A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I'm just thankful that my older 4 can work independently . . . and that they are.  I'm thankful that my little ones can crawl into my lap for some love whenever they need it.  I'm thankful that A6 is reading and reading and reading, so that my inattention to her little school lessons has less impact than it might otherwise.  But I still feel so guilty for my inability to provide rich, stimulating, family-love-increasing school hours for my children. I'm not ill.  I'm distracted. Our house has been on the market for almost 6 months.  It took 5 months to even get it ready to list, so that's nearly a year of being unsettled and living in between. We've been searching for our dream home/dream land for even longer than that.  Painting, cleaning, redecorating, cleaning, mending, cleaning, showings, cleaning, and so forth and so on have left us with few if any hours for really great school. Add in the away-from-home activities I'm allowing the kids at...

I love my children's art much more for the process than the product. Today I watched H4 draw a tree and put a cut-out picture of a nest in it (today was N is for nest day). She drew a fat tree trunk with two thin branches extending from either side--like a T.  Then she got discouraged and said, "You do it, Mom.  I can't do it right." That's when I go all cheerleader-y and pointed out all of the tree-like parts I could see.  I told her it looked like a perfect tree for safely holding a nest full of eggs.  She thought about what I said, studied her picture for a moment or two, then drew what looked like a second trunk next to the first one.  "It will hold the baby birds without letting them fall, Mom," she said. We colored and cut out her nest and eggs. We glued them in place. She colored in a sky above. I asked, "Do you want to make leaves on your tree?" She looked at her picture again.  "It needs more branches, Mom." ...

Today our science club met at a local nature sanctuary.  The group leader had 2 different scavenger hunts prepared--one of items to find (and leave) and one to use multiple senses (but not tasting!).  My littles chose the senses list, but my older ones chose just to look.  We divided into groups, and I stayed with my littles. I so like my little ones. We meandered along, admiring leaves and sticks and rocks.  Our list included things like "See sunlight shining through the trees,"  "Watch clouds move across the sky,"  "Smell moss,"  "Touch mud,"  and other delightful ideas. I'd never thought of smelling moss before! I learned about Scour Rush--a bamboo-like plant that grows in temperate climates the world over.  It's considered indigenous.  I never knew that before. The kids climbed one side of a dam--it's a big grassy hill.  I haven't the faintest idea how tall it is, but it is very, very tall.  They climbed, then t...

Today E13 got to spend the day with an adult friend who works as director of a leadership camp.  She runs camps for public school kids both at her facility at on the schools.  I think she offers corporate leadership workshops, too.  But today was all about 8th graders learning to identify their personal strengths and to acknowledge the strengths of their peers. E13 was there to soak up the philosophy under the guise of being a peer evaluator.  She carried a clipboard and evaluation sheet around with her to "grade" the kids' abilities to follow directions and achieve their goals.  This is supposed to help our friend see where the strengths and weaknesses of this particular camp reside. I hope that her feedback is helpful. We asked E13 how she felt about the day.  She answered, "Sister B----- is sure patient.  I know that sometimes I'm immature, but these kids were like 2-year-olds!" They were her exact public school peers at the exact public sc...

I was reading aloud to I1 the other day.  A6 came over to listen.  She'd read the very book I was reading ( Gideon and Otto by Olivier Dunrea ) aloud to her little brother herself, but my kids know to seize the day when Mom actually sits down for a little bit. I got to the line, " . . . he bounced on the back of the ewe." I heard A6 mutter under her breath, "Oh!  Ewe!" I realized she hadn't known how to pronounce that interesting word and had just learned something new. An "ah ha!" moment that made my heart sing.

Got a call at 8:15 am, "I'd like to show your house to my client between 1 and 3 this afternoon." It would be our first house showing in about 3 months . . .  and I'd made up my mind that we'd go back to regular life instead of "museum house" life about 2 of those months ago. I agreed, turned to the breakfast table and announced, "No school today.  We're cleaning." And, to my surprise and joy, they cleaned.  We worked steadily until 1 pm.  It took all hands (most hands--J9 babysat the littles on her own all morning--she did a fine job, too) and every bit of energy we had to get the house in showing order. Then everyone was banished from the house until the showing was over. Good thing the weather was beautiful! The real estate agent and her clients arrived just after 2:00.   The only comment I overheard was, "Oh!  We'd have to hire someone to mow the backyard!" Rats. But we did it.  The house is very clean.  It...

J9 and A6 are reading aloud to H4 from You Read to Me, I'll Read to You H4 is working on a jet on J is for Jet day. Here's I1, complete with bandage over his 1 day old stitches, showing off his latest art project. One of the older girls took this perfect picture of my precious A6.

Before breakfast even, the girls were outside with their mini bows and arrows--fashioned out of leftover dowels and rubber bands from the book-binding we did for Explorer's Club.  I was annoyed that they'd raided my preschool cupboard without permission, but after giving them a good dressing-down realized that this creative activity was far more valuable than anything I could think of. When I can relax and let them be before the dressing-down I'll know I've arrived at good-motherhood. They've used crayons to color the dowels and have given their bows names like "Rainbow Shooter," and "Silver Strike."  The arrows at first were plain dowels, but along the way someone thought of the idea of sharpening them against the asphalt of the street, so now they're real arrows. A6 shot herself in the chest before they thought of sharpening their weapons (she had her bow backwards and lost control of the rubber band); it left quite a mark.  I've...