A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Monday We dove into our full schedule. Whew! It was a big day. Preschool story of the week:  Hansel and Gretel Morning Meeting:  we're still working our way through the same January materials that we've worked with off and on this month.  We did sing The Living Christ , though, and Ladybug sang with so much of her heart and soul that we couldn't hear the accompaniment. I smiled. The older girls scowled. They just can't remember when they sang with the same enthusiasm. Small, quiet moments with Dad are such a treat! Ladybug loved, loved starting up her phonics and math again. Mister Man and I read a chapter from Bowser the Hound .  I asked him if he wanted a piano lesson because he'd told me a few weeks ago that he wanted to learn to play the piano, but he preferred to build with the Playmags instead. The older girls thought having a full, uninterrupted morning to work was a dream come true.  Pixie said, "I can't believe how much I...

 I really do love our A Year of Playing Skillfully manual.  The pictures and descriptions are so lush and gorgeous that I am inspired (in spite of myself) to organize great projects for the kids to work on.  Even though all of the ideas can be found online for free if I just would open up Pinterest more often, I love having them organized and separate from the computer.   My binder sits on my counter top at all times, and as I make dinner or pause for a cup of herbal tea, I browse through it for preschool inspiration. One of January's ideas is painting sticks.  It's a good process-over-product activity, and we have sticks in abundance in our little half acre of woods.  With zero trips to the store and an hour of prep time (gathering sticks, finding paint and brushes, and covering the table with paper), the kids had a fun activity that engaged them for an hour or more. I haven't done a painting activity with the kids in many months, but I've not...

The big ice storm never materialized. I'm not complaining. We were going to be tucked away at home resting either way, and we were prepared with wood for the fireplace, flashlights, and plenty of food and water. We never pulled out any flashlights, and the day was simple and quiet as most of us gathered energy for a return to regular life. Except for Belle and Super Star.  Some of us opted to get all three bugs at once, but they got theirs one at a time, and they're still coping with the worst of influenza. Sunday night we picked back up with our bedtime reading aloud, starting The Wind in the Willows and The Great Gatsby for the older kids. Monday We only added 4 school components back into our day:    Preschool Story Time (this week we're reading Cinderella )    Morning Meeting    Signing Time --1 episode after lunch ( ABC Signs this week)    Afternoon Walk The weather is springtime mild right now.  We put on our...

It's officially Influenza A . . . and some other random viruses  . . . that we've been sick with.  It has been truly horrible, and I spent some time wishing badly that I could just check the whole family into the hospital for a few days . . . or at least hire a nurse like the ones from 100+ years ago that would come and take over care of the household. All 14 of us were down at once. I haven't totalled up the numbers, but I can tell you that we've gone through a lot of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, snot, vomit, fevers (up to 104.4!), mugs of herbal tea, sleepless nights, movies watched, and pounds lost. Every single one of us has lost weight--a blessing to a few of us, a problem for most of us. We're still convalescing, and I'm not sure we can handle starting school back up even next week. We are, however, sitting around watching awesome documentaries on Netflix--at least 12 hours' worth this week. Documentary school is cool. (linking here )

In my years of homeschooling my growing family, I've discovered one truth:  Our needs change constantly!  What draws the family together one semester drives us apart the next.  What lights up the eyes of one child sends the next sobbing to her bedroom.  What works for one season is impossible to maintain the next.  I find that every 3-4 months (not quite a full semester, by the way) we need to assess what's still working, what has stopped working, and make some changes. Interestingly, 3 1/2 months into our school year--just as the babies' nap schedule started to change, Rose Red's Spanish class ended, and our energy started to flag in general--I received a Yearly Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com . That very Monday, the first one in December, Nature Angel looked at me with slumped shoulders and asked, "Do I have to do my [language arts] today?" She is regularly a faithful, obedient student. And it is important to me that school is joyful to ...