A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Rose Red is a study in contrasts.  She is bright, vibrant, alive, passionate, and fabulous!  She also struggles to learn certain concepts, acts bored, is defiant, and flirts with danger.  I'm usually at my wit's end about how to be her mother, but every time I'm about to fall off that end, she shows me her tremendous worth and her sensitive heart, and I have hope for this precious girl again. Math: We're on a waiting list for learning disability assessments; the tests should take place by August, but it could be later than that.  Rose Red does fine with simple math calculations with whole numbers.  Throw in decimals, fractions, variables, formulas, or practical application of math skills (a.k.a word problems) and she's lost--utterly lost.  It took her 4 years to memorize the times tables, and we've now worked on decimals, fractions, and formulas for 2 years with little to no visible progress.  Variables and word problems have always been part of ...

Pixie suddenly became a young woman this year.  I look at her in absolute wonder almost every single day.  She is gracious, mature, sweet, responsible, and fun-loving.  I can see her moving off into the world as an adult, and I feel no sorrow--only joy that she has her life ahead of her. But perhaps I feel that way because I know we still have 4 years of her at home before she'll truly leave for adulthood. :) Math: She completed Saxon 8/7 and Algebra 1/2 this year.  It was a monumental mistake to have her skip a Saxon year (based on how repetitive their scope and sequence is).  I quickly realized the mistake, but she was bound and determined to work her way through--and she did it.  But it took her almost two years to do it.  She's stopped somewhere near lesson 85 during the previous school year, and we didn't try to pick back up again.  Instead she went back to the start and worked her way quickly through the book, reviewing 2-3 lesson...

 (I couldn't choose between these two pictures--the first shows her cute, raw self, and the second shows how funny she is!) It has been a tremenously tough year for Super Star.  She's battled a sense of failure in math, fears for the baby sister born to her birthmother (there are very good reasons her birthmother could not parent Super Star, and those reasons remain valid today), dealing with the regular hormonal changes that happen for all teen girls, and a strong sense of frustration about the newest members of our family. It's a wonder she's still standing. But though I'd often like to trade her in for another model, I can see her potential as a truly beloved daughter of God . . . and my beloved daughter as well.  Math:   Super Star started the school year continuing to fill in the math gaps from switching from Life of Fred to Lifepac Math.  She hit her Waterloo with Lifepac math, though, and after much deliberation, we decided to give Sa...

Belle is the child I think of as being academically gifted . . . but not academically driven.  She is quiet and content to read and reread her favorite books over and over again.  I often find her sitting alone doing nothing but listening to music; Sir Walter Scott says she's like him in that. She has a good mind, though.  I think it is one of her God-given gifts, and I wonder how to stimulate her to recognize and use this gift.  She said one day recently to Pixie, "You're so lucky you know what you want to do and have a plan for how to do it.  I don't have any idea what to do."  She's only 12, so there's no hurry to firm up her life's ambitions, but it's hard to feel unfocused.  I'd like to help her find that area of study that truly brings her joy and motivates her to get working. Math: She completed Saxon 6/5 and 7/6 this year by doing 2 lessons a day, completing all of the odd numbered problem sets on the odd-numbered lessons and ...

This sweet girl is an angel in too many ways to describe. She's also a completely self-motivated learner.  As long as there are books, craft materials, and time to spend out of doors, this girl is learning, learning, learning. My favorite of her personal projects has been her nature notebooks.  She takes a blank journal, decorates it, then fills it with copywork from books about natural subjects (animals, plants, ecology, etc.).  She adds in pictures that she cuts from magazines or pamphlets we pick up at nature centers.  She also includes sketches of her own observations, and if she can, she includes actual found items (feathers, leaves, flower petals, etc.). She has created 3 or 4 of these over the course of this school year. She's discovered fantasy novels (how could she not with her older sisters raving about them constantly?).  Her recent favorite is Jinx.  She's also spent quite a bit of time getting to know the American Girl series and a ...

We started the year including Little Princess in our LDSFamilySchool lessons, and she was happy to be a part of them.  As the first weeks passed I became disenchanted with the program because I struggled to ramp the lessons up enough for the older girls while keeping them simple enough for 6-year-old Little Princess.  I felt pulled in too many directions helping her take notes or printing out her coloring pages.  She wanted to truly be part of the lessons instead of just a hanger-on. And I felt sympathetic to that. One of the blessings that took place with her as an active participant of our FamilySchool was how her reading skills skyrocketed.  At the first of the year she could just barely follow along with the reading, and do a bit of the reading herself with some help.  Well before Christmastime, she was reading fluently and even correcting mistakes that the rest of us made. We used the year .5 Flower Fairies stories to create a language arts ma...

Ladybug began this school year in school--a special preschool for victims of abuse and trauma.  She had a terrific teacher and a wonderful team of specialists that truly gave her the best of themselves.  However, Ladybug doesn't handle transitions well, and it quickly became apparent that getting on the bus to go to school, getting off the bus at school, getting on the bus to ride home, and getting off the bus at home were taking their toll.  Her total time on the bus each day was totaling well over 2 hours. And the rest of the family was spending time together every day while she was away. We petitioned to keep her at home.  Our petition was granted.  Ladybug came home full time in November 2015. The transition was rocky . . . as was expected. Over time, though, we've watched Ladybug just blossom, and I've not regretted the decision to bring her home even once. Ladybug is both fierce and fragile.  She's strongly competitive and driven to ...

We started this year, when he was still 3, just dabbling about with some preschool activities.  Like Brother, this little guy isn't due to start kindergarten until the 2017-18 school year.  However, something in his brain clicked, and soon we were doing an academic (and playful) preK program .  Then that stuff all clicked into place and we were doing an academic K curriculum .  Then that stuff all clicked into place, and he's half way through a set of first grade readers. He memorizes scriptures and songs easily. As an answer to my personal prayers regarding this small boy, I started him with Belle as his teacher in a K-level math program.  And he loves it. He reads science books on his own. He cuts, glues, colors, writes, and draws. He's quite capable of dressing/undressing himself and doing simple chores around the house. So what does that leave for us to do during this preK year ahead? He's still a 4-year old boy, and he has much to learn ab...

Brother is a gentle soul who is confused by the world around him.  Even if Sensory Processing Disorder were officially recognized, I don't think he'd qualify for a diagnosis, but, like Little Brother, I believe he has sensitivities that make it hard for him to cope; specifically I think he finds sounds over stimulating, and I think he is kinesthetically sensory-craving. I also believe he has some cognitive processing issues--this is supported by the Beyond ACEs clinic evaluation he had in April of this year. And then there are the emotional traumas he's still trying to heal from. That's an awful lot for one 4-year old, less-than-40-lb boy to deal with. As with Little Brother, we set no academic goals for Brother because: A.  he's a very, very little boy who needs to grow and play B.  our primary goal was healing and family integration C.  I needed time to observe and get to know him before setting any goals. How is Brother doing? He's doing in...

Little Brother turned 3 years old this school year.  We set no academic goals for him because A.  he's a very, very little boy who needs to grow and play B.  our primary goal was healing and family integration C.  I needed time to observe and get to know him before setting any goals. How is Little Brother doing? He's healing:  he's got lots of big, scary feelings in his small body, and they come out in bursts of crazy, out-of-control temper.  However, he's learning how to control that temper, and his outbursts are fewer and of shorter duration than they used to be.  We use the cues, "Quiet hands.  Quiet feet.  Quiet mouth," and those cues seem to be working.  He does better if his quiet place is outside rather than inside (which is great in spring and autumn, not so great in winter or full summer). His gross motor skills are awesome! His fine motor skills are truly delayed, so are his critical thinking skills.  He can...