quiet and somewhat peaceful, which is hilarious because I have four children. In an attempt to control my environment, I make schedules and lists like this, and it helps a great deal:

My motto is that the times themselves are not important. They are a loose guide to remind me to give recess and lunch and not forget anything I had planned to do. As they say in the Army, “The plan is nothing, but planning is everything.” Well, I think they say that in the Army. Someone says it. If they don’t say it, then they should.

So many questions

This week brought up so many questions for us. Did it for you too? I texted my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law because they both taught middle school for years. I do not know the first thing about teaching middle school. Elementary school is where my experience lies, but my eighth grader has informed me that my activities are “for five-year-olds.” This is an exaggeration, of course. I am not teaching anyone how to read or count. But at the same time, he’s right. My stuff is elementary, so I have been frantically digging for how to level things up.

People have sent me questions too.

Ah, feeling useful felt good. Thank you for asking me questions. The questions I was asked were about home schooling school-aged children when you have a toddler underfoot. This is what I told her, just off the top of my head. It isn’t much, since this was all via text message. We are being good citizens and staying socially distant.

Ideas/advice for someone trying to homeschool older siblings when there’s a toddler at home:

-Pray on your face and cry. (hahaha I really wish I were kidding.)

-First, the older siblings have to know that mom is in charge, and they cannot say “no” to any of her directions. They do not say “no” to their teachers, so they must treat you with that same respect.

-Mom can provide choices, but the stress of dealing with disobedience is mind-blowing. (I was having to deal with it at the moment I texted about this, so the feelings of frustration were still raw.)

-My best tip is to start the day with a toddler activity.

-If you need to work with one sibling, put the other sibling in charge of the toddler.

-Do some group reading where Mom reads out loud to all the kids. You can also watch educational YouTube or National Geographic videos together while the toddler plays with a game or toy they don’t always have access to.

-Older siblings can also read to the toddler.

-Find work the older siblings can do online alone, like Brain Pop or whatever sites your school system recommended. One of my kids is learning a language using Duolingo. He likes it, and I am not even involved. We actually use the app version. I think he has learned more from the app than he was learning in his French classroom at school, but the traditional classroom is not his favorite way to learn.

I could talk about home-schooling all day because I am currently overseeing the education of four boys, and it consumes much of my day. Ah yes! Another excuse to spend less time cleaning!

Click here for more of my articles on home-schooling, written back when I spent two years fully engaged in teaching our boys.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for my new book, Tour Israel in Pictures and Stories. It ends at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning. I was so excited tonight to discover that it is currently the #2 best seller in Israel travel guides on Amazon. Wahoo! Thanks for your support, everyone!

Send me any great activities you know for middle schoolers who hate school work, and send any questions you have too. Best of luck you all! No stressing. It isn’t worth giving yourself heart problems. Keep calm and home school on.

The post Life in the Underground Day 2: The Great Return to Home School appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.