A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I've been putting off this post--unsure if I wanted to bother to share it.  But then I realized that this fall when I'm ready for a semi-annual review or when I'm ready for end-of-year assessments next spring, I'd hate myself for skipping this. So . . . The Teens As a group they're doing another year of Symposium which consists of:    *Language Arts-- The Good and the Beautiful High School year 1    *Spanish-- BJU Press Spanish 2    *History-- The Mystery of History Vol. IV Pixie is a ready-to-graduate senior.  She needs only 3 credits to graduate, which would be covered by Symposium alone, but she also needs one more science class and lots of dance to be ready to be accepted to the 4 year school of her choice. This semester she's working on preparing to take the CLEP for College Algebra.  We don't have a specific plan for how to prep, other than to order the exam, use the "official" prep booklet and see where her weaknesses are ...

I just found him like this! It was a week of beginnings and endings. The teens began seminary --a full week of it--and they are enthusiastic, energetic, and faithful thus far. Pixie began her World Geography class at the local community college.  She came home laughing, "The first assignment is to fill in a world map with all of the countries!  I couldn't stop smiling as the teacher passed out the maps."  Pixie has long since already memorized the names and locations of every country in the world, so it was an easy and encouraging start for her. This is Nature Angel and Little Princess helping me choreograph "Cooties" from Hairspray .  Our theme this year is American Musicals, and we're having a lot of fun! We all began a new year of dance.  After hours and hours and hours of choreography, we were ready to gather, and we doubled our numbers with 45 committed dancers ages 3-16!  It was a delightful start to the year with smiling kids who work...

This week was better than last. No pictures from this week to share. But we do have a few accomplishments: *We performed a musical number at church on Sunday.  We've been rehearsing for about 8 weeks.  I played the piano, and Sir Walter Scott and all of the kids but Rose Red sang.  (Rose Red was invited often.)   According to the kids, the compliments were profuse. *Because we finished I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus (with a lovely descant performed by Super Star and Nature Angel), we found a new song to work on.  Now we're learning all of the verses to All Things Bright and Beautiful during our Morning Meeting.  *Pixie got her student ID and parking permit; she's found the location of her classroom; and she attended a new student orientation at the community college she's attending as a dual-enrolled student this fall.  (She's taking just one class.) *I finished the round of well-child visits that felt pressing (Ladybug, Brother, Beowulf, and...

In order to remain true to my title, I will simply say that this week was wretched. It was hard. It was frustrating. It was exhausting. I don't want to live through another like it . . . but next week is shaping up to be similar (with the exception of Sir Walter Scott's and my 20th wedding anniversary smack dab in the middle). There were, of course, some joys: Mister Man got his new glasses! We watched a luna moth emerge from its cocoon (and we kept my little boys from killing it). We finished all of our annual eye appointments! (Dental visits start in 2 weeks, but I'm going to revel in the eye doctor accomplishment as long as I can.) Sir Walter Scott has worked an incredible number of hours this week, but as he finished his class last week, a weight has fallen off his shoulders, and he seems 5 years younger. My parents stopped by for a surprise visit on Tuesday afternoon, and their attention to the kids was a treasure. Belle harvested beets at...

We enjoyed it. We survived it. We're glad it's over . . . at least I am.  The kids are praying for our next co-op to start. I'm just trying to catch my breath from this one. Our summer co-op is a 4-day summer-day-camp-ish experience.  With Little Princess and Nature Angel in dire need of new friends, I threw our family into this event whole hog.  I taught a class (teachers get to register their kids a day earlier than the main group, and that makes the difference between success and failure for organizing my family), and Pixie taught 4 classes.  So each day, Pixie and I packed up the Elementary 8, and we headed out the door from 9-4:15. I taught a class for 5-9 year olds called "Kindness Begins with Me" based on a song by that name that we sing in church.  Our group is secular, so I didn't teach anything overtly religious!  I just liked the name.  Using Unselfie by Michele Borba as my base text, I organized our lessons: Day 1 :  Recogn...