A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

  This is Beowulf.  He turned 8 during this school year, and if push comes to shove, and I must categorize him in a grade, it was second grade for him.   This was a year of unending pharmaceutical trauma for Beowulf.  On meds, off meds, changing meds, trying meds, breaks from meds, tests for meds, withdrawal from meds.  If it weren't for the fact that he desperately needs to find the right meds in order to function, I would turn and walk away from them all. But I've seen what happens to him when they work.   And I'm not willing to leave him bereft of a tool that has the potential to unlock the world for him. Here was his plan last August: Academy Eclectic Foundations Level B Arithmetic 2 , Rod and Staff The Beginner's Bible   As of the end of June, he has read The Beginner's Bible from beginning to end, and his reading fluency is quite good. He's working on book 5 of 5 in Arithmetic 2 by Rod and Staff .  He understands the concepts perfec...

  Lola is scheduled for a psychiatric/behavioral evaluation starting July 16th.  I've done the two initial consultations, and I am grateful to finally get this ball rolling for my darling girl.  She is bright, funny, creative, energetic, and feisty.  However, she has clear symptoms of ADHD which are interfering with her quality of life and her ability to learn. This past school year has been both delightful and frustrating with Lola.  She's so capable of learning and so incapable of gathering her focus long enough to do the actual learning.  We've adapted and changed curriculum plans trying to meet her where she is with some success but not nearly as much as I know she could have with more than environmental support.   Supports in place:    Brief lessons    Textured sensory cushion for her chair    Chair bands for her to bounce her feet    Sitting in my lap for lessons    Including movement as much as p...

 The heat wave broke.   Lola responded to the 66 degree morning temperatures by dressing like this:    (Please don't judge us for our broken swing--our kids are hard on stuff, and I have good intentions about repairing it!) While the west is suffering from a drought, we've had so. much. rain.    A lot of tents/forts have been built this week. Mister Man finished Grammar Recitation for the year.  His only subject left is arithmetic. Nature Angel took pictures of kids playing with water one afternoon.  And she finished her Koine Greek curriculum!  She continues to work on modern Greek via Duolingo, and she faithfully studies the scriptures each day, but she's done with 8th grade!!!! Life has been beyond hard with Beowulf and Brother.  Both boys had slight med adjustments this week which has made them a little bit sleepy.  This side effect will wear off in a couple more days, and then we'll know if the adjustments are working. We read...

  My baby boy is not a baby. Cliche, I know.  But what words are there adequate to describe the writhings of a mother's heart when she looks at the end of baby-hood? How grateful I am that this boy still grabs my face and hugs my neck as he kisses me goodnight after prayers! How grateful I am that he still tries to climb into my lap for a cuddle even though he is far too big to fit! He's had an entirely adequate kindergarten year, and even though we are lightly schooling through the summer, he's definitely finished what he needs to finish for this season of his academic education. Reading He's reading. He's not fluent. He does not enjoy it (at least in a formal setting). But he has moved from First Start Reading A-C (which transitioned from joyful learning to drudgery) to Primary Phonics level 1 (something to which we will return for spelling practice) to reading from classic children's literature, narrating what he read, dictating a sentence for copywork, and...

 “If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.” ― Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle   Here are some nice things I can say:      *We read some Ananse stories      *We continued reading Listening for Lions      *We cuddled lots of babies      *Belle and Nature Angel were able to go to the amusement park/water park for a summer play day      *Nature Angel finished her entire language arts curriculum for the year      *The kids like watering the garden      *There are such things as painkillers and antibiotics      *We switched to our summer school schedule of play in the mornings, school in the afternoons      *I've begun our yearly assessments      *We had a nice morning at the park      *No one threw up      *I started installing t...

 I thought I had wisely planned a doable Academy this year with only two subjects (Spanish and geography) to gently study away from mealtimes.  My goals were twofold:      1.   Practice learning in a group without food to keep kids quiet      2.   Have opportunities for written work and projects     We lasted one semester, and then I had to return to our mealtime readings and discussions as our whole Academy experience.     I think the reason for this was the development of our home daycare.  In a rather unplanned fashion, my dream of someday opening a daycare/preschool suddenly flourished.  When I planned the school year, we had no daycare.  As of this writing, we have 5 babies and toddlers ranging from newborn to 2 1/2 years. Our Academy focus shifted from organized academic activities to informal emotional growth.  The babies have provided my Academy kids (ages 6-10) with practice meeting the n...

Ways this week will be memorable: Four more kids came down with the stomach bug.   A storm knocked out power for over 60,000 residents of our city--including ours.  We were in the group that got power back after 20 hours. Our BCBA finally got to see Brother in full blown defiant/aggressive mode. The kids set up a vet clinic for their stuffed animals.  They played for hours!  Little Mister Frog took all week to recover from the same stomach bug that only affected my kids for 24-48 hours.  He spent most of the week on my lap during school because he was too exhausted to play for very long. This is The Munchkin with Nugget.  The Munchkin has a particular gift for loving babies.  At 2 1/2 he sets a really good example for the other kids! Strawberries and mulberries are both ripe and available in our yard.  The kids foraged for their own snacks almost every day. It's officially hot here. We're crossing the 90 degree mark every day.  Kids are engag...

 It was a long, hard week.   For no actually good reason.   I mean, there were several little things, but nothing earth-shattering. We caught a stomach bug--lots of barf!   My stove-top produced an astonishing fireworks show and then died.  The repair guy confirmed it--no hope.  Time to shop for a new one. The dryer died.   I fed Lil' K something that caused a terrible allergic reaction.  We didn't know, and his mom says it was not our fault--she didn't know either!  His face swelled up, and his lips blistered, and he cried and scratched.  We called his mom, and she ran him to the emergency room. (I guess that event was kind of earth-shattering.) We jumped from constant rain and cooler temperatures to 80 degrees and 99% humidity, so we're all hot and sticky all of the time. But for each of these, there is a reason to be glad! The stomach bug seems to have passed. We have a stove in our basement kitchen, so I've been able to cook for my f...