A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Many good things happened this week: *Ladybug finished Explode the Code 1 *The sun came out, and the kids spent hours and hours riding bikes and drawing with chalk outside *The Elementary 8 and I went to the zoo *Twice my prayers about my upcoming Relief Society lesson were answered (actually it is probably more than twice, but there were two times that comfort came so very clearly) *The 3 Symposium teens turned in their essays about The Music Man , and we used the essays to have a good lesson about what worked and what needs-to-improve in those essays *We had 4 good Academy days and we did 2 art projects--one about Pablo Picasso and one about paper sculpting *We had good Morning Meetings *Pixie attended all of her dance classes and made a new friend there *Belle got to go see Jumanji with a friend *Lola is showing signs of outgrowing the "terrible twos."  She's turning into a rather delightful person, and there is hope that she may be potty-trained some...

The theme of the week has been overwhelmed. Nothing has changed except the feeling in all of our chests . . . and the restarting of dance . . . but that wasn't until Thursday, and we all felt it the whole week through. From Nature Angel to me to Brother to Baymax to Sir Walter Scott and everyone in-between, we've all been tense and anxious over our usual work. Nature Angel said to me, "I just feel too full and overwhelmed with each day.  Why do the days feel so full?  How come there isn't enough time?" This from a 10-year old who has hours of free time each day! But I understand the feeling.  What has felt perfectly fine until now has not felt fine this week. Does something need to change?  Or is it simply hormones and seriously freezing winter temperatures that have us temporarily feeling trapped in our own world? The littles went out to play in the snow Monday through Thursday.  Climbing temperatures on Thursday afternoon melted enough snow that ...

Cold, cold, cold temperatures mean there has been lots of fort building of late. The best thing we did this week was NOT get rid of Symposium. I'd been fretting over my inability to meet with the teens as a group, and I was thinking that it was simply time to turn all of their studies over to them as individuals. But it didn't sit well in my heart to basically ignore them all day . . . and then with our falling apart evening read aloud time, I felt that I'd be turning them over to their books and phones and music with not nearly enough motherly care. I prayed about it. And in a flash on Monday morning I knew what to do. By the time the girls came home from seminary, I was ready for Morning Meeting and an announcement: Symposium would be held first thing after breakfast each day! This test week has been outstanding (minus Rose Red who refuses to join us), and I have no intention of changing it up until circumstances demand it. The littles are used to pla...

I like that the New Year began on a Monday. Makes the year feel so official somehow. Even though nothing changed. We're still just doing what we do. Nature Angel finished Weave Your Word in Me part 1 and the first half of Analytical Grammar, Jr.   (Which reminds me that I need to retrieve the second half from the shelf downstairs--I printed it in two parts so it wasn't so overwhelming.) And she's sewing some more--she made this outfit for her doll all by herself. She counted up her math lessons and found that she only has 45 left to finish her book ( Saxon 6/5 ).  She walked around the house with a grin on her face all day after that discovery. It's amazing how inspiring a little self-assessment can be. Super Star finished module 7 in her Apologia Marine Biology course.  She's feeling really good about that. So good, in fact, that she and Pixie had a little silly sparring match over individual knowledge. Apparently Super Star asked Pixie some...

"Our goal when we teach our children to pray is for them to want God to write upon their hearts and be willing then to go and do what God asks of them." ~ Henry B. Eyring (italics mine) I didn't mean to choose a word for the year, but it is in my mind nonetheless. The word is write . I want to have the Lord's will for me written upon my heart. I want to write what inspiration and blessings and struggles come this year that I may remember. I want to help my kids write--their thoughts, their memories, their ideas.  That has been a decided weakness of our homeschool that I feel strongly inclined to mend. And as it is written, I long to go and do what God asks of me.