A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Little Princess is rarely not studying science in some  form or other.  This picture was taken before 6 am one morning! Sir Walter Scott's sister lost her battle with cancer on Tuesday.  It was both expected and unexpected because she was supposed to have several weeks to several months left to live, but suddenly her heart gave out. Sir Walter Scott never got to see her, but he did take the trip he had planned, and he spent time with his brothers and his mom. In the last hours of her life, we were able to send text messages to her oldest daughter (our niece/cousin), who then read the messages to her mom.   We dropped our usual Morning Meeting in order to have a special session about life and death and resurrection. The kids took it hard.  We spent a long time just being together and acknowledging feelings of loss and sorrow. We will be taking a trip to Utah for a memorial in her honor in the near future. Otherwise we were busy with babies, school, and a psy...

 I'm still using my phone, and I can't leave comments on other blogs, so please know I'm reading and enjoying your posts! We're having a relaxed and easy Easter.  We've been to church, and we've hunted eggs and dug into baskets.  The kids are quite sugared up, and it is raining outside, so there's no escape! We took Monday and Friday off school.  The kids are becoming more and more proficient at skating up and down our hilly street.  When I look out the window, little bodies zoom past me at (sometimes) alarming speeds.  The kids come in slightly high on adrenaline every day. Good Friday was a treat for us because even though we love love our babies, it was so quiet and peaceful without them.  I helped the boys organize their bedroom--a 7 hour project!!!  I spent rather a lot of money on an industrial strength shelf and a bunch of plastic bins, but now everything is labeled, findable, and easy to put away. The big girls and Ladybug were able to go ...

 I'm writing from my phone because my computer won't charge.  We've trouble-shooted (trouble-shot?) to the best of our ability from home, so it will have to be taken somewhere for repairs. I had a tooth extracted, and I'm on a rigorous course of antibiotics that I hope will heal my mouth completely.  If not, I have to go back to have a wisdom tooth extracted that is dangerously near a nerve and might cause my jaw to break during the surgery. I'm hoping for no complications! Everyone has been healthy all week, and we had a full week of school because the weather was more capricious than I hoped. We're reading Bridge to Terabithia at lunchtime, and we're almost done with The Wanderings of Odysseus.  Little Princess has lost patience with the drawn out story, but the rest of the kids are willing to enjoy the ride. Brother finished his first of 10 math booklets.  It was a good review, and he's moved on to new information in Book 2.  He is troubled by some o...

 It was a hard week.   Monday seems like a lifetime ago. We took the day off regular school even though the weather was not as lovely as was predicted the week before.  Kids played in and out, I got a few small things done--my big plans were sidelined by an extra baby (one was in the hospital for respiratory issues, so we had his little brother) and yet another cold making rounds. I stand by my opinion that it's good to be building up our immune systems again, but I do look forward to the day when our false protection from quarantining is over, and we don't pick up every bug with which we come into contact. For our days off, I decided to make good on my promise to the kids to have some cooking lessons this year.   On Monday we made pita pizzas, fruit salad, and peanut butter filled celery.  The kids got to wash and cut and spread and sprinkle.   We made the pizzas first, so they could cook while we did other preparation. Li'l K got to make hi...