A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 We're really in summer mode. We still have Morning Meeting each day. We finished The Story Girl , but we're still reading Super . Lola is down to her last 4 lessons and final quiz in Math 3 . Ladybug, Mister Man, and Beowulf are in the 70s in their various Math levels. Little Princess has been cranking out Algebra I lessons as fast as she can, considering the amount of time she spent away at camps and activities this summer.  She has one lesson left! But then she has to get back to her Geometry course, and she's not really looking forward to that.   Algebra is more her thing. (Like mother, like daughter . . . but she'd better like Trigonometry if she's going into aerospace! 😜) Brother and Beowulf had psych appointments, and they were so short because the boys are doing so well!! We did do annual bloodwork, though, and it turns out that one of Beowulf's results is unhealthy due to one of his meds.  We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow (Monday) morning to di...

 They rafted a river. They slept in a Star Wars themed loft They served in the temple. They adapted to new plans when original plans were ruined by rain and bad planning. They had a blast at an amusement park. That's Mister Man on the far right. There was a whole group shot taken, but I chose this one of just my men. The rainy-need-to-adapt-to-new-plans day took them to a few museums in St. Louis, MO. Brother found out he LOVES roller coasters. Mister Man and Beowulf found out they don't.  But they did find other rides they loved. Sir Walter Scott found out that it's time to accept that his body is aging--at least where roller coasters are concerned! They came home smelly, happy, tired, and full of stories to share. Now they're a tiny bit disappointed because they looked forward to the trip for so long and it's over. The same is true for Little Princess.  She's had such a busy, happy summer, and now that there's only one adventure left before we'll settl...

He's little . . . but he's big . . .   I'm just stunned not to have any babies anymore. I've tried to never treat him like the baby--even going so far as to run our little daycare for a few years so that he wouldn't be the youngest and he could learn to care for others more helpless than himself. But as with Lola, my heart is constantly gasping as I switch between delight and sorrow in his growing up. He's a reader and writer. He writes long, long journal entries every single night. I love helping him spell random words--survivor, movie, commandments, etc. His narrations are simple but enjoyable, and he's willing to make a few corrections at a time, so he's slowly learning the rules of grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. He reads like Mister Man . . . and his mom (me). He can't hear anything when he's reading.  I have to get right up to his face and wave a bit as I call his name to get his attention when it's time to clean up or eat or ...

 My Lola. She's so very firmly her own person. Any efforts to get her to march to anything but the beat of her own drummer are met with failure. She's strong and unique. I just love her! Academics are not Lola's strong suit. *She's still wobbly with her number and letter formation. *Copywork is the only form of writing she'll do, and even that is iffy. *She is almost done with Math 3, but it's been accomplished with heavy assistance, and I plan to have her repeat it for mastery. But the drawings this girl can create . . . they are marvelous! Her constructions are architecturally awesome. And her ability to cartwheel, back flip, and do other feats of strength and agility is amazing. Her grandpa says she could be a champion gymnast, and I don't doubt it, but I have neither the money nor the stomach to support that pursuit.  (I do not believe competitive gymnastics is a healthy place to be.) Her best academic accomplishment this year was becoming a reader. And ...

 I had to use this video of Beowulf! Each of the circles on the windows in the museum has a direction to act like an animal in the display.  He's reading them and trying to do what they say without making any noise in the museum.   Nature Angel filmed him. This video is just so perfect for describing my boy! He's willing to give anything a try.   He's good-natured. He's silly. He's creative and funny and awkward and all of the good things there are to be when you're an 11-year-old boy. He has a lot of mental health struggles--some as severe as Brother's--but Beowulf is somehow just a tad more optimistic and easy to comfort than Brother is. He's huge. Probably not as huge as you're imagining. He outweighs both of his older brothers, even though he's shorter than both of them.  He's not one bit fat though.  He's just big and strong. (My three older boys wear the same size clothing!) He's totally unable to control his body in space. (I...

 I know this list is not all-inclusive!  For example, it does not include any of our Christmas read-alouds. It also does not include most of the powerful picture books we read aloud together for history and science lessons. I just feel missing books as I read the list over, but this is the list I kept, so this is the list I must publish. In Search of the Castaways--Jules Verne Mustaches for Maddie--Chad Morris  The Elephant's Girl--Celesta Rimington My Side of the Mountain--Jean Craighead George The Mysterious Howling--Maryrose Wood The Hidden Gallery--Maryrose Wood The Trumpet of the Swan--E.B. White Charlotte's Web--E.B. White Florence Nightingale--Ruth Fox Hume Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross--Augusta Stevenson Island of the Blue Dolphins--Scott O'Dell The Phantom Tollbooth--Norton Juster My Side of the Mountain--Jean Craighead George  Danny, Champion of the World--Roald Dahl The Little White Horse -- Elizabeth Goudge Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIM...

  This face! This beautiful, smiling face! This kid has had a seriously hard life.   He had a seriously hard 9-10 months or so this past school year. But now . . . But now he is stable and  . . . look at that face! He's happy. He's stable. He's thriving. Grateful, blessed, awed, amazed, thrilled . . . all of the adjectives aren't enough to describe what I feel over seeing Brother happy, stable, and thriving. A significant portion of our year was spent tweaking his med regimen to help him get to happy, stable and thriving.  How grateful I am for his psychiatrist, our case manager, and our FSP for helping us get to this point. He loves math. He whipped through Math 4, 5, and 6 this year.  He'd be working on Math 7 right now, but I'm still saving up our homeschool budget so that I can purchase the various maths the kids need from Teaching Textbooks.  I plan to purchase both Math 7 and Math 8 for him for the upcoming school year. He hates drawing/art. Hate...

 First thing Monday morning, Little Princess was off to FSY.   The rest of us settled into our normal Monday routine of chores, school, and free time . . . at least we did after we celebrated The Munchkin's successful completion of "Kindergarten Boot Camp" and return to our house. We cheered for him and for kindergarten. His mom texted me later to tell me that even though kindergarten promises to be awesome, he missed us very much.  I assured her that the feeling was mutual. Nature Angel spent all day on this beautiful crocheted square.   She says the pattern is quite complicated and that she pulled it apart to redo it more times than she could count. Her determination and patience constantly leave me in awe. Much to my dismay, I just discovered that I took no pictures of the kids' main activity all week--Pokemon play stores.  They made pretend money and pretend debit cards.  They set up our living room to look like an entire mall of Pokemon store...