A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I.10 is sick and teething.  He has had a very rough 3 days. Today at lunch I decided that this baby would sleep for a long time this afternoon no matter what.  I left the kids at the table with these instructions, "Finish your lunch, do your after-lunch chores, and be ready for dictation when I come up.  I may not be up quite on time, but I want you to be nearby and ready." I went downstairs to rock the baby. He was miserable and cried for so very long while I rocked and sang and rocked and sang.  Finally he fell asleep, so I carried him up the stairs to put him in his bed.  I'd head lots of movement after lunch was done, but was unsure of what I would find. How happy I was to see a cleared and wiped table and a swept floor in the kitchen! How happy I was to see a tidy bathroom! How happy I was to hear the washer and dryer running with fresh load of laundry! They are regular children who quarrel, mess around, and argue back about doing their chores, but today

photo credit: unknown It was my beloved friend Anne who lived at Green Gables that taught me the phrase "a Jonah day." I'm having one. I'm supposed to be snuggled on the couch between H3 and A5 reading stories.  Instead my precious A5 is sitting on her bed by herself until she is ready to obey Mommy.  The older girls are doing their silent reading . . . most of them huffily.  M10 stomped her feet and yelled at me when I told her she needed to read indoors because she wandered around too much when she tried to read outdoors.  S10 whined and threw her body on the floor when I reminded her that she was supposed to read before she started writing her summary.  E12 called me a witch--yes, she actually called me a witch--and stormed out of the room when I informed her that because she had not been dating her math work, nor had she been bringing it to me on a daily basis as she'd been told to do repeatedly every day last week, she would have to do two extra ass

Sometimes I don't know what to say . . . a day comes together so well that it leaves me speechless . . . yet it was a regular day with squabbles and frustrations and hurried moments. These outing days refresh us . . . they refresh me . . . and remind me that God's creations are simply wonder-ful. Pausing to enjoy some sunflowers before crossing the bridge that led us into the park. We stopped for a moment to explore some seed pods . . . and then looked up to discover where they came from. The excitement on A5's face and the expectant look on H3 simply grab my heart!  I am charmed to remember that she was pointing out how beautiful the sun was glinting off the rippling water. Blurry of not, she's gorgeous and so proud of her seed finds. E12 loves to climb anything climbable, and it was only the worried protests of her younger sister that kept her so close to the ground . . . at least that's what I think.  This tree trunk was almost v

Art credit here I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with the ideas that flew at me.  I turned to see my kids rising out of their seats with energy.  I stopped writing and asked as I laughed out loud, "What's happening here?  Do you feel how full of life you all are?  Look how your bodies can't even stay seated!" "You're right, Mom!  This is great!" "How funny!  I'm standing up in my chair!  I like doing this!" "I can't wait to do some more!" "I'm going to do this during my free time!  This isn't like school at all!" "I'm so glad you're enjoying this!  And I'm so glad you're excited to write on your own.  Let's keep practicing because there is so much to learn!" I said, and we returned to our writing lesson on "Entertaining Beginnings." Every day (except for E12 who only has time once a week because of her job as a mother's helper) the older g

This morning was a little rough . . . not a terrible day by any means, just a little rough.  One child decided not to do her morning chores until the rest of us were eating breakfast, so she had to miss breakfast. (No worries.  I gave her a nice hunk of homemade bread to keep her from starving.) Another child talked back rather a lot. The baby's bottom was burned raw from a bowel movement he must have had in the night and knew nothing about until this morning, so he wept copiously and my heart hurt as I cleaned him off. Another child missed her shower because she overslept. No great tragedies, just enough to make me take a deep breath and hope that the day would smooth out. And it did. By 9:15 am I was standing at the counter kneading bread dough with the baby in the backpack on my back.  My four littlest girls were making paper bag puppets, helping and loving one another as they worked.  My biggest girl was plowing through some Personal Progress goals, and my M10 was

This darling 12-year-old of mine aches for independence.  I give her as much as I can, but she's always hungry for more and more and more! I'll never forget the day her 4-year-old self sat across from me in her booster seat at the kitchen table and asked, "Mom, when can I get my own apartment?" The hunger has only increased since then. We went camping with our church congregation this weekend.  The campground was a wonderful group site that provided good boundaries for the kids while allowing them lots and lots of freedom within those boundaries.  I rarely knew where all of my children were at any given time, and as long as they checked in every once in a while we were all happy with that arrangement. My E12 loved hanging out with the teens in the youth group. Eventually I went to bed with the 3 littlest children while my husband stayed up as parent-on-duty for the 4 older ones. Around midnight one of the teens said she was going to drive another pr

Oh so long ago I used to bring my {then} four children into the kitchen to help me make bread every week. I'd set one child up with pizza dough, one with rolls, one with traditional bread, and one with . . . hmmm . . . I can't remember . . . did we do two batches of bread?  I think so. But it got exhausting, and some more babies came along, so I bought bread for a while and got quite out of the habit of having my girls learn to cook with me. This year it is really, really time. Today we made a summer garden vegetable soup, homemade bread, and strawberry fool.   S10 chopped carrots while E12 diced potatoes. My little girls snapped green beans because I didn't want them wielding sharp knives, but then I gave them knives anyway when the beans were done and they wanted to chop the cabbage.  I definitely helped H3, but A5 proved herself quite competent. M10 was fascinated by the beets; we've never eaten them before.   She loved how they dyed everything

Part of our schedule for this school year includes morning playtime sessions; big sisters are assigned to little sisters while I take care of Baby I.9 and get things ready for the day.  The only directions I gave were, "You get half an hour to play together at 9:00 every morning." This dearest of big sisters, my M10, took those directions to heart.  She not only plays with her little sisters, but she runs a sort of miniature preschool with them.  A5 and J3 jump for joy when M10 says, "Let's play!" She takes them outside on nature walks. She takes pictures of them. She helps them with art projects. She reads to them. She helps them read to her. If I didn't treasure the time I get to spend with my littlest ones, I could hand off their educations to her without batting an eyelash. But I do treasure that time. As they treasure their time with me. This morning as I nursed my little man in the sunshine by the open window, I listened to M10 and h

This picture was taken during our summer session of school, but I haven't taken any pictures today, and this one captures the flavor of this first day. It is snack time right now . . . we've finished our snack, worked on our poem and find ourselves with a few free minutes.  I guess you'd call that recess. :) I'm stealing this moment to say that my prayers for an easy day are being answered.  I know that not all days can be easy ones.  There will be days that the kids don't cooperate and the baby cries and the supplies all seem to be missing, but today, this very first day, is going well. The pace that looked rather hard on paper, but over which I prayed and worked so faithfully, is turning out to be just right.  There is time to breathe.  There is time to settle into some good work.  There is time to be joyfully engaged. (I did forget to brush my teeth!  I'd better fix that right now.) My sweet J8 is the happiest of all children, and as we started

It has been 5 weeks of vacation for the kids. It has been 5 weeks of non-stop work for me. I did not accomplish my goal of organizing the living room; the top of the piano still looks . . . well, no need to go into details . . . I'll just have to work in some organizing during Saturday chores over the course of the months ahead. But the notebooks are new.  The pencils are sharpened.  The books are stacked.  The kids are ready. I think I am ready, too. Here we go!