Alright friends, you hanging in there with this COVID craze?? I shared my uncertain-but-okay feelings about the virus and its takedown of the world in my last post, although the story further unfolds, even as I type this. Ryan just told me that CA’s governor stated today that our schools won’t likely re-open before the school year’s end. That is wild. If I let my head get overwhelmed by the long haul ahead of us till the normalcy of school and schedules and activities ever return, my little head will get sunk. But guess what? I don’t want that! I don’t want to sink. I want to swim. I want to make dents in my sphere of influence, to control what I can. I want to be effective with the time with my kids that I’ve literally just been handed. And I want to “be a helper.”

You’ve likely seen that Mr. Rogers quote — “When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping'” — well, I want to be that helper! I want to help my fellow mamas out there as we suddenly, largely take on our children’s educations. I have been teaching Claire from home all year alongside my friend, Chrissy, and her 5-year-old (we have swapped the whole preschool gig weekly), so regularly coming up with lesson plans and carving out time to teach at home isn’t novel for me. After home schooling for months now, there is an easy, in-depth and creative approach you can take toward educating your kids — I’ll show you! It’s all so much fun. Magic happens when you, Mama, open up new worlds to your sweet babies, no matter their age. You put some heart into helping them grow and together you learn, flexing your brain muscles and making memories together en route.

So as I teach my girls at home, I’ll post our lessons for you here under the title, “TEACH YO TOTS.” My lessons are a great fit for elementary school kids, but they’re totally adaptable for younger and older kids (see the very end of the post for adaption examples). My lesson ideas may be supplemental for some and the lesson of the day for others. Either way, join my girls and me and swap out an hour of screen time for some slick schooling. 😀 The quality time we are being handed right now to grow with our kids is a gift of this crazy COVID thing. A silver lining along a horizon of unawares.

That said! Let’s jump into our first lesson around here: GERMS 101

It’s a pertinent topic for the times, don’t you think? 😉 I like to vary the focus of my lessons – from history, to science, to the arts, to current events – to keeps things interesting for you and for your kids. “Germs 101” stands on the shoulders of Biology while looking out at the world’s current events. With a little history, math, and art for some cherries on top. 🙂

Here’s the lesson plan!

GERMS 101

Topics covered: biology, current events, history, math, art

GROUP DISCUSSION

— Ask, “What is a germ?” Define and discus (your kids’ answers will surprise you — they’ll almost always be spot-on!), and then introduce “pandemics” (when a disease spreads through an entire country and/or throughout the world). Discuss that we’re currently experiencing a pandemic with the outbreak of the Corona Virus, and that that’s okay! For one, pandemics have happened before, and luckily, there are a few things we can do about them.

— Discuss/teach hand washing! The best way to stop disease from spreading is via hygiene (and social distancing in today’s case, but we focused on hygiene for this lesson). Watch the following two videos about germs and hygiene:

HOW GERMS GET INSIDE YOUR BODY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYhPfTJwvj0

TOP 5 HYGIENIC TIPS TO FIGHT GERMS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Qj0Nd4RlU

— Discuss/teach about vaccines, another way to curb pandemics. Define “vaccine” (a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases). Watch the following video about why we get vaccines:

WHY WE GET VACCINES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SproXmRUkI

— Introduce scientists that developed vaccines, like Dr. Edward Jenner (the credited investor of immunology!) and his discovered vaccine against smallpox. We went through the slides of this short article below, They Discovered the Cure For…,to tap into that history, which was super enlightening and fun.

After our discussion finished, we moved on to the…

HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

— Play “Sickness Math!” Present age-appropriate story problems all about germs, such as…

4 people were sick. 7 people got the germ, too. How many people in total were sick?

150 people were taught about the right way to wash their hands, but the city of San Diego wanted to have 400 people taught in total. How many more people needed to be taught about washing their hands?

We did math problems for a looong time. The girls were having a blast! And they learned to better crunch their numbers. Win-win.

— Create germ models via play-doh! To add an extra element of fun, I had the girls draw their models out on their white boards first and then make their play-doh creations. Claire’s germ mock-ups down there is to die for — “The Floo Germ” and “The Ckold Germ” and that last germ up there by her hand that I honestly cannot make out what it is, haha. 🙂

See that scary germ face in there?? 🙂

Olivia’s spot-on model!

And Miss Chloe’s chubby hand sneaking in (couldn’t leave this one out for the record’s sake)!

Lesson adaptations/notes — 

If you have little-little kids, like my 3-year-old Emmy, take out the majority of the lesson and focus on the germs discussion and the play-doh party. Watch the two videos about germs and talk talk talk about them, especially the hand washing. Emmy totally understood the content of the videos/the concepts of germs and hygiene. She’s asked me all week, “Mom, did I wash my hands for twenty and free seconds??” 🙂 (don’t underestimate those little ones)! For older kids (like 11+), expound on the science of immunology, focus on a particular scientist and their vaccine, and do more complicated story problems.

And with that, class is dismissed! 😉

I’m stoked to keep sharing what we come up with over here, and man, how I hope it helps some of you somehow. Heaven knows we all need a leg-up here and there (slash, everywhere) right now. But we can do it!!! I know we can.

See you soon with our next lesson, “‘A’ is All About “Art!”

xoxox