A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I truly work hard to be positive, even as I record the very hard. I couldn't do it last week. So I didn't write at all.  (If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.) But, my depression/anxiety meds have been increased; I'm starting to feel the effects; and I've had a miracle or two that I've been able to identify. I think I can say something nice. We did, in fact, share ever-so-may things to be thankful for this month. We are blessed. Very little formal schooling has been happening.  Quite simply, I ran out of the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical reserves that I've always been able to call on to keep going in spite of the challenges around us.  Not even our beloved routines were enough in the power of the exhaustion that took me down. We did keep morning, meal, and bedtime routines intact, however. But that was almost all I could manage, and that was due to the fact that Sir Walter Scott has been home on FMLA ...

Family Night:  We roasted jumbo marshmallows in the fire pit. Monday Veteran's Day was not a day off school for any of our local districts.  Last week, school was cancelled for Election Day, so in spite of closed banks, empty mail boxes, seriously freezing temperatures, and freezing rain/sleet/snow the students studied on. Which means my teens had to get to seminary (Sir Walter Scott drove them). After the previous two weeks in a semi-off state, we had school at home planned no matter what. Morning Meeting Individual School (Mister Man, Ladybug, Brother, and Beowulf all had shortened assignments to ease back into the habit) Symposium--during which the teens finished Unit 3 of The Good and the Beautiful Super Star's Acacia tree in charcoal And Belle's * Crisis with Brother * Academy--read Ferdinand by Robert Lawson, colored map and flag of Spain, practiced a little Spanish Lunch Quiet time Colloquium--shortened to just Greek Mythology Li...

Another week has rolled by, and I am consumed by thoughts that I am failing at homeschooling this year. Brother is back in the acute care psych hospital; his hospital therapist said to me, "He was doing fine until you got on the phone.  Now he's agitated and won't cooperate." Continued and spreading illness kept us from most of our formal schooling this week. Multiple appointments have kept us running all over the city. I feel intensely what we are not doing each day . . . but here's my best effort to remember what we did get done. *Morning Meeting--5 days *Evening Reading--5 days *Symposium--3 days Language Arts Unit 3 includes charcoal drawing.  Super Star was so amused by her coaly hands that she smeared stripes on her cheeks. *Documentaries-- Animals with Cameras, Kitten Rescuers *Park Day with Dad *Dentist Appointments--2 kids *Consultation with Clinical Psychologist--the diagnosis for Ladybug is Intellectual Disability *Follow up...

This is Pixie's dance team photo.  She's on the left, next to the railing, in the maroon shirt with the black tank straps showing.  She's thriving and has her first performance this weekend! A sick week. I was the sickest . . . still recovering even a full week later. Just a nasty cold. But no formal school all week. We watched a few documentaries ( Growing up Wild, Dancing with the Birds, Secrets of Great British Castles , and some others).  We binge-watched two competition shows--one season of The Great British Baking Show (the only one not rated TV-14) and the first season of Blown Away (about glass blowing).  We also watched 2 movies:  Akeelah and the Bee and Mary Poppins Returns . We drank many cups of peppermint tea and many cups of hot lemon and honey. I boiled pot after pot of soup with homemade beef or chicken stock, and we ate that every day of the week. A few habits kept the structure of our days: 1.  Morning Meeting h...