A Week, Briefly (March 6, 2023)

 Pixie is working hard and playing hard!

She's just now home from safari and prepping for a week of teaching and loving on the orphanage babies.  

Get this!

Uganda honors International Women's Day as a full-blown holiday--everything closes for celebrations.

I'm not asking for that here, but I'm sure impressed with Uganda!

Here at home, we're freezing--not every day, but a lot of the days.  We're facing overnight lows in the 20s this coming week, but there's going to be one 60-degree day, and I've got nature studies planned for that day!

In the meantime, we're reading together a lot.

We finished Along Came a Dog, and now we're reading this at bedtime:

We finished The Children's Book of Heroes, and now we're reading this:

It's full of fables, poems, fairy tales, and sweet little stories that are fun for the younger set of kids.

We finished Mary's Garden and How it Grew, and we replaced it with:

We started the section called Forest Friends some months ago, and when the kids were all sad about the end of Mary's year of gardening, they remembered this book and asked me to go back to it.

Gladly!

The teens and I covered medieval world history in the 5th and 6th centuries, and now we're returning to US History to cover the unit about the struggles of our rapidly growing and very young country.

Nature Angel is working hard on Biology.

Little Princess is working hard on her history of human flight essay.

Both continue to read voraciously.

Monday

This was the warmest day of the week, so we headed out to the swales (our nature spot) to see if we could identify any familiar bird calls and spot any nest-building.

Everyone found a spot to lie down and watch quietly for 10 minutes.  We didn't see any nest building, but we gathered together and shared all of the bird calls we remembered.  We did a pretty good job!  Jays, crows, black-capped chickadees, cardinals, mourning doves, and robins.

Then we picked up trash around the swales.

And we checked on our little insect case--no change from last week!

Tuesday

We found that our neighbors had discarded some of their bamboo into the woods, so it wasn't in their yard anymore.  We felt that it would not be stealing to take a couple of stalks home to dry and cut and build stuff out of them.

The collecting and taking home process was so fun to watch.

The pictures really don't do any justice to the moment--they sang and marched and were so proud of themselves!

Our outing on Monday inspired us to make waterproof seat pads as a school activity for the youngest 6. They're slightly large seat pads, so we can use them under our heads and shoulders for when we choose to lie down and look up. 

I dug out some old PEVA table covers and some scrap fabric, made a couple of patterns, and set the kids to work choosing fabric combinations, ironing, and cutting their fabric.

I have no idea why I don't have pictures of Lola or Mister Man, but they were there and working, too!

Wednesday

Nature Angel, Sugar Bear, and Little Mister Frog

On our walk, Lola was collecting and drinking water drops from as many plants as she could.

Nature Angel can't help capturing beauty when she sees it.

I love seeing what she sees!

Later, after "Divided Babies" (That name makes me laugh) and snack time, the younger kids and I rounded the corners of our fabric.

For the rest of the day we read together, read individually, and pursued personal passions.

Thursday

Show day!

This community center was set up in such a way that I got to watch some of the numbers.  I thought I'd left my phone in the van, so I didn't get any pictures until Sir Walter Scott heard Brother's med alarm go off, and we realized it was in my purse after all. 🤦

I got pictures of a couple of dances, but then Sugar Bear fell and hit her head on the floor, so I took her and ran out of the room to comfort her without interrupting the show too much.  (Too bad I kicked over a water bottle as I ran, and the staff had to come in and mop up my mess.)

"America" from West Side Story--that's Ladybug doing a cartwheel.

Mister Man's solo in "Wells Fargo Wagon" from The Music Man.

And the rest of my boys singing together. 

The opening 15 seconds of "From Now On" from The Greatest Showman

After the show, Sir Walter Scott took the kids to the library.

Then we all had down time.

And then everyone 12 and up headed out for various activities while the youngest 3 and I settled in for a movie at home.

Little Princess had a class on aerospace at CAP.

Nature Angel and Ladybug had lessons on the YW theme.

Brother and Mister Man learned how to make sushi Korean style in the home of a Korean family in our ward (congregation).

Friday

We all woke up exhausted and somewhat cranky.

We forced our way through meltdowns to follow our routine, and our morning walk as well as the familiar rhythm of the day helped a lot.

It probably also helped that I finally had a cooking lesson with the kids, and they each got to fry an egg.

She's super-happy that she didn't break the yolk!

A copy of Audubon's Birds of North America came through from the library, and while I read from his biography Friday afternoon, Baymax was completely entranced by the drawings.  

I ordered the Paleontology Morning Basket from Harbor and Sprout a month or so ago.  Everything they sell is to download and print.  It took me this long to decide to send the images to homeschoolprintingcompany.com to have them printed well on good cardstock.  I was uncertain about whether the activities were worth it.

So far, they're very worth it!

My order arrived late in the afternoon on Friday.  I opened it and cut out the pieces to a matching game and 2 part puzzles.   

I'd hoped the materials would be good for our welcome table as the littles arrive each day, but once I'd ordered and could see what they really were, I knew they wouldn't work for that.  

However, they are perfect for one-on-one time after naps!

These little boys were delighted to put their dinos together.  The Munchkin was quite good at the 2-part puzzles.  Little Mister Frog needed a lot of guidance with just a few cards at a time to choose from.  He was so proud of each match he made!

The Munchkin's mom arrived just as we got going on our matching game, and it took about 10 promises to play with him on Monday to get him to go home.

For Little Mister Frog I set out one set of pictures face up and showed him one card at a time with the challenge to find the match.  Again, he was thrilled.

And my kids were all begging for a turn to play, too.

Sir Walter Scott and I turned the younger kids over to the older kids for the evening, and we ate good pizza and watched old TV crime shows together for a date night.

Saturday

I finished cutting out the rest of the Paleontology Morning Basket materials.  Some of the activities are too advanced for our babies, but they're perfect for my younger kids.

I handed out pictures and cards to various kids who had a blast spelling content area words, practicing spelling patterns, matching visual patterns, separating odd and even numbers, and more.  Lola asked if she could match the uppercase and lowercase letters, and I was happy to let her do so.  She laughed about it being too easy, but I caught her enjoying herself quite a bit.  She still reverses some of her letters, and she forgets some of the capital letter shapes, so it didn't hurt a bit to have a "baby" activity that was new and fun. 

I've shied away from prep-intensive activities like these, but if my kids enjoy the activities for more than 1 or 2 experiences, and they engage in the work with the enthusiasm of play, then it will be well worth the prep time and expense.

Still no progress about Super Star's news.

Belle has had a bunch of travel immunizations and has continued checking items off her to-do list.  She needs to exchange her shoes (too big), but she has purchased several other required items, and I'm thinking she may need to get her suitcase (She's allowed one . . . one suitcase for 18 months!  Yes, she gets a carry-on and a personal bag, but only ONE suitcase!) to see what can be realistically packed!

Nature Angel has successfully driven to and from seminary (15 miles each way) and to church (12 miles).  She's driven safely in the rain and in the dark.  Her confidence is growing by leaps and bounds, and she might be ready to take her driver's test sooner rather than later . . . though she does need some practice in heavy traffic conditions as well as following GPS directions before I'll be truly comfortable letting her go on her own.

She'll be 16 any minute now.