Thankful Thursday

Hi, all. Things I'm thankful for this Thursday...

1. Having a smaller nose. We don't have proper face masks (yet) so have used bandanas the few times we've needed them thus far. Nathan tells me that he wishes he had my nose, lol. Apparently, wearing a mask irritates his larger nose. It hasn't bothered me. :) Guess I'll be thankful for that...though I still contend that a larger nose would make sunglasses shopping considerably easier, lol. 

2. Not having allergies. Apparently, it's now allergy season. Nathan's not so happy about that. I'm thankful I don't suffer from allergies. (Fortunately, for the most part, the boys also don't suffer from allergies.)

3. My college statistics classes. I've thought it before, but it's particularly true right now. I'm thankful for the statistics classes I took in college and the instruction I received in reading and questioning numbers. With all the numbers in the news lately, I sincerely hope that maybe we can consider teaching statistics in high schools. It seems so much more useful than calculus for most students and would lead to better informed citizens. 

4. Gorgeous weather. With snow expected over the weekend (because Colorado, lol), I'll be thankful for the gorgeous weather we've had for the last week. It's been simply beautiful...sunny and warm, perfect for sidewalk chalk and outside projects and walks around the neighborhood. 

5. Our homeschooling history. As we've been adjusting to this new normal, I realized recently that I'd been neglecting some of the things I found most useful while homeschooling, namely keeping each boys' learning style (and my own) in mind when looking at assignments and how information is presented. Specifically, online learning doesn't automatically suit a kinesthetic or auditory learner as well as it does a visual learner. I've got all three and had gotten used to my boys just handling school on their own. They've learned time management and tricks that work for how they learn. We specifically talked through some of those things when they started school.

But those tricks that they'd used for classroom work didn't automatically transfer over when everything switched to online learning. I forgot to look at things through that lens and was working to figure out why some of my boys were more disgruntled than others. They were all still managing, but there were different levels. Now that I'm reminded, and thanks to the years of dealing with this exact thing during our homeschooling, we're working on new strategies. And just recognizing the difficulty seems to already have helped...being able to put a name to why a boy was upset lessened the frustration for us both. Whew. 

That's my picture-less list for this week. What are you thankful for?