11 September 2020

Five Things for Friday / Book Beginnings on Friday / #Friday56

Switching my order around this week. Ima kick off with my five things (about our district's remote learning), and then discuss my Book Beginnings and #Friday56 after that. Enjoy! 

1.  I've seen plenty of posts and such discussing remote learning schedules, so I'm sharing ours today.

My son is in third grade. This is the really nice schedule his teacher posted for us last night, so we're all on the same page today. All scheduled times are the START of a lesson on zoom. They never run all the way til the next meeting. And only the specials (in this case, PE) are separate zoom meetings. Once his morning meeting starts, we don't have any more logging in - she puts the kids in the 'waiting room' when she's done, until the next subject starts. After teaching the lesson, the kids go to SeeSaw (another site) to complete their assignment. Oh, I believe they'll add on Science OR Social Studies after their social/emotional time in the next week or so.

2.  My daughter is in eighth grade this year, and (luckily for me!) very independent. She's been taking care of her own school stuff. She has three subjects on Monday and Thursday, and the other three subjects on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday is office hours for staff, but no 'regular' classes meet (this applies to my son too). While my daughter's overall start time and end time fall within my son's schedule (so it looks like her day is shorter), her lectures are usually at least an hour long. The schedule also writes in time for 'asynchronous learning.' She told me that that's her independent work.

3.  Given all that, I am SO GRATEFUL that my kids are learning, thriving and even enjoying school so far this year. My third-grader watches the clock like a hawk to make sure he's back at his desk with his headphones on in time for his next class. The kids agreed with each other that when they're in a zoom meeting, they close their door so there's less distractions and noise (their rooms are next to each other). 

4.  And on the other side, I would be willing to give a kidney ..okay, maybe just my spleen.. to have faster, more reliable internet. I think we've been lucky so far this week that hubby has had to go to offices to work. I don't know how well our household service will handle everyone online on separate devices at once. I'm sure we'll have to find out before too long.

5.  You know I try to end on a happy note! This week we made tie-dye shirts with Mimi on Monday, and then later in the week I received my new Plum Paper Planner, and my VOTE necklace. 

Ugh - tried very hard to get that picture up a bit, and then add a caption, but the new Blogger tool is less than user-friendly :( That's my selfie with no makeup, my new shirt, and my new necklace.  

Having stuff to look forward is so important when the scenery seldom changes, amiright? Hope your week has had more good than bad.


 



On this lovely Friday, I am again joining with Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice for their weekly link-ups. 

My book for this week is The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike. It is scheduled for publication next Tuesday, Sept 15, 2020. I'll be cracking the cover today to dive in to the 460 pages of novelly goodness. I didn't realize when I agreed to review this one for a post next week that it's actually the second book in a trilogy. I try not to do that to myself when I've never read the first book, but here we are. Hopefully it will read well without the first-book background.

Book Beginning:
Hartfell, the Black Mountain
Kingdom of the Selgovae
Late December, AD 573

The snows have come.

The cold seeps into my bones. Winter cuts into the mouth of this steep and dead-grassed valley, and the men huddle closer to the hearth, but no fire can warm us -- winter in its bleakness leaves us with too many hours shut within these squat, wattled huts. We cannot escape the ghosts that followed as we fled, friends and fellow warriors. Cousins. Nephews. Brothers. 

Page 56:

Angharad went to the temple each morning, as soon as she'd swalled down her breakfast. There she and Diarmid sat on reed mats in the cool quiet, and he taught her the way of slowing her breath. Of waiting without waiting.


Would you read it based on these details? I'm intrigued and the reviews so far look good - just hoping I don't need to know anything from some prior 500 page book.  

11 comments:

Liz Parker said...

Pretty interesting re: the school stuff, especially the "Social/Emotional Time" ... is that just like chit-chat? Good for your kids ... I can't imagine either having a school-aged kid or BEING a kid this year. Definitely much different than 2019.

Kathy Martin said...

Looks like a good school schedule. I'm glad I retired before I had to manage a like situation. I love technology but that's a lot to handle and teach content too. Your books does sound good. I too dislike starting a series with anything other than the first book. This week I am spotlighting A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden - a historical mystery. Happy reading!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I am now curious! Thanks for sharing, and enjoy.

Here's mine: “UNFOLLOW ME”

Breana M. said...

The Forgotten Kingdom looks interesting. I like the quotes, especially the beginning.

fredamans said...

Sounds like a good fantasy! Happy weekend!

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Becki,

As I don't enjoy fantasy or science fiction, I'm afraid that this one doesn't appeal to me very much. However the extracts you shared are very descriptive, so it looks as though you are in for some good reading - I particularly liked the word 'swalled'

I use a great site called Fantastic Fiction for checking out authors, as the books are all listed by series and in chronological order, so I'm afraid I couldn't resist checking Signe out. This is indeed the second book in a series, however it doesn't let on whether they work okay as stand alone stories.

I'm not sure that the education authorities over here are quite as well organised with distance learning as yours are. Our children have all had to return to the classroom, but only part-time, which is going to be very difficult for working parents with children in a couple of different schools. They have only been back for a couple of weeks and already there have been several closures, because of Covid transmission, which means that the parents have now had to isolate as well!!

I am pleased that you have managed to keep your family safe and together and I hope that their education standards are not too disrupted.

Stay Safe & Happy Reading :)

Yvonne xx

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

such curious names. That is one of things that bothers me about fantasy and Sci-fi novels...the unpronounceable names! My Friday Quotes are here

Catherine @ Book Club Librarian said...

I am firmly in the must ready any/every series in order, starting with the first book camp!

Ashley Sapp said...

Love those excerpts! Thanks for sharing! Hope you enjoy it! :D

Lauren Stoolfire said...

This sounds awesome. It's going on my tbr right now!

Literary Feline said...

It's so interesting to see how many variations of remote learning schedules there are out there. My daughter (4th grade) starts at 8:30 and has an hour of virtual class time with her teacher of language arts followed by a 15 minute break. Then they come back for an hour of math; then another 15 minute break. They end with an hour of science/social studies and then get a 45 minute lunch break before their independent study time starts at 12:45 p.m. That's basically homework time, which includes their PE. Technically, their independent time is supposed to be about three hours of work, but it's been more for us this past week and this one. I hope your children have a good school year. I am glad their year has gotten off to a good start.

The Forgotten Kingdom sounds really good! I love that opening. I hope you enjoy it!

Have a great week, Becki!