A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Something happened overnight on Thursday night . . . I don't know what . . . all I do know is that I went to bed perfectly happily and woke up on Friday morning completely unable to cope.  Everyone and everything annoyed me, poked at my brain, left me antsy and angtsy.  I stood at the kitchen sink whispering our family calming mantra over and over again, opened my mouth to call everyone to breakfast, and then snapped. Really snapped. I hollered, scolded, berated, stomped, and generally made everyone in the house feel bad before I had enough sense to put myself on time out in my room for half an hour. Sir Walter Scott and the teens handled breakfast and Morning Meeting while I was crying into my pillow. I emerged still unready to cope, but at least calm enough to control my voice and words. Today is Saturday, and I still feel tremulous and ugly in spirit. Sir Walter Scott isn't home; the teens have a lot of outings; we're babysitting our usual two extra kids....

We finished The Green Ember on Sunday night.  After all of our debates over its merits and faults, we placed an interlibrary loan request to borrow the second book in the series.  I won't read it aloud, but I'll bet it will be passed around from kid to kid for individual reading.  I appreciated the message that a person who fails doesn't have to be defined by that failure--that with effort can come success. Monday We focused on geography for symposium.  While the kids made collages inspired by butterfly art of the Central African Republic, I read aloud about African animals from A to Z .  Then I turned on Youtube videos ( here and here ) about Africa that they listened to while they kept working and working and working, so that I could put the babies down for naps. Mister Man Ladybug Pixie Working hard . . .  . . . even for days in a row. Nature Angel finished her meerkat on Thursday We also did all of the regular st...

On Saturday Nature Angel got to model for a church friend who is working on publishing his first children's book.  She spent over 3 hours being photographed and videoed so that the illustrations of his main character (who looks exactly like Nature Angel) will be what he wants them to be. She came home exhausted--no fanciful imaginings about the glorious life of models for her! But she has the promise of receiving a copy of the book when (and if) it is published, and if it doesn't get published, she'll at least get a privately printed copy of it. Too fun! Somehow, between illnesses and a heavy church schedule, we managed to have our family Valentine's Day celebration on Sunday .  Exchanging our handmade cards each year is a major stress, but it is also one of our most rewarding family days.  I still catch kids going through their bags of valentines and feeling loved as they look at each one. As Monday was a holiday, and the library was closed, we ...