A Week, Briefly (September 5, 2022)

 

Belle turned on the BBC 6-hour Pride and Prejudice to keep her company as she crocheted little monsters on Sunday afternoon.

A couple of little brothers joined her.

At dinner, the rest of the kids found out what they'd been missing.

After dinner, we hooked Belle's computer to the TV and watched as a family.

11 of us.

Glued to the story.

Anticipating favorite scenes and lines.

Cringing and squealing at the worst scenes and lines.  (Not worst acted--there are no worst acted scenes!  We mean the embarrassing moments.)

Little Princess served our Family Night treat in the living room as we watched.

Cake and Pride and Prejudice.

Couldn't be better.

With a holiday on Monday morning, I allowed everyone to stay up late to finish the movie.

Such joy.

Until the next morning.

I let everyone sleep in, but tempers were short, and tantrums were long.

*Sigh*

Eventually we got our acts together and we headed to our neighbor's house for Mister Man and Brother to give us a tour of her garden and the work they've done this summer.

We ended the tour with chocolate muffins in honor of the two birthdays we had this week, and she presented each of the boys with a pair of leather work gloves to thank them.

She's so kind!!

The boys get to keep working with her because there's lots of warm sunshine and growing yet to come, but Labor Day was a good end-of-season celebration day.

That afternoon I organized library books that correspond to our studies this month.

Some of the books have been or will be formally read together, but most of them are simply available for the kids to read on their own in their free time and during independent study times.

I love this picture of The Duke trying to keep up with the bigger boys. 

Little Princess read Fahrenheit 451 this week--and watched kids, too.

I read Children of the Forest aloud one day and, while we were all charmed by the illustrations, Nature Angel used them as a drawing tutorial.

Having Sweet Peach on our home every day has taken us back to lots of teaching and sharing moments.

I made a couple of batches of playdough this week, and everyone enjoyed them several times this week.

I also got out the dried beans for sensory play . . . it is good play around here!

I am interested to realize that every time I pull out a preschool/toddler activity, my 4 adopted kids get mad at me for "doing all the good activities with the babies."  Even though they are chronologically ages 7-12, they crave the sensory nature of preschool activities.

I try to push outdoor play for meeting their sensory needs--running, climbing, swinging, biking, digging, watering, balancing, building, etc., but clearly they want more.

And the freedom I'm trying to give them outside can backfire because they do need a lot of supervision.

Soooo, I've been planning and preparing for increased indoor sensory play as school.

We had one day of successful formal Independent Study time.  I love watching the kids choose and immerse themselves in what is interesting to them 

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

One warm afternoon, Lola found and played with a couple of toads.  She named them Jumbo and Trevor.  

I don't have a picture, but Beowulf also found the skeleton of a turtle's shell.  I told him he couldn't keep it, and I've seen it floating around our yard, but I'm not sure if he's brought it indoors or not.

This picture just makes me smile.  😊😊😊😊

And this one, too!

Ohhhh, my heart!

Lately, the little chairs have been in constant use.  I just smile every time the kids set them up for movies, musical performances, puppet shows, and any other show times.  This was Thursday night when all of the other babies were picked up and the rest off my kids were at the church for activities.  Lola asked to watch Bambi, and set up this miniature theater.

Sometimes roadkill is a nature lesson. 😂😂

One day this week I paused to look around me at what was happening.  I wanted to consciously appreciate the little moments is goodness.  I left my dishwashing to take pictures of what was happening at 11:45 am.

Star Wars discussing

Baby snuggling, reading, searching for interesting science

Playdough playing (and eating!!)

Crochet pattern adjusting

More playdough playing (without eating!)

And even more playdough playing

Seriously, my heart was constantly on the verge of exploding with baby beauty and kid love.

I forgot to record last week that we're reading H.E. Marshall's adaptation of Beowulf, and the kids are LOVING it.  

We read about Marco Polo and started a chapter about Christopher Columbus.  We're reading a little story about a boy and a missing star that will teach us a bit about the Earth's rotation and astronomy.  We're also several chapters further into Toby Tyler.

Nature Angel is reading Robinson Crusoe.  When she reported that it is hard going, I shared a children's adaptation from the Libraries of Hope website with her to help her get a sense of the plot and characters so that the original might be easier to understand.  She says it's definitely helping.

Both she and Little Princess are working on algebra and science in their individual ways.

The three girls in our church youth program played in a volleyball tournament and had a blast.

The younger kids played soccer with an informal homeschool co-op, too.  They loved it, and I was glad we saved the older girls' soccer gear for all these years.  We have cheats, shin guards, socks, and balls enough to go around!

Pixie starts her 6th semester of college tomorrow!