I Made a Good Change

 I didn't want to write last week because I felt too whiny.

"Our days are hard."

"I don't want to do any school."

"What are we going to do?"

"Everyone fights everything I ask them to do!"

"There's no joy in our journey right now."

I didn't want to fill a whole post with those feelings in my mind as I wrote.

So I made a change.

I worked hard to get the kids outside for many weeks, but the effort was exhausting and then the time change came.

I love regular time, when the cold evenings are dark early, and we can gather around as a family together.

But my children are bigger.

It was this past year that my little boys turned into big boys.

Three of them grew about a foot and put on lots of man-to-be weight.

They take up so. much. room.

I've been treating everyone as if they were old enough and ready to do more studying and less playing.

But they're huge, and they're still kids.

If I reduce all of their ages by 30% (as suggested by their various diagnoses) to better understand their behaviors and needs, then instead of being 9, 9, 11, 12, 12, and 14--they are actually 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, and 9.5.

And, yes, I did subtract from my "neurotypical" kids, too, because the trauma they've been through has affected their brain development, and I see evidence of reduced maturity in them.

Beowulf, in particular, has felt like a 125-pound 3-year-old, having tantrums, sulking, bumping into things as he moves through the house, and whining about every direction he's given.

That's no joke!

They still need to be outside like young kids, and my efforts to send them out were only achieving so-so results.

This week, though, we went on 4 hikes!

What a world of difference!

All of a sudden, school is totally doable.

All of a sudden, Beowulf has more control over his body.

All of a sudden, the kids are more creative.

All of a sudden, I'm more patient.

All of a sudden, everyone is sleeping better.

Going on a hike takes about 2 hours every time we do it, but it is now the second most important thing we do each day (the first being family scriptures and prayers).

I don't know how I forgot about this.

I don't know why we fell out of the habit.

I just know we MUST keep doing this.

Hike 1:  Fox Hollow Trail

Hike 2:  Wudchuk Run: East loop

Hike 3 (in the rain):  Little Blue Trace

It was on this hike that we looked at Mister Man galumphing along in Sir Walter Scott's boots and agreed that he looked like the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.  We idly compared other family members to other characters, and pretty soon we had a full cast.

"Mom, can we do a play of The Wizard of Oz when we get home?"

I thought about it for about 2 minutes--pros, cons, foregoing my planned school day--and gave them a "Yes!"

They spent the next 7 hours preparing a 36-minute play that I narrated and filmed.  We spent another 2 hours watching it, exclaiming over mistakes and happy accidents, talking it through, and generally having the happiest school day of the year!

They roped their high school sisters into the project, and this is Nature Angel's planning by scene.

This one is out of order, but here they are testing the scaffold and starting to put scenery together.

Cutting poppies and painting "Dorothy's" nails for the play

Cutting bricks

This is "the beautiful lady" that the scarecrow sees when he visits Oz.

I gave them the rule that there were to be no permanent changes to any part of the house, so Brother built this scaffold for scenery.

Building the Emerald City!

The next day was our second American Rhythm Show.

No hikes.

But lots of dancing!

I got no pictures this day, but I do have a few pictures of our first show that took place the week before.

We have one more show for this semester, and then we take our long holiday break before picking up in the new year.

Hike 5: Wudchuk Run: West Loop

We didn't get to start this one until after noon, but we still did it, and we didn't get home until 2:30 pm, but we did our school reading and writing.

And it was a success!

Ladybug makes leaf whistles.  They make more of a goose honk, but the kids all like it.

Beowulf as Simba on Pride Rock. :)

Beowulf and Baymax worked at their garden apprenticeship on Saturday because they were rained out on Wednesday.

As far as academics go, we did officially wrap up Month 2 of our American History studies which was about the Revolutionary War and the Constitution, and we started Month 3 which covers the Lewis and Clark Expedition and some Native American studies.

We've actually already finished our first book for the unit!

It is a highly romanticized biography of Sacajawea, but it was an interesting read, and it's giving the kids a great place to hang facts and questions about the journey.  We spent about half an hour researching some of those questions after we finished the book last night.

We added the midwestern states to our list of states and capitals to memorize, so we have 24 of the 50 states on our list right now.

We're also reading the following three books for this unit:

I'm keeping it simple because we need to finish in time to switch gears to Christmas, and I'm totally comfortable with our schedule right now.

We're still reading The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim, and we're learning about Isaac Newton right now.

The kids are all making good progress in their individual math studies, and our evening schedule is now including personal reading time, so even my reluctant readers are getting time to read.  (My enthusiastic readers are still enthusiastic and read a ton!)

The teens and I are still reading Huck Finn, and we've added The Old Man and the Sea (which is a little out of order historically, but it's what I had on my shelf).  I know I owned at least 2 copies of The Great Gatsby at one point in time, but they're missing now.  

Such a mystery!

I have it on hold at the library, though, so we'll happily jump around and still cover some of the great American novels.

Nature Angel doodles when she doesn't have a crochet project to work on as she listens to me read aloud.  I only wish I doodled the way she does!

This is her most recent completed project.  She wanted to use up her scrap yarn.
What a use!  The blanket is warm and huge and has such an eclectic old-fashioned feel.
It's also full of stories--Lola's dragon, hats and mittens and scarves that we all wear, Beowulf's hippo, the beautiful animals she donated for the church auction, and so many more.

It's more than big enough for two . . . as Baymax laughingly found out.

I asked for a fire one night. 

 Sir Walter Scott obliged.

I thought it was going to be in the woodburning stove in the living room to warm up the house.

He thought I meant outside in the fire pit.

The kids had a fine night around the fire outside!!!

😂

The teens continue to make progress in their individual studies as well--the computer always has tabs open to EdX science courses, foreign language practice pages, or astronomy lectures.

The adult children are growing in their individual ways, too, and I'm including brief updates about them even though they aren't part of our homeschool.

Rose Red is trying to start cosmetology school.  She's applied for financial aid (and will get it), but she's worried about making the additional monthly payments required.  I'm praying she'll have faith to move forward.

Pixie has started a full-time job as an RBT.  She'll work with autistic children up to the age of 6 years.  She's still in the initial training portion of the job, but I know she'll become an asset to the company and in the lives of the families she will eventually serve.

Super Star and her husband just got back from a belated honeymoon cruise in northern Europe.  They came home with stories to share and nasty colds, so we have yet to hear the stories!  I'm excited to have them over once they feel better.

Belle is working at the same job she left to serve a mission.  Her employers jumped at the chance to have her back--even contacting her first when they saw on social media that she was home.  In her spare time, she's filling out college applications and financial aid forms, helping the local missionaries, serving in the temple, attending institute classes, and participating in church activities for the young adults in the area.

I'm off to plan 4 more hikes for the week ahead. 

I'm not going to mess up this good thing we've got going right now.