A Week, Briefly (1/6/20)

We did not call the police for a single emergency this week.

I did talk to an awesome police sergeant who is using personal time to help Brother.  And two officers from the police CIT stopped by to see how they could help us out, so I did, in fact, speak with the police twice.

But no emergency calls.

And that was a good week!

The whole emotional flavor of our house is less charged than it has been in a year, and I'm counting my blessings.

Actually, we are all counting our blessings every day.  Our church has changed the children and youth programs this year, and, as I now have 5 children working on children's portion of goal setting and meeting, 3 of those 5 with special needs, I decided our family would work on goals together.

So that I wouldn't lose my mind trying to track and support so many kids.

Our first family goal (and it's counting for one goal for our youth, too) is to practice gratitude every day for the first quarter of the year.  We've got a glass gallon jar in the middle of the table into which we're dropping small papers with written expressions of gratitude--1 per person per day.

I think we can fill the jar. :)

Some of my favorite expressions so far:

teeth
Jesus
sunshine
pajamas
meds
pancakes . . . 

At the end of the quarter, we'll read over all of the things we've been grateful for, and we'll set a new family goal for the next quarter.

Although we're already working on that one, too, because it's 52 hikes over the course of the year.

The teens didn't go with us on the first hike, but they've agreed to join the young ones for the rest of the year.

This first one was 1.86 miles--.93 in and out again--right in our very own neighborhood on a street that has been closed and the vegetation allowed to run wild.

We will probably default to this hike for many of our hikes this year, with the especial purpose of watching the changes as the seasons progress.

My favorite moment was pointing to a whole bunch of small trees that had worked their way through the asphalt and asking Beowulf, "Which is stronger? a road?  or a plant?"

He threw himself to his knees to look at the small saplings and then looked up at me in wonder.  "Trees!  Plants!!" he exclaimed.  Then he ran about looking for more evidence to support his discovery.

In Morning Meeting we completed this:

And we started reading Doctrine and Covenants Stories (we have a very old hard copy) as our family response to President Russel M. Nelson's challenge to study the restoration of the gospel.

The young ones had 5 good days of school.

The study carrels and Skittles continue to work as accommodations that help my crew focus.

And Beowulf finished his reading program based on McGuffey's Primer (it focused on word recognition)!

He's also started the next book in the series, called Giant Leap (this one will focus on phonics) and he's very proud of his accomplishments.

Nature Angel had the chance to work on a fun budgeting project to accompany a study of The Great Depression.  She looked up an apartment in our neighborhood, decided she'd share with a roommate, and then worked with Sir Walter Scott to figure out what her expenses would be as if she were an independent adult.  After that I helped her figure out what she'd need to earn in a month/week/hour in order to successfully meet her expenses.

In Symposium, the teens finished their Unit 7 art projects--charcoal drawings of moths--and completed mini research papers as well.  We read the first 15 chapters of Girl of the Limberlost together, too.

Belle's

Super Star's

Our successful hike and continued mild weather inspired me to take the kids up to the soccer field for some sunshine and exercise later in the week.

We walked/ran several laps around the field, played a little tug-of-war, kicked around a soccer ball, and made "soup."

It's hard to see, but Mister Man is sitting in a tree growing up through the bleachers.  He did eventually have a good time, but he struggled with stomach pain a lot this week.

We continued our lunch-time read aloud sessions by starting both First Lessons in Nature Study and The Wonderclock.

It is clear to me that this Charlotte Mason-style reading and narrating works better for me than the Literature-Based unit study-style method we tried for the first few months of school for Academy.  I don't know if I'll return to our Academy plans again this year.  What we're doing now works and is joyful for us all.

Though the kids do miss the hands on projects!

My Jr. Kinders continue to take great joy in school each day.  We're learning The Pledge of Allegiance, and my heart just joys to see their little hands on their hearts as they look at our little flag on the mantle and do their best to follow along with me.

Instead of following the Jr. Kindergarten reading list that Memoria Press recommends (we borrow ours from the library!), we're immersing ourselves in many of the books on this list instead, because we're off schedule for the Memoria Press plans, and I'm not willing to fuss over catching up.

The youngest ones are still enjoying picture books at bedtime.  Favorites this week included author Patricia Polacco and books Jumanji and Stellaluna.

The medium-sized kids and I finished Mustang:  Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry, and we began My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

Rose Red came home one morning in the mood to connect with her littlest siblings, and they spent a happy half hour listening to her read favorite stories about Alexander.

Brother started crocheting a blanket!

But then he got frustrated and broke the yarn.

So now it is a scarf, and he's going to get to wear it when we take our snow hike after lunch today!