A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Monday The cousins arrived at 5:00 am.  Their daddy's surgery was scheduled for 7:30 am, and we live only 20 minutes from the surgery center.  It was a good day as the surgery went well; the cousins all had fun playing; cousin K14 attended early morning seminary with Rose Red and then came back to our house to be more helpful than any 14 year old boy as a right to be!  Even baby M1 was sweet, sweet, sweet all day long. We rearranged the dining room to hold 20 of us for meals, we included the cousins in our usual morning meeting, and we made it to the library--just me and 3 of the older girls.  We also learned about an amazing summer camp for teen girls that Rose Red had just enough time to apply for if we worked our tails off and found "teachers" to write recommendations for her.  We did it!  Even if she doesn't get in, it was a wonderful experience for her in filling out applications and essay writing. My sister came back to our house after d...

Today is Friday. It snowed all day yesterday, so we're taking a snow day.  Temperatures are low, but we have literally dozens of coats, hats, snow pants, boots, and other winter wear in our mudroom.  The kids will have a grand day. And then Sir Walter Scott and I are going to the temple in the late afternoon.  The kids will stay home with popcorn and a movie. This week SuperStar completed her Saxon 5/4 math book and started 6/5.  She's really happy to be completing math work . . . albeit remedial work . . . successfully.  She alternates between joyful expressions of triumph and worried questions about "ever catching up." She works so hard at math!  I'm not worried about the "catching up" part.  I just want her to see that she can learn and that she is learning. I just say, "Look at what you've done.  Look at what you can do." SuperStar also checked out a bunch of learn-to-play-the-guitar books from the library.  With the help...

This was a solidly productive week for us with many organizational improvements for my mental health. Morning Meeting: We completed 5 out of 5 this week!  I feel a grateful sense of accomplishment.  The littles memorized Baa Baa Black Sheep and recited it at our Poetry and Pie event on Wednesday.  The rest of our songs and memorization work are the same as last week and will remain the same for the rest of January.  I'm glad to report that everyone over the age of 5 has memorized the first part of The Family Proclamation ; the littles are still working on it. :) Bedtime Math is a fun addition to our day.  We've touched on everything from simple counting for the littles to advanced algebra for the bigs. PreK: We didn't do much formal work, but we did watch a few letter "D" videos and a D is for doghouse craft.  The weather was too pretty on Thursday to stay inside (it's bitter cold now), so I sent everyone outside to play and play and play while we ...

As the new year approached I found myself freaking out on the inside, "We're not ready!  I can't do this!" Then one day it occurred to me that I didn't have to be ready on a certain date.  Yes, I needed to set a start date, but I certainly didn't have to follow the calendar that everyone else was following. So I didn't. Monday was for phone calls and errands and sitting down with Sir Walter Scott and the big girls for some basic calendaring. Tuesday was supposed to be for organizing, but it turned out to be for taking kids to the doctor and therapist and for meeting with the nurse case manager. I began to panic.  I still hadn't done what I wanted to do. So I took a deep breath . . . and let it all go. I had a sketchy, inspired plan in my head for how to adjust our days so they were more functional for us and would leave me less pressured and panicked.  I had nothing on paper, no schedule, no post-it notes full of plans that I could arra...