A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

We had a great Academy (school as a group for my pre-school/elementary age kids) year.  For my own record-keeping purposes, this is a list of the resources we used. I'm boggled by the truth that just a little bit of reading and working each day adds up to something marvelous. American History A Journey to the New World by Kathryn Lasky Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen Pocahontas by Edgar and Ingri Parin d'Aulaire The First Thanksgiving by Alice Dalgliesh If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern Can't You Make them Behave, King George? by Jean Fritz What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz George Washington's Mother by Jean Fritz And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?  by Jean Fritz Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illus. Ted Rand) I Can Read About July 4, 1776 by Ellen Schultz The Winter at Valley Forge by...

Slightly lower temperatures (still hot, though) and various outings gave me an excuse to skip water play and allow for some physical and mental organizing that will create more room for water play in the weeks to come.  I was able to:    *Clean the mudroom, processing all of the winter clothing through the laundry and into storage for the summer.  8 giant loads. *Sort through my closet--clearing out piles of unwanted clothing  (I found some old maternity clothes hidden in a corner!) *Deliver 6 giant bags of unwanted stuff to the local thrift store *Convince Pixie, Super Star, and Belle to begin sorting through their own clothing and belongings Sir Walter Scott finished the chicken yard!  Our chickens are happily spending their days safely outside.  They walk down their ramp just fine each morning, and I see them walk up and down during the day, but they have not at all figured out how to go back inside at night.  So far they try to roost un...

The main event of the week was finding out that Rose Red is NOT the reason for Pixie's heartache.  It's a long and complicated story--in simplest outline, Rose Red did interfere in Pixie's sweetly developing romance, but it was with (reasonably) loving intent, and any damage she caused was accidental and incidental.  The actual hurt has been (reasonably) easy for Pixie to accept as part of growing up now that she knows her sister wasn't the reason. That has cleared the air. Mostly. Hanging still is the knowledge that Rose Red has been malicious in the past and could be again.  Just because she wasn't this time doesn't mean she won't next time. At any rate, an uneasy truce is better than no truce at all. These three worry about and miss their oldest sister, but they are a delightful unit nonetheless. Spring only visited for about a week around here and then fled the scene.  We're having summer weather and we're figuring out a summer sch...

I open the doors and windows first thing in the morning.  It is cool and fresh outside, and the birds sing so joyously that my heart is lighter simply for listening. We haven't made it to Breakfast at the Park yet. But it is time. I've needed those joyously singing birds each morning because this has been a week of emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical pain. Pixie is literally gray with it. Rose Red is the reason for it. Nature Angel is at the mercy of changing, raging hormones, and she wept with a ferocity that frightened us all.  (She absolutely cannot go through this every month from now on!  It is one thing to deal with monthly hormones; it is another to suffer as she has been suffering.) Little Princess is an empath, and she is taut with the pain of absorption . . . and of feeling her best sister/friend in the whole wide world grow up and away from her.  She is trying to adapt to being more friendly with Ladybug, but they are worlds apart in ...