A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 Did we do anything summery fun? A few of the kids did; there was a church Back-to-School swim party in a neighboring stake, and four of my kids happily attended. I don't have any pictures of that night, but here's where the party happened! Looks fun!!! And Sir Walter Scott took the youngest 6 to a baseball game.   It was $1 hot dog night! They whooped and hollered and got on the jumbotron twice and had the absolute time of their lives. Even better, the home team won! Otherwise, we took care of back-to-school details and took care of littles every day of the week! One day our extras included 2 kids all day, 3 kids in the morning, and 2 kids in the afternoon--all before attending the funeral of our little friends' daddy in the evening. We had several appointments this week including 2 case management appointments, 2 therapy intake appointments, and Ladybug's last therapy appointment until she is assigned a new therapist (CAPA relies on interns, and they tend to finish/st...

 We finished Human Anatomy and Physiology. We finished Ali and the Golden Eagle . We had the best discussions while reading this book!  The kids were so provoked by the bringing of modern technology to a previously undisturbed village still living as their ancestors had for probably 1,000 years that they had to talk it out.  I had the privilege of just listening as they discussed pros and cons to modern life vs ancient life. At one point I couldn't resist asking them if they wanted to move somewhere and try to live like long ago.  Most of them said, "No!"   Brother said, "People from long ago can live just fine because they don't know what they're missing.  People from now can't go back because they'll know!" Lola said, "Sure!  As long as we can take medicine with us!" It was really, really fun to listen to them voice their opinions and their reasons! We finished Seven Daughters and Seven Sons .  This book is definitely on our list of T...

  . . . we are just enjoying the summer days. Nature Angel must have liked this pile of cut watermelon. We started Lad, A Dog as our final comfort re-read of the summer.  We only made it through 3 chapters this week because there's been too much going on in the evenings for the regular evening reading that I best love, but we're doing our best. We went swimming at my sister's house. And then we went swimming again with friends, but no one took any pictures that day. Some of the kids even went swimming a third time for their youth night activity, but Ladybug got to decorate cookies, and Little Princess went to CAP instead. Beowulf was delighted by a tiny egg laid by one of our chickens. I saw the shell--it really was a tiny egg! Lazy days . . . long legs! We went to the library. And Sugar Bear turned 5!!   But the kids played 13th birthday. 🤷 We had a drop in heat so that the days became sweet and lovely.  We couldn't help spending time outside. There was a lot...

 I am an organized person. I run our household on good, solid routines that allow for flexibility and keep us in order. But I'm feeling slightly insane at the number of interruptions to our homeschool days lately!! It's not the kids' behaviors that are the problem right now; it's other people (like dentists and friends) who keep demanding our time. I'm going to have to get tough about defending our homeschool hours. Tougher than I usually am! Of course, we still did good stuff.  Our Morning Meetings were particularly good this week.  Kids had solid questions and participated in discovering and discussing answers. The teens and I read the Thoreau chapter in our American Lit. book.  There's so much to think about when reading Thoreau!!  We also continued The Last of the Mohicans . Nature Angel was able to have an introductory class in welding via her church activity group. She LOVED it!   I think more welding is in her future. :) Little Princess passed h...

 I write "Curriculum Plans" with absolute sincerity. They are plans . Not commitments. We will use these plans as long as they are a good fit for us. We will change when we need to, if we need to. That said, here's what we're hoping to enjoy! Morning Meeting (Devotional) This will continue the way we have done for 20 years.  We'll have a scripture of the month, a scripture of the week, a hymn, some Bible reading, some Book of Mormon reading, some reading/discussion/lessons on whatever our church-wide curriculum is (Book of Mormon for '24, Doctrine and Covenants for '25).  I'll hang up the weekly art "poster" in each Come, Follow Me lesson for our consideration and appreciation.  We'll open and close with prayer, and we'll continue to practice Thankful Thursdays every week. Math Teaching Textbooks for all 8 kids:   Nature Angel completed Algebra 2 last year, and she asked for Geometry this year.  Little Princess is on to Algebra 2, bu...

 The kids were so used to hiding from the heat that they missed an awful lot of good outdoor weather! So did I, for that matter. I spent my days cutting music and choreographing dances for American Rhythm. Nature Angel spent her days cutting music and choreographing dances for American Rhythm. She did a lot more choreography than I did because I stopped constantly to prepare, serve, and clean up meals. The kids read books and built stuff with magnetic tiles. (I wish I could accurately represent the excitement and clamor of Sir Walter Scott coming home with our weekly library haul!) As I realized how beautiful the weather actually was, I started kicking kids out of the house; "You all have to spend at least 30 minutes outside." They would complain and moan and accuse me of being the meanest mom ever.  But they would find out it was beautiful, and they would last an hour outside.  Then they would come in, feel the lure of the outdoors, and out they would go again. Sir Walte...

 She did it!  She graduated! And because of that, we took a trip to Idaho (and then Utah). We headed out 2 weeks ago on Monday afternoon. (Don't worry, this will not be a travelogue!) Our trip purposes were twofold: 1.  Attend Pixie's graduation. 2.  Visit with extended family, especially Sir Walter Scott's mom, who is declining rapidly. Along the way, though, an awful lot happened that we can count as education! Geography The kids were pretty intensely involved in mapping the routes we took to our various destinations.   *They counted hours and miles.   *They watched the landscape change.   *They asked questions about the landscapes we passed through.   *They observed climate changes.   *They interacted with new environments:  i.e. cold lakes and rivers! We hit this Idaho river when we were between housing.  Had we thought clearly, we could have rented tubes and floated the river, but we didn't, so the kids...