From August to September

 I spent 4 delightful days with Pixie in Idaho last weekend.  She lifted me out of my old-mom comfort zone and got me to try a ropes course, go paddleboarding, and hike up an extinct volcano known as "R Mountain."  

I, in turn, helped her make 10 freezer meals (2 each of 5 recipes) that should give her a solid 20 meals for the first month of the fall semester.  We also toured her campus, attended church together, watched movies, shopped, and talked and talked and talked.  

It was hard to leave home to go visit her.

It was equally hard to leave her to go home.

My gratitude to Sir Walter Scott, Belle, Nature Angel, and Little Princess knows no bounds.  It took 3 failed attempts to visit Pixie to finally get to one success, and it would not have been possible without their voluntary sacrifice and service.

On the home front, we walked every school morning--Sir Walter Scott maintained the routine while I was gone.  Most of our walks are pretty routine, with chaos getting out the door and general delight in the actual walking part.  We've stopped for a moment each morning to allow someone to "Notice, Wonder, and Be Reminded Of."  This tiny ritual is slowly becoming a delight as the kids wonder in increasingly interesting ways.

Mister Man was surprised to find this pine cone sticky with sap.  We have yet to find out why.

Two of our walks were exceptionally memorable!

Theo has bad manners with other dogs (our fault for not knowing he needed to socialize with dogs as well as humans when he was a puppy).  We keep him on a short leash when other dogs are near, but one morning the other dog wasn't leashed, and Theo's barking drove that dog to a frenzy, and he attacked!  Major kudos to Mister Man for keeping hold of the leash even as he screamed in terror watching the fight.  (I was further down the street, trying to encourage toddlers to keep walking.)  The owner of the other dog came running out of his front door, reached into the fight, picked his dog up, and ran him back into the house.  He came right back out and asked if we were okay and if our dog was okay and apologized profusely.  We apologized in return, showed him that there was no blood or harm done, and we parted on friendly terms.  The kids and I talked as we walked, decompressing after the incident.

Another day was especially rough before we headed out.  Ladybug was just plain mean, so I assigned her to rest on her bed while the rest of us walked (Little Princess and Nature Angel stay home to do tween/teen things) and see if she could regain a bit of equanimity.  Then Beowulf was blatantly defiant, and even after a second chance, he refused to comply with basic cooperation, so I let him know he'd wait at home as well.  

He broke down, and we ended up in a half-hour-long restraint-and-"I-want-you-to-just-kill-me" situation that left us all rather exhausted.  

Determined to reward the patiently waiting kids with their morning walk, we set out, and we had fun . . .

Until I twisted my ankle (for no apparent reason) along a downhill stretch of the road and ended up face down on the pavement landing so hard that the baby on my back even slid forward and hit his head.

After I ascertained that he was crying more out of fright than injury, I realized that I was somewhat beaten up.  In addition to a twisted left ankle, I had a possibly broken right knee (nope, just seriously bruised), and I was sore all over.  Fortunately, we were almost at the halfway point of our walk which happens to be at the bottom of our backyard, so we limped up the hill together, and I collapsed onto the couch with ice packs and much sympathy from the kids.

Read-alouds have been quite productive.  

We finished Little Lord Fauntleroy (with much joy!), and we've made a good start with Toby Tyler by James Otis.  This latter story has rather a lot of child abuse in it, but there are staunch defenders of the victim, and the abusers are roundly put in their places, so the kids are both outraged and relieved several times in the same reading session.  I feel it is a blessing for them to think about the injustice because it is so solidly condemned as wrong and they get to hear about the bravery of those who stand up for what is right, regardless of the consequences. 

We've read quite a few picture books about the 19th century, and while there are ever so many more books to read about The Civil War, I'm calling it here as enough for our family at this time.  

The Well-Educated Heart plan that we're following this year changes themes each month, regardless of how much material is covered, and I'm finding, with our first change from August to September that this is a fun way to learn--we get just long enough to be interested in a set of topics, but we don't beat them to death.  

So, in these two weeks, we've wrapped up Month 12 (August) and we've begun Month 1 (September).

We read from the following books in Month 12:

We read 9 stories of various saints who lived in the first 500 or so years AD.  The kids drew pictures and narrated what was important to them either orally or in written form.  They also copied the names, birth and/or death dates, and places the saints lived.   I recorded a couple of weeks ago how the kids acted out the story of Saint Kenneth.  In these past weeks, Mister Man took rocks/pebbles from our driveway to illustrate the story of Saint Fronto and the Camels.

If you look closely, you can see the camels on the left, approaching the starving monks who are running eagerly from the right.  I find I am charmed by the life he gave these little rock characters.

The younger kids and I also read many poems from this book, and we memorized Be Jolly by John Howard Jewett.  

The older two girls did several readings from Great Lives Around the World.   They wrote approximately 1-page responses/narrations for each reading.  In addition, I recorded earlier that they did one art project based on their choice of quotes on happiness.  Little Princess copied several quotes in her best italic/cursive handwriting, but Nature Angel illustrated her quote, and I didn't have a picture at the time.

Here it is, now.

In just-for-fun news, Mister Man is now taller than his grandma!!

The day I got home from Idaho was the day Nature Angel took her permit test.  

It's time to train driver #5!

We had successful library visits both weeks, and having our library day on Thursday is working well with having dance and church activities on Thursdays as well.  We don't plan any written work at all--we read what we can, and we attend all of our out-of-the-house activities.  

The little ones are slowly learning to enjoy finding books on the shelves and asking older ones to read to them.  While we still have to corral the occasional runner among the stacks, the visits are becoming more enjoyable in general. :)

Dance!  It started!  We have only 18 official dancers this year--we've never been such a small group!  But, we are all experienced American Rhythm families, so there's no need to stop and teach basic steps, and the learning is happening quickly.   Unofficially, I'm having fun teaching my daycare babies some simple actions to A Bushel and a Peck by Doris Day.  We're singing and acting only the first 42 seconds of the song, but if I can teach them to perform for an audience, we'll steal the show.

I bought miniature marshmallows this week to use as practice rewards.

The beginning of September signaled a change in our school focus.

We're reading simple poems from My Book of Delights.  We haven't begun to memorize a new poem, yet, but I think it will be "If You Wish to Be Happy."  

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We read the first selection from Stories of the Stars, and I'm actually struggling to keep it going.  We watched a Netflix documentary about the International Space Station which the kids viewed with varying levels of interest.  Ladybug and Mister Man loved the idea of living without gravity.  Nature Angel was captivated by how it was designed and built.  Little Princess couldn't stop talking about facts and figures and stories about ISS.  

Little Princess is going to be an astronaut!!!

Outer space is her jam.

I've borrowed a dozen or so books from the library on the solar system, outer space, rockets, the planets, the universe, etc.   I've been pondering how to bring back an independent, quiet study time during the day for everyone.  

Nap time is going to be our best bet . . . but even then it will still be a challenge.  

I refinished an old bedside dresser, and I put it in the living room to store the themed books for the month.  My hope is to set aside time specifically for reading the books in the drawers and inspire the kids to write/draw about what they read.

I read the first chapter of My Fine Art Storybook aloud--about Giotto--but then I ordered a hard copy because the illustrations are so important and so hard to share with the kids on a tablet or phone screen.  I'll pick this one back up when the hard copy arrives.

I added one Norse Tale a night to our bedtime read-aloud session.  Two chapters of Toby Tyler take about half an hour to read, and a third chapter a night feels like a bit much.  Switching gears to the gods of Asgaard keeps us interested and alert until bedtime.

This wasn't a great week for Nature Angel and Little Princess to find time to work on more advanced, independent work.  Getting me home and settling back into routines took some time.  However, they are both constantly engaging in learning on their own.

Nature Angel is:

--practicing the guitar

--crocheting a sweater

--working on math and science as she can find quiet time

--getting used to seminary again

--reading light fiction on her own

--constantly drawing

Little Princess is:

--doing daily math on Khan Academy

--following Artemis I (two failed launches so far)

--copying inspirational quotes by her favorite astronauts

--reading All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

--reading Fahrenheit 451

--studying her free Sporty's Learn to Fly Course lessons through EAA

So, honestly, I'm totally impressed with these two.

The Duke and Sweet Peach will be joining us full-time this coming week because Sweet Peach is finally 6 weeks old, and their mommy has found a new job.

I'm more than delighted to be doing a little baby-wearing!

Oh!

Super Star applied to the local community college for the Winter Semester!!  She's preparing to take the placement exam, and she's completely terrified.  

Terrified, but determined.

I'm so proud of her courage!