A Lot of Explosions . . . And Some Good Schooling In-Between

 I'm trying not to focus on my failings . . . but that very sentence shows how I'm feeling about this week.

Except that we did do some really good stuff.

The high schoolers got to "Stump the Teacher" with a 32 question quiz for me.

They spent many times more time reviewing their history notes than they would have if it had been a regular unit quiz.  And they had so much fun doing it!!!

I did quite poorly at the start, but as we moved to more recent units, I started to do much better!

Later in the week, they had another review that was hilarious for me to watch.

They had to match each pink post-it with an orange one--all of the post-its having some historical figure, event, time, or definition on it.

I love how I accidentally caught Little Princess in a moment of excitement as she and Nature Angel made a connection that had previously eluded them.

The younger kids and I are doing well with our marine biology unit.  We are currently on track exactly with our readings, narrations, drawings, and weekly hike.

I read the following three picture books to supplement our readings in Ocean Anatomy:

They've all been entertaining and informative.

We're enjoying Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, but the figurative language is proving hard for Brother to follow.  I have to stop frequently to explain the meanings of phrases that don't make literal sense.

We listened to two chapters of My World Storybook vol 2.  Each chapter is a 3-ish page biographical story about a different person in history.  Last month, we listened to one per week, and I had the kids narrate each one.  This month, the kids are doing so many marine biology drawings, that I'm just playing the audio recording of the stories for the kids to listen to and enjoy.  I have had the kids do a minimal verbal narration, but their focused written work has been on science.

For evening reading, we started The Magician's Nephew.

It's time for my very youngest few kids to meet Narnia.

The February nature calendar hasn't fit our needs very well so far, so we've been drawing our own "stickers" based on our science studies.  The ocean and creatures in it are all nature just as much as our local landscape.

Lola finished a handwriting workbook.

Another week passed without a cooking lesson.

However, I've been welcoming the kids into the kitchen more often to learn as they help me.  It's a more organic and useful way of learning, and I'm grateful it's happening.  

In the past, I've not wanted them in the kitchen with me!

Baymax helped me cook homemade tortillas.

Cutting apples for snack

Slicing potatoes for a casserole

There were other moments that were not captured on camera, too.

Lola helped me shape rolls for dinner, Brother helped with some cutting, and other moments.

Our show was canceled due to illness in the nursing home, but we had a practice.

It was a particularly rough morning, and Lola got out of the house without me noticing her shoes!

Even with Baymax still in a boot (a healing fracture was discovered in the second set of x-rays, so he's in the boot for 3 more weeks), we walked a mile and a half or so.

Old bridges are impossible to ignore.

It's not visible in the picture, but the kids tore up lots of cattails and sent the fluff floating away in the breeze.  I let them do it, hoping it was spreading the cattail population for good.

We picnicked right on the trail when we got hungry.

Dried cattails were the favorite discovery of the day.  Baymas and Lola turned the stalks into swords.  Lola, Brother, and Beowulf picked some cattail flowers (the brown part) and carried them home to put in our ever-growing nature museum.

The kids drew pictures and wrote little narrations of our adventure.

One day Little Princess was making rolls to go with dinner.  As she worked, she shared a video with the kids about how to do magic.

No one has tried any magic tricks . . . yet.

The kids were commissioned to make a washer and dryer with their little cardboard building set for use during a church activity on life skills.

It's about 24 inches tall, and Sugar Bear "does laundry" every single day.

There's nothing life-threatening going on, but the days are mentally and emotionally exhausting in a thousand small ways.

I miss having energy and enthusiasm.

I do count my blessings!  I know about the power of gratitude.

I truly am thankful for so much goodness in my days, weeks, and months.

Nonetheless, I do look forward to a season of stable mental health in our home!