(bright upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
- Good morning everyone.
I'm so happy.
You're here with us today 'cause it is a busy day
and you'll get to see kind of how we do our homeschooling.
Jessica schedules everything out
before we even start the day,
and I have no idea how she does it
and how she keeps track of everything, but she does it.
I'm so thankful for it, but we'll show you that.
And then at the end of today's video,
I'm gonna show you,
what advent calendars we're gonna have this year,
in case you want to follow along with one of us,
I'll show you which ones we got.
So, it's gonna be a great day.
I'm glad you're here.
Let's get right into it.
- Parker's geography is really fun this year,
basically he's learning countries
and right now we're working on Africa.
We've been working on this for weeks actually,
because we're doing like a really thorough job.
And it's split up into different areas of Africa,
he colors in the countries that he learns.
Each week, we listen to a new song
that lists the countries
that are in whichever portion of Africa.
And he points to the different countries in Africa,
as he's listening to the music,
he also dances around with the other...
The little ones dance around with him,
and that is how we are learning in geography.
It's really fun and it doesn't feel
like you're sitting down
unlike learning something.
It just feels like fun and it does work.
The music is really catchy.
♪ Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique ♪
♪ Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland ♪
♪ These are the countries of Southern Africa ♪
♪ Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar ♪
♪ And Mauritius are islands to the East. ♪
♪ Lesotho and Swaziland, These are the countries ♪
♪ Of Southern Africa ♪
(instruments playing)
- And I've done this using different songs.
So I don't think it's like one specific program
that's like particularly fantastic.
I just think it's really helpful to put
things you're memorizing to songs,
especially if you're a musical brained person.
So that's what we've been doing.
And I feel like that's one of our easier,
like no brainer subjects of the day.
That's always fun to get out and be like, okay,
it's geography time. It's very joyful and simple.
- So, I've been working on cursive...
- [Jessica] Yeah, you have.
- So this is my name in cursive. I just wrote it.
Not looking at that.
- [Jessica] Nice!
What page are you the most proud of?
- [Parker] Uh, I don't know, they're all pretty good.
I like E, E is one of my favorite letters.
- [Jessica] Okay, let's see it.
- Oh, the page I'm most proud of is... I just went
into this for some reason, 'cause I wanted to.
And I skipped ahead, and I did this.
- [Jessica] Oh my goodness.
Look at that. Skip ahead, man. Alright,
very nice Parker. Oh, are you showing me colors?
(laughing) very cool
- I'm actually ahead in cursive, but I am on,
I just finished page 56.
- Bailey's holding Teddy for me while I'm filming,
but I actually usually have him and I had him
a second ago and you'll see,
I have this Boppy pillow and this Boppy pillow.
I have to double up these days because that is what
my chiropractor is having me do.
And it's actually been really nice and it makes me
hunch over a little less.
I was doing that a lot while we were homeschooling.
I'm just like sitting a lot and nursing.
So I hunched my back and I've been having a lot of
postpartum back issues.
And I think that this has helped a ton.
So usually I'm sitting and like nursing the baby,
holding the baby every once in a while,
I get him into like a bassinet or something,
but usually I'm holding him and then working with one kid
individually, often Parker at the beginning
of the day, and then I switch off later.
I'm working one-on-one with the older kids,
with whatever they've had like issues with.
Because they're older. they can sort of start their day
and do a lot of things on their own. And that's why
they do that, and then Parker's work for me.
And then, as we do all of this,
we have Duncan and Luke running around throwing
puzzle pieces on the ground.
- [Duncan] No, Luke is the one that did...
Did the puzzle pieces and the Cheerios.
- [Jessica] Yeah. Duncan actually had a job this morning.
Do you want to show what you did? Duncan?
- I sharpened the pencils.
- [Jessica] Yeah. You want to show how nice
those pencils look? Why don't you bring
them up towards the camera?
Yeah. Duncan has been sharpening and organizing
the colored pencils.
And he also has a coloring book that he could work
on while he's listening to us do stuff.
They can also pull out like Duplo
and just sort of play and frolic around us
while we're doing schoolwork.
And then they definitely jump in when it's song time.
(laughing) and then everybody dances around.
(relaxing music)
- Oh.
This is his first time on this thing.
- [Jessica] It's doing great.
- Yeah. He fell asleep.
Nobody else did.
(Jessica laughing)
- [Jessica] Jacob's making paper friends.
Jacob just finished reading Sadako and
the thousand paper cranes today. When I read that
with my class, it was a very sad day. Sad day.
- [Chris] Is it lunchtime?
Oh, did you have a sandwich?
- [Duncan] I haven't had anything for lunch.
- [Chris] Well, he had his lunch early.
'Cause he's going to take his nap early.
I'm going to make your lunch right now.
You look very suspicious. (laughing) You alright?
Hello? Okay.
- So I don't want to interrupt them right now,
but I do want to explain one thing that we do.
Our kids are in a lot of Outschool classes.
Outschool is an online learning website.
It's really, really cool. I love it.
This is not sponsored, but I really, really love Outschool.
And our kids participate in a lot of classes through them.
They do a really good job of interest based learning.
Bailey for instance, loves acting.
So they'll have acting or writing classes
and they'll have these classes.
And then the kids are loving what they're doing.
There with several other kids. The classes generally
are very small. Sometimes it's as little as
just my kid in the class or my kid and a couple others.
And sometimes it's more like 10 to 15 in the bigger classes.
And it's really neat because it's international.
Like anybody anywhere in the world can join it.
So, (laughing) I hear Duncan, Duncan's in his little
like, kindergarten class, slash preschool class,
I say slash preschool because it was a preschool class
last year and he's gotten older
and the teacher turned it into
more of kindergarten focused.
Duncan's just been with her and a couple other kids.
Right now this class, I think only has
one other student, but it's so cute because Duncan
knows him. He's like, Hey, I don't want to say his name,
but it's just really cute. And he's got a cute name.
That's fine. I wanted to say it, but I won't.
It's just really sweet because it's a small class.
He learns a lot. He does this every day for a half an hour.
And then Parker is in a Story time class
at Outschool at the same time.
So we have Parker and Duncan... are in a class
and then I can work with the older kids
and check in with them.
And I have this sort of like quality half hour.
And we do stuff like this throughout the day.
And then the older kids do Outschool classes as well.
So that covers a lot of like electives and sort of
outside of the box, things that the kids want
to learn about from an expert, with other kids
who are like super excited and passionate about
the same topics. Sorry, Luke needs me,
but I wanted to fill you in on that.
And I think it's, oh, he's, he's better.
(laughing) But I, I just think it's really cool that
not only are you in small classes with a teacher,
who's like really great.
And you're learning with kids who are all over the world,
but there are other kids who are very,
very passionate about that subject.
So it's not just like a class,
it's a class with students who are excited.
And I think that makes a really big difference in what
you're learning.
And I think that makes Outschool like
really special for my kids.
We've been using our school since,
before the pandemic stuff even happened.
So we've been using it for a really long time.
And it really helps us to have little breaks in the day
where some kids are doing something else that they're
excited about while I'm also with the other kids.
So that's one of the ways we juggle
having a big family and homeschooling.
And since the other kids are so passionate about what
they're learning,
they're usually those classes for a long time.
And then my kids have really made some really
good friends through this.
I think it's so exciting that the kids are with other kids
who are really thrilled about what they're learning, and you
know, pumped up about the same things as my kids are.
And they're in these classes together on a long-term basis
and you know, forming friendships.
And it's just really special.
- So, right now. We are going to help Jacob do
his, like, final project.
We call it as Choose Your Own Adventure at the
end of a unit. And in this unit,
he has been working on Japanese culture and history,
last unit, he worked on Chinese culture and history.
And as his Choose Your Own Adventure for that unit,
he made an excellent Chinese dinner for us.
This time, he wants to try and make sushi.
So right now I have all the kids, except for Parker.
He has another online class to go to right now and I don't
have Jessica, but I have all the other five kids in the van.
We are going to go and get all the supplies that we need
for Jacob to make us some delicious sushi.
Alright, we just got home from the Japanese market
and the fish market. What'd you get?
- [Jacob] We got some seaweed and some stuff,
for, Sushi!
- So right now we're going to get the rice started up
and after the rice is cooked, then we'll take out
the fish and slice it and make sushi.
Are you going to make traditional, like, nigiri sushi,
or are you going to make rolls? Or both?
- [Jacob] Both.
- [Chris] Alright. Jacob is now attempting
his first sushi.
How's the sushi here?
Good sushi?
Are you having a California roll?
We've got some patrons here eating some
of the sushi, from the sushi bar.
- [Parker] Can I have some rice?
- [Chris] I don't know if you noticed this Jake,
but we have a food critic here from The Daily Snowmen.
- [Parker] Huh?
- [Chris] Yeah. How's the food?
- [Duncan] Good!
- [Chris] It's good.
- [Parker] You also have a Daily Parker.
- [Chris] And the daily Parker. Daily Parker,
what's the verdict on this sushi place?
How many Michelin stars do you give it?
- [Parker] Uh.
Infinity and beyond.
- [Chris] Infinity and beyond?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Duncan] I... I have for it,
121 million.
- [Chris] Whoa. Almost infinity and beyond.
- [Parker] It's not infinity and beyond?
- Uh, infinity and beyond, and 21, 22, 23.
- [Chris] Ooh, infinity and beyond 21, 22, 23.
Jacob, you hear that? That's very high rating from
The Daily Snowmen.
- [Chris] Are you having imitation crab?
(laughing)
(piano music)
I do want to point out the knife that Jacob
was using, was made especially for him
by my friend Avalon. And he makes knives
on his channel and he made this for Jacob.
I'll put a link somewhere for you to check out
Avalon's channel. It's really cool. And, uh.
Hi, Avalon. It's been a while.
We used to work together at the magic store.
Bailey just got out of her class.
She was in an online class and she's here for some, sushi.
What is this?
- [Bailey] Dried anchovies.
- [Chris] Little dry fish.
I told her she could pick something out at the,
at the store. She picked up that.
- Hmm, I like it.
- [Chris] Parker is trying his hand
at making some sushi. What kind of sushi are you making?
- [Parker] California rolls.
(piano music)
- Ta-dah!
- And like I said before, I wanted to show you guys
all of the advent calendars that
we ordered this year for our Christmas time.
Advent calendars are one of our traditions here
and some people have requested to follow along.
So they will order up the same advent calendar as one of us
and follow along with their advent calendar.
And I think that's pretty cool,
but you need time to order that, and like, get that.
So I figured we'd go through the advent calendars
that we got, and let you know what's up.
Parker wanted a slime advent calendar this year.
So this seems like it's probably going to get messy.
But if that's your thing, this is Parker's,
it's Slime Advent Calendar.
This one is Bailey's and it is puzzled.
So there's some metal and some plastic,
different types of like puzzle balls
and things that you can like twist apart and stuff.
So that's going to be really fun. That's a cool one.
This one is for Jacob. It is a Lego Avengers set.
And honestly, we got this 'cause
Iron Man in a Christmas sweater,
come on now, how Jacob is that?
This one is 24 Reasons to Smile tea.
So it's tea that you steep in water.
I don't know if you can guess who this is for or not.
It's Jessica. Because she really likes tea.
So this is Jessica's.
This one is mine.
This one took a long time to get here.
It looks very like, off-label sort of like,
who knows what's going to be in this thing,
but it's magic tricks.
It was the only magic advent calendar that I could find.
And it's not even called an advent calendar.
It's a Surprise Box, a Magic Surprise Box.
But, I think one of the cool things is
I'll be able to show you guys a magic trick every day,
leading up to Christmas, because I will get this out.
And chances are, I used to work in a magic shop.
So chances are, I'll know how to do it already.
I'm not going to have to learn it.
I'd be surprised if there's something in here
that I didn't know how to do, but it would be
a very welcome surprise, it'd be kind of fun
to like learn a new magic trick.
I'm going to try and show the actual effect of the trick
every single day. And, and let you guys...
It'll be kind of like my advent gift to use as little magic
tricks like Magic Monday every, every day.
This one is Duncan's. Duncan is super into science.
And so he got a science experiment one.
24 Cool Science Experiments. It looks pretty neat.
And then Luke is super into cars.
So here we have hot wheels, cars and track pieces.
I don't know. It says that it has eight cars.
I don't know what the other 16 things are in here,
but, but at least eight cars in here.
So that will be really exciting.
And then Teddy, we're not totally sure
what we're going to do with Teddy yet.
He might just skip advent this year because he,
he can't really do any of it anyway.
Or maybe we can find something for his age range.
I don't think... So far we haven't been able
to find anything or we'll make something up for him.
I don't know. There there's some options,
Jessica's thrown around a couple of ideas,
but I'd love to hear your ideas on the,
in the comment section as well.
If you have any ideas for a three month old baby that,
that we could do for his advent.
And that's it, that's our plan for this year.
I'm really excited about this round of advent stuff.
It's always fun picking these out every year and,
and opening them up. It's really fun, family tradition.
And we just thought it would be cool if we mentioned what
each one was beforehand so that you could get
your hands on it. If you wanted to follow along with us.
I will also put links to whatever I can in the,
the box down here. Some of them might be
Amazon affiliate links, so. That's a disclaimer.
You don't have to order them that way.
You can do your own search on Amazon
and get them a different way.
But just so you know, that's the kind that pops up for us.
So that's what I'm putting in the description,
and that's going to do it for us today.
I hope you enjoyed our day as much as we did,
and we will see you next time.
(baby laughing)