A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Sunday night. On Monday the temperature crossed the 80 degree mark. We got out the water table, and the littles had a fine afternoon.  I took zero pictures because I was inside writing a review. We did get some pictures of Academy, though.  We worked on lesson 2 of Color My Conversation , a review product we're enjoying so much more than I thought we would. Mister Man completed his first Snap Circuits original creation.  He made a propeller spin and a light bulb glow without following directions in the plan book.  He was quite proud, and so were his parents.  Sir Walter Scott says maybe he'll turn over all of the electrical work our house needs to Mister Man. Ladybug and Lola were sick with high fevers, so I excused Ladybug from school, and Lola just rotated from Daddy's arms to my arms to big sisters' arms all day long. Pixie had a job interview with Menchie's Frozen Yogurt.  Looks like she's hired starting some time next month!!!...

What a surprise for me to open my mailbox and find a treat in it-- Bessie's Pillow , published by Strong Learning, Inc. I'm a fan of treats. :) I decide to keep this one for myself--at least for a little while. Upon reading the introduction, I'm glad.  Pogroms and their accompanying violence are mentioned.  There are no graphic descriptions, nothing offensive at all, but I am relieved not to have to explain the word "rape" to my 5- and 7-year olds just now.   I'll savor this treat, and then I'll put it on my teens' book lists for individual reading and journaling. Within a matter of minutes I am emotionally drawn into the story.  It is written in the first person, and the tone is both matter-of-fact and authentic.  I feel that I am reading Bessie's thoughts.  The author seems to have captured the voice of one for whom English is a second language--direct yet rich. Photos found at Bessie's America When she speaks of leavin...

"Start copying what you love.  Copy copy copy copy.  At the end of the copy you will find yourself." --Yohji Yamamoto This seems to be the guiding principle behind the online art lessons available at Creating a Masterpiece .  We had the privilege of receiving access to these interesting and challenging projects via the monthly plan .  Our relationship with Creating a Masterpiece changed over time, so I've chronicled our experience in journal format. Week 1   Lessons in Ink:  The Cardinal Nature Angel--age 9 A few days ahead of our scheduled art day, we chose to do the ink drawing of the cardinal from the Beginner menu.  It was awesome to click through the supply information and find a suggested supply amount for 1-6 students.  I compared what we already owned to what we needed and made a painless order from Blick right from the Creating a Masterpiece website. That was really convenient! Pixie--age 15--with her non-dom...

Winter came back. We just froze for most of the week, and some of us caught colds. Mostly we're in that late winter mode of slogging through to the end. We'd avoided it before because of the early spring that enlivened February. And I look forward to more light and life in our days. It's hard to write about separate days-- they kind of all blur together right now. Every day we have preschool stories ( The 12 Dancing Princesses ), chores, and Morning Meeting. We're reading about Christ's final days, and the kids were so very quiet as they listened to and pondered the story of Gethsemane. The spirit witnessed of the truth and power of the atonement. Every day we break for individual school work. Ladybug had one bad day when she refused to do school, and Little Princess had a breakdown one morning, but otherwise everyone is learning and working well. One lesson, one story, one page, one chapter, one sentence at a time, we're headed to the en...

When we found out that Natalie Madsen and Stacey Harkey from Studio C would be making an appearance at the LDSHHE conference this year, my kids were utterly, completely, and totally committed to attending. :) Later, we found out Stacey wouldn't be able to make it, but the kids' sorrow turned to joy when Matt Meese stepped in to take his place. At first we were going to take the whole family on the trip to Omaha, Nebraska for the conference.  We thought it would be a good mini-family vacation to test the younger kids' abilities to handle the stresses and changes of a trip away from home and to hone our skills in preparing for and preventing as many crises as possible for the planned trip out to Southern California this summer for a family wedding. Rose Red was in the bathroom finishing her make up.  The rest of us got bored waiting, so we took this picture in the hotel lobby. But then we did some budgeting and realized we had a still-unhousetrained puppy to d...