A Week, Briefly (1/21/19)

Pixie and Super Star and a couple of their friends went to a big Christian "You Are Loved" celebration for teen girls.  They get all physically pampered and beautified, fed dinner, and are then spiritually fed and beautified.  It's a fun night for 200+ girls.

This is the week that I have to admit that big families do have their drawbacks, and one of those drawbacks is that kids can be lost in the crowd.

In spite of all my best efforts, Belle has been lost for weeks now, and I just found out.

Ladybug's, Brother's, Rose Red's, and Super Star's needs are loud and big and fierce, and I've focused on them for a very long time. 

Belle's needs are so quiet.

I didn't hear them or see them.

I checked in verbally with her almost constantly, but I didn't follow through with actually looking at her schoolwork or keeping up with the sit-down meetings that we used to have.

She's been perfectly on top of her Symposium work.

I thought the same was true of her independent work.

It was not.

And where I neglected to verify her, "Everything's done, Mom!" statements, she neglected to be honest.

We've outlined a 6-week get-back-on-track plan that requires hourly check-ins that will move to twice-daily check-ins that will move to daily check-ins.  The hope is that this will train both of us to be accountable.  Belle will be accountable for doing her work and showing it to me; I will be accountable for monitoring her progress, encouraging her, and teaching her how to manage her time instead of just trusting that she's doing so.

We've both got a great deal to learn.

Otherwise, the week was relatively peaceful--we've fallen into the daily homeschool rhythm I'd hoped we'd find last fall, but better late than never!!

Rose Red has less than 40 hours of educational activities to complete before I can issue her a diploma.  (I really hope she'll do it!)

Pixie is holding steady in her history class with a 90% overall, and her at-home school work is regularly in the 90% range, too.  She began researching ways to do some pre-pointe training because she would like to be en pointe before she goes to college.  Ballet is not her dance of choice--she's a modern/jazz girl at heart--but ballet continues to be excellent training for just about anything, and what dancer doesn't dream of pointe shoes?  When she talked to the director of her studio about being allowed to join one of the youth classes even though she's outside the target age-range, the director goggled her eyes and said, "Don't you know that I would give you private lessons for free?  It would be an honor to help you reach your goals!  You've done so much for this studio!"

Her first hour was Wednesday night, and to say she came home glowing is an understatement.

I am so grateful and awed and humbled that I fight back tears when I think of how Pixie is blessed by people who are willing to be the Lord's hands on earth.

Super Star has finished her third chapter of OYAN.  Math continues to bother her every day, but she comes to me for help, and she's making progress.  Dropping out of Spanish has freed her up to really focus on French.  Just this week she told me she can feel a difference in her progress, and her quiz scores are going up.  She's still struggling to heal from breaking up with her boyfriend a few weeks ago, but the friends that she and the boy have shared since they were 5 years old have been supportive to both parties--no one has taken sides or allowed ugliness.  These teens have simply offered love and encouragement and are hoping that time will allow their little band to be whole again.

I cannot express how truly grateful I am for these kids (and their parents).

Remember the "nice white cottage with the thatched roof" from Milly-Molly-Mandy?  Nature Angel made one for Baymax who is listening to this favorite story for the first time.

Nature Angel is tired and definitely struggling with the hormonal changes that come with being 11-nearly-12.  She's still the sweetest person I know, and she never takes her troubles out on anyone else, but it hurts my heart to see the stress on her face.  She is meticulous about her schoolwork--produces beautiful pictures and essays and aces all of her tests--and she is scrupulous about helping out around the house and with the younger kids.  Wherever she is, there is light.

Nature Angel's DoodleCrate was all about metal punching.  It was a fun hour or two of creating.

Little Princess is nearly finished with her second reading of Little Women.  She's writing a page a day in her composition book--I have a bag of prompts taped to the inside cover, and she responds to one each day.  She's acing math, and she's learning new songs on the ukelele every day.  I'm about to buy her a new handwriting program because her handwriting is almost worse than mine--so slap dash!  I think it's because ideas are pouring out of her, but I do want to encourage her to make those ideas legible. :)  This week she built a "crystal" night light with her TinkerCrate kit.

Ladybug is making slow but measurable progress in her reading, writing, and math skills.  For Christmas she received a fairy tale anthology, and she's been working her way through Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, which is what we're also reading aloud in Academy.  She gets confused a lot--last night she said, "It should say 'sword,' but the letters are S-A-B-E-R.  'Sword' has a 'd' in it.  Why did they spell it wrong?"  I told her about sabers, and she was mollified and went back to reading.  In math, she's just been introduced to subtraction, and it is hard work.  Even with counters, she can't quite get it right, but she's persevering.

Mister Man needs martial arts lessons.  I don't know how to afford it--time or money-wise--but for 2 years it has pressed on my heart that he needs these lessons to help him control and strengthen his physical body and bring some organization to his mind.  I need to obey this prompting for him!  He's memorizing his Latin lessons and flying through math lessons and laughing aloud over science lessons because they are just so fun.  I'm going to start him on a handwriting program along with Little Princess.  Schoolbooks that are at his comprehension level are beyond his writing level, and I have limited time to listen to oral narrations or take dictation.  I think a little more practice with a pencil and paper will open doors that he will find delightful.

Brother is a reader!  He's an emerging reader, but he is reading!  Oh!  To watch him work on the words is almost heart-breaking, but he never gives up! 

Brother read this book aloud to Dad this week!

Beowulf had a rough week--lots of tantrums and lots of whining.  I don't know how to finish off potty-training so that it sticks.  That one dry season was just a small island in a sea of urine.  But he's listening during Academy, and I see growth in his ability to remember and narrate back what he's learned.  He shouts out connections he makes--just simple connections, but connections nonetheless--while I'm reading aloud.  Phonics lessons are not too far distant in his future.  He's discovered great joy in doing chores, often volunteering to help other kids with their chores or asking me how he can help.  It's quite endearing.

In our lesson on John 1:3 this week, I used our flannel story pieces for a visual aid.  These two had a happy hour playing after the lesson was done.

Lola and Baymax are unique individuals, but at this early stage in their academic careers, they are still functioning as a unit.  They love to do letter crafts and watch videos with me from Easy Peasy All-in-one Homeschool.  They want to do whatever I am doing, and they want to play games with someone almost constantly.  They are doing quite well at taking turns and following rules in simple games.

We crush our egg shells and throw them back out to the chickens for extra calcium.  Crushing shells is a favorite preschool chore around our house, but sometimes it gets messy. :)

I'm filling my quiet hours with laundry, scholarship hunting, and browsing curriculum catalogs.  It seems I always get dreamy about new school books each winter.  I'm not buying anything right now but the handwriting books for Little Princess and Mister Man, but I'm sure dreaming a lot about shiny new books and plans. :)