We're Working our Way into School

It's time.

It's just time for school to start.

So that's what we did.

On Monday I did so much organizing!  I filled the basket that we're using as preschool/entertainment for The Munchkin and Sugar Bear with a variety of activities.  I set up the new chore schedule.  I worked on our new bulletin boards.  I put away lots of baby/toddler things that we don't need now that we have only 2 preschoolers coming to our house.

We also had a long visit with our case worker.

(There was so much to document!)

I've been crocheting a little bit lately, and it's true that Mom can inspire the kids by doing!

These are Baymax's hands as he learns how to single crochet.
Notice the Pokemon in the background. :)

In the evening, we gathered for reading.  It was our penultimate reading of  In Search of the Castaways.  Everyone was predicting the end and literally jumping out of their seats with excitement as plot twists were resolved and predictions came true.

Suddenly it was Tuesday morning, and everyone had new chores to do.  Before assigning them, I took a poll about who would like to do what.  I was able to give every kid at least one desired chore.  

(But I forgot to assign anyone to take out the compost.)

As soon as I tried to do Colloquium with the oldest two, the boys' psychiatrist called for our appointment.  I wrote down 10 am, but she put us in the 9 am slot.  

Colloquium had to wait until Wednesday.

The boys got med adjustments, and they are wonderful!!!!

The terror we'd been living in for two weeks abated dramatically with the adjustments.  The boys are much more relaxed and able to cope (we're still dealing with some big stuff, but we're not afraid every minute).  The rest of us are still dealing with PTSD--Nature Angel is particularly jumpy about any sounds of conflict--but at least we're all getting space to heal.

These two worked on collages together.

I was able to introduce the teens to their individual Harbor & Sprout secondary units--visual arts for Nature Angel and Engineering for Little Princess.  

I read aloud a beautiful picture book that is our book of the week for the younger kids.  

I also read the first part of this book:

It's a repeat for us, but it's a worthwhile repeat!

My kids found the modeling clay in the preschool basket and had a grand time.

In the afternoon, I handed the kids a history page to fill out about Julia Morgan, and then I read from African Icons:10 People who Shaped History about Merneith--granddaughter of Menes of Egypt.

We also started this book:

I skipped over the part that describes white explorers as great men of Africa (!!!) and read the stories of Crispus Attucks and Benjamin Banneker.

That was enough for the first day.

In the evening, everyone had church activities.

    The little boys picked up trash on the road as they walked to the library near the church.

    The big boys went to a park to play pickleball.

    The big girls played dodgeball in the church gym with some of the dads.

    The little girls played games to get to know their new activity co-leader.

The kids borrowed a set of Pokemon graphic novels from a friend, and no one came up for air for days!

On Wednesday we got a real start on Colloquium.  We're focusing on the second half of  American History with the Landmark text we started last year and grammar with Rod and Staff's English 7 that's been sitting on a shelf in my basement since 2015.  We also have some Shakespeare and World History planned, but we're better at focusing on 1 or 2 subjects than we are at dabbling a little bit in a lot of them.

The teens have been quite dedicated to their schooling in their individual ways.  Nature Angel spent hours choreographing dances for our upcoming dance season.  Little Princess has spent equal hours on math--trying to finish up pre-algebra with Khan Academy.  In addition, Little Princess and I finally figured out together how to use the Chinese textbooks I purchased for her a couple of years ago that proved to be too hard for her to figure out alone.  

This activity--threading pipe cleaners in a colander--is in our preschool basket.

The kids and I reread about Dave the Potter and read the next section of How to Behave before we got acquainted with our bulletin boards (finished products to be shown in Friday's section) and went on to do a history narration about Merneith.

We got a nice start with our Harbor & Sprout unit on zoology.

We also read several Anansi stories from this book:

Then our case worker came back over to complete a mandatory quarterly report that would be due before he came back from his first vacation in 2 years.  

While he was here, I set the kids up with Art for Kids Hub so they could draw a Red Panda (one of the subjects of our zoology unit). 

Both Brother and Beowulf cried as they drew and then scribbled all over their finished products, writing rude words about themselves and their drawing skills.  I made pretty much no headway in my first effort to teach them that their work has value even if it's not perfect, so I shelved it until I get some inspiration about how to try again.

(I kind of hope it's a problem that will abate as their med adjustments take effect in their systems.)

In the evening we finished In Search of the Castaways!!!

It is both a relief and a sorrow.  It was a hard read in so many ways (and so long!), but the way the kids invested themselves in the plot and characters was magical.  In spite of his rampant racism, bigotry, and manipulation of zoological facts, Jules Verne knew how to write a really good story.  

Thursday was an academic repetition of Wednesday in most ways.  The main differences included the start of this book:

I'm not reading this one aloud, though.  There's an audio recording of it on the Libraries of Hope website, and I played the first chapter, a story of Marco Polo, for the kids.

For zoology, we played a game of animal identification with a dichotomous key I found simply by googling it.

A dinosaur matching game

In the evening, Lola left for an overnight birthday party at Great Wolf Lodge, Nature Angel took Little Princess to CAP and then to the library for study time, while the rest of us started Mustaches for Maddie.

I purposely chose a light, modern read as a break after our dense, 19th-century read, but I really miss the depth of language in the older story.  I love the story of Mustaches for Maddie; I love the lessons taught; I love the family solidarity; I love the sense of triumph over hardships.  

But the language is so simple!!

Lola was missing, but we continued our academic pattern on Friday.  

Colloquium was so fun because our American History lesson was about Montgomery Ward and Richard Sears.  I have lots of memories of shopping at both department stores and poring over the Sears catalog as a kid.  My girls laughed at my stories.  I laughed when I realize that my childhood is more similar to the world of 50 years before I was born than their childhoods are 50 years after I was born.

 

I finally finished the bulletin boards for the first week/month of school (some things will be changed weekly, some monthly).

I got the idea of doing this from how the Gentle + Classical lessons are done.  I'm not using their specific curriculum plans, but I like this idea of organizing our learning this way.  With the bulletin boards in front of my face all of the time, I don't forget to work on poetry or art or music appreciation. And being able to work for just 2 minutes a day on each subject means we actually do something instead of the nothing that happens when there's not time to do big, full lessons. 

The younger kids and I listened to a story about Christopher Columbus, and I read a story about Phillis Wheatley to them.  Then we listened to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Brother listened to the music with profound intensity.

I got out the glue table for our preschoolers, but they were bored with it.

My kids, however, couldn't leave it alone.  

They played with glue and odds and ends for hours on Friday.

They used 8 bottles of glue in the process!

Over the course of the week, everyone did lots of math.  The thrill of being on a device has yet to abate, so the younger kids (who have shorter lessons) are doing as many lessons as I've allowed them in the parental controls.  I've told them all that as long as they're scoring 85% or higher, they can do multiple lessons, but if they drop below that, they have to slow down.  

So far, Lola is the only one struggling with the 85% rule.  (I knew that was likely because she's working a grade ahead of her math comprehension because it's the lowest level TT offers.)

Overall, it was a really good first week of school.  We have only a little bit more structured work to add in, and that work is handwriting and spelling that the kids will do independently with workbooks.  

I am mentally preparing for lots of breaks in this rhythm when the beautiful fall weather arrives, but while it's so muggy that the air is almost solid, we're happily schooling where the a/c makes breathing more comfortable.