A Week, Briefly (4/26/21)

 Sir Walter Scott is cleared to return to work full-time.

We had 4 babies full-time in our home this week.  There was a decided shift from casually caring for a couple of little ones to getting organized and finding a schedule that worked for the babies and the carers alike.

It does my heart much good to rock and cuddle and sing lullabies to "our" babies.  It does much good for my younger children, too.  I'm watching them step out of their family roles as little ones and become nurturers, developing skills that allow them a sense of competence and maturity.

 

It is, in my opinion, the most important part of our homeschool right now.  

Lola finished the first half of Math K.

And Baymax finished the second half.  He wants to start Math 1 immediately; I want to wait.  We'll see . . .

Lola brought me a bouquet of spring flowers, but did it quietly and without fanfare, so no one got a picture.  Baymax brought me a bouquet of spring flowers and insisted it be documented!

We finished The Secret School.  Several of us cried with joy.

We began Year of Impossible Goodbyes.  We finished chapter 3 last night, and Mister Man sobbed with grief.

We seem to be a crying family!

We also watched several Jane Austen movies for Nature Angel--her broken foot still aches most of the time.  The nuances of conversation and body language totally escape most of my young ones.  They really watched this week, asking lots of questions about what was happening and why.  It made for excellent social skills lessons.

We enjoyed lots of meal-time read alouds.

The bottom book is Peter Speier's People.  I love this book!  We talked about the beautiful diversity of people in the world as we read it.  The top book is Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius.  Another dear favorite.  We brainstormed ways to make the world more beautiful and imagined the kids' futures.

Belle memorized and recited When God Made You (one of the picture books above) at the church youth night talent show.  She truly has a gift for performance story-telling.

 

She also finished her astronomy course.   That's another credit for the year!  

Her next project is to complete the second half of her American History studies--the writing half.  As she is a joyful and passionate writer, this work will be complete delight, and I will not have to prod her to get the work done.

On Friday night Belle, Nature Angel, Little Princess, and a couple of their friends had the opportunity to attend You Are Loved.  It was a little tricky getting there as first the car overheated, and they had to pull off the freeway to wait for Sir Walter Scott to come trade cars with them, then there was an accident that stopped traffic completely.  

 

 

It took them over an hour to make the 20 minute drive, so they were late and had to bolt their dinners before running into the worship event.

 

But it was tremendously fun, and they came home with pillows, sleep masks, glowy toys, stickers, journals, and lots of memories of the message to "Dream Big."

Because he's returning to work full-time next week, this Saturday was Sir Walter Scott's last Saturday off.  He took Belle, Nature Angel and Little Princess out on a Dad-date to find and photograph murals all around Kansas City.  He hasn't sent me his pictures yet, but I was able to get a couple of Nature Angel's that just show the girls enjoying the day.  

The tile for the kids' bathroom is finally in . . . I'm determined to get it installed . . . 

 

I hope!