The New Year Began

 After I posted last Sunday, Brother got angry over a Lego.  Long story short, violence happened, and he ran.

It was a long, tense evening of searching, calling 911, and finally finding him.

He was not happy to be home, but he chose to be home, so we settled in the best we could.

We were tired, sore, and on edge, so we all went to bed by 9:00 pm.

When we woke up, it was the first day of 2024.

Our study theme for January is astronomy, and even though it was not technically a "school day," we went to the downtown planetarium and caught a showing of Destination Solar System.

No pictures were allowed during the show, but before it began there was a slide show of various pictures from outer space.  

Awe set in almost immediately.

The actual show was silly and fun.  We managed to learn a few things we didn't already know, and I was happy to start the month in a joyful manner.

We got started on official school on the 4th.  Just history for the high schoolers and math for the younger kids.  I also pulled together some kinesthetic alphabet activities for the preschoolers.

We'll get going on more of our formal studies tomorrow, the 8th.

Otherwise, the week was filled with games (Farkle, mostly) and building with cardboard and our new Makedo construction sets.

Eventually, my kids started fishing, and the preschoolers moved on to other toys.  Here is Mister Man with a "fishing pole" talking Barbies with Sugar Bear.

We lived in an almost constant state of construction! :)

We also had friends over for a Pride and Prejudice movie marathon.  

Baymax loves Pride and Prejudice, and he watched all 6 hours of it!

One day Sugar Bear asked me for beans to play with.  I set her up with some, and she played happily under the kitchen table for a while.

Later, Ladybug found the beans, and she sat reading with her hands in the bean bowl for a couple of hours!

Of course, I caught a picture when her hands were out of the beans, but most of the time they were in. :)

Brother finished Teaching Textbooks Math 4!

Little Princess let me know that the Khan Academy website was giving her too much grief to carry on--freezing mid-lesson almost constantly--and she asked me to sign her up for Teaching Textbooks.  

She started Algebra I this week. I signed her up to simultaneously work in Geometry, as well. 

The rest of the kids are working on the following math:

  Brother will start Math 5 next week.

  Baymax has only a couple of weeks of Math 3 left, then he'll start Math 4.

  Beowulf and Lola are continuing through Math 3.

  Ladybug started Math 4 just before we took our Christmas break.

  Nature Angel will continue Algebra II.

  Mister Man has about a month's work in Math 6 before starting Math 7.

This is Beowulf looking at Nature Angel's algebra problem-solving. 
He yelled, "That's the craziest math I've ever seen!"

All 8 kids had church activities on Tuesday night, so I did dishes and folded laundry while watching a movie at home alone. :)

We hosted a birthday dinner for my mom.

I went to the chiropractor twice.

Sir Walter Scott went back to work without any ill effects.  He's still recovering, but he's better each day.

I taught the kids their first lesson in making hard-boiled eggs.  After last month's cooking/baking activities and seeing that the kids and I are able to work better in the kitchen than we have in the past, I've committed myself to one cooking lesson a week.  We're using this cookbook as our general guide:

Last year the kids learned to fry eggs.  I decided to continue on our egg journey, and I've outlined 12 weeks' worth of egg-based cooking activities from this cookbook to do with the kids.

We also started the 2024 Come Follow Me curriculum during our Morning Meetings.

I've shifted things around a bit, and one of our bulletin boards is now dedicated to chronicling the mercies of the Lord in The Book of Mormon.  We have a big poster up, and one printable image will be glued to the poster each week.  

(I got the poster and images from Don't Miss This.)

And finally, I forgot to post pictures of Little Princess when she laid the wreath for Space Force at the Wreaths Across America ceremony downtown.  So here they are--a month late: