A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 I'm not sure why I'm so full of self-doubt and complaints as I am right now, but it's a reality. I'm healthy again.   Just left with the sniffles and occasional congestion that will probably follow me until spring. But no fatigue or weepiness anymore. I got the Christmas books ready. I suppose we need a prettier basket, but I'm quite pleased with how many fabric gift bags I've sewed this month . . . and how pretty they are. (That baby gift bag on the left is how Lola chose to package one of her gifts to a sibling. 😆 ) On Monday afternoon, I sat with the kids and read all of the books we'd missed from the first to the 9th.  It was a lovely time with so many expressions of joy and remembrance as favorite books appeared.  With the fire burning and the Christmas tree lights glowing, it felt like Christmas! Their assignment that day was to choose one illustration from one of the books--each child had his/her choice--and reproduce it as well as possible.  I d...

 Seriously, it's getting ridiculous. How am I still this sick? I am so grateful that I changed my mind about how we would do Christmas School this year.   Had I invested in craft and baking supplies and watched day after day of lesson plans fall to the wayside, I'd be feeling far crazier than I do now. I haven't read to the kids in over a week! However, I do have blessings to count. My decision regarding Christmas School was to celebrate and make do with what we have.        *Read books we already own.      *Forage for supplies we already own to craft and decorate.      *Bake old favorite recipes.      *Watch movies from the library and on streaming services we already have.      *Celebrate traditions that are already dear to us. Even though I sat on the couch and lay in my bed far more than I would have liked, and even though the bare minimum of talking sent me into coughing fits, we did...

 On Monday we hiked and we finished two books. This one for the teens and me-- Then I went back on my word regarding reading Steinbeck and started Of Mice and Men .  It's a very painful read, but it's shorter, and the terrible decisions that have to be made are somehow more comprehensible to me . . . even though they are still incomprehensible . . . sheesh!  Steinbeck is just so hard! This one for the kids and me-- It marks the end of Unit 3 in Playful Pioneers 2. . Hike 7: Little Blue Trace The pictures loaded backwards, so the hike story is told in reverse order. 🤷 Fort building Changing to a game of "Pooh-leaves" Ready for a game of Pooh-sticks! She refuses to wear mittens, so she keeps her hands warm in her pockets. I love his version of cold-weather clothing! In the afternoon, the kids wrote biographical narrations about Sacajawea. On Tuesday we took Hike 8: Cave Spring. More fort-building Because we finished all of our Unit 3 reading, and I didn't want to ...