A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 He's the sweetest giant baby of a dog. He loves me, and I feed him tidbits of bacon fat or chicken skin when he happens to be upstairs in my kitchen. He's 80 lbs of pure muscle, and he's quite scary when he's barking at a stranger, but he's never been anything but sweet to me. He knew I was in the room, I'd made eye contact with him and spoken to him with the baby voice I usually use with him when I entered the room.  I sat down to sew for half an hour, and then it was time to get the kids up for the day.  I spoke to him again, stood right next to him, and scratched the base of his neck.   He flinched, snarled, and bit my hand simultaneously. I yelled at him, and he ran into Rose Red's room. I think he knew he'd been bad. But I was bleeding and hurting, and I didn't want to be near him, so I went upstairs to tell Sir Walter Scott and wash the wounds with soap and water. Stitches might have been a good idea for the deepest cut on my wrist because it ...

 I am grateful to report that we had no problems beyond the typical large-family-homeschooling kind of problems that are just part of life. Oh!  Except that Beowulf was made soooooo sleepy by his new med! His prescribed dose is less than half of what Brother takes, and Brother is not even a tiny bit sleepy, but it sure affects Beowulf! I cut his morning dose in half (his psychiatrist always gives me permission to adjust doses based on effects), and he's a little bit drowsy, but not so sleepy that he falls asleep with his head on the mini-trampoline, his arms on the floor, and his body up on the ottoman (which he actually did this week). If he continues to even be drowsy on this half dose, I'll take him off that completely, and adjust his evening dose so that he's still getting the prescribed amount every 24 hours.  The med is helping him control his moods (when he's awake!), and I have hope that we'll find the right way to administer it to him. The teens and I read ...

 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...

Monday  We started our week by attending our church Memorial Day pancake breakfast at the park.  My kids ran and played for several hours.  When we got home . . . 6 out of 8 kids fell asleep ! And the 2 that didn't nap, just lay quietly reading. We were all strangely tired, so we had a very quiet rest of our day. Tuesday was a regular school day for us with a single youth church activity:  the 11- and 12-year-old boys taught the rest of the youth how to change a tire.  Several brave men volunteered their vehicles for hands-on practice, and it sounds like the evening was a success.  On Wednesday we completed a few things.   The kids and I finished  The Horse and his Boy, Alice in Wonderland, and The Story of the World vol 1. Ladybug finished Math 4 !! I considered letting her have a break but decided against it because she forgets too easily.   I'd rather let her dive right into the review lessons at the start of Math 5 to sol...

 At least it has been emotional for Lola and Baymax. I guess it was the previous week that got so emotional for Brother and Beowulf, but it all spread over the weekend, and then kind of spread to other kids. Brother had an actual dissociative episode that needed to be discussed with his case manager, his psychiatrist, and our FSP.   That's a lot of time talking with professionals! The good thing is that his meds are working well enough that he actually was able to remember the episode after it was over, and he was able to talk about how he saw the world.   This is unusual, but his psychiatrist still says it was a dissociative episode. Even though the experience was tough for everyone, we are certain it was not the result of a poor medication regimen, rather it was a one-off from a stressful week of having Sir Walter Scott gone, our van not working, rehearsals and shows for Newsies , etc. All of the adults consulting on his case agree that his meds are actually w...

 I took pictures this week, but not of my kids. They're all pictures of American Rhythm costumes because we had our costume return session, and as I put them away, I took photos, so that we can catalog them in a more organized spreadsheet than we currently have. I'm also making cross-referenced spreadsheets, so that we can look up what we have by costume/accessory name or by bin number. It is strangely satisfying. The kids were invited to be stage hands for a play their friends are in (we cannot afford the co-op the friends are in, or we'd join them).  5 of my 6 younger kids volunteered immediately; Baymax abstained, saying, "I prefer to watch the shows." I was worried that he'd feel left out while all of his siblings were involved, so I encouraged him to go to the first rehearsal and see if he liked it. He didn't. For exactly the reason he expressed beforehand. I am humbled by his 9-year-old sense of self. (But I'm still glad he went and knows for sur...

As I write this, I'm sitting by the fire pit, watching my kids toss a football and make"torches" so they can burn leaves and "write" in the air.   My camera is charging, so I'm not getting any pictures (but, yes, I am on the computer *sigh*).   (I just asked Little Princess to take pictures, so maybe next week I'll remember to include some in my weekly post.)  We did school on Monday. Then Sir Walter Scott was off work T-Th, and he offered to clean out the garage! I've been asking him to work on this for years now, and the stars--weather, schedule, energy--all aligned to allow it to happen. So we ditched school--although not for the high schoolers.  We finished Much Ado About Nothing , continued grammar, and started Mystery of History volume 3.   We still need to watch our favorite movie version of the play, but I won't let the younger kids watch it yet, so we need to find a time when they're not around.  Waiting until after they're in b...

 The most important thing that happened in our family was Super Star's marriage to Mr. E.   It happened a week ago Saturday.  It was simple and sweet, but it still took time and energy on our part because we had to get ready for Pixie and Grammie to come stay.  Grammie's arrival meant moving bedrooms around so that she could be on the main floor (she can't do stairs) and near a bathroom.  This meant we moved lots of beds, lots of bedding, lots of furniture, and lots of kids around the house. This also meant that we didn't do a whole lot of what most would call "school" that week. We had Morning Meetings every day. We read The Elephant's Girl several days. We read from this book at least a few days: It's a chapter book with lots of pictures, so even though it looks like a brief story, it's taken us over two weeks so far, and we're not done yet. (But I'm not reading more than 2-3 pages a day, so, no wonder!) We worked at least 3 days on our ...