A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 The kids were so excited for Monday evening because Dad was coming home from work to take them to the park for an evening of playing baseball.  They even got to pick up their favorite friends along the way.  We don't have any pictures because Sir Walter Scott forgot his phone, but that just means he was able to participate fully without stopping to frame a photo. Everyone came home sweaty, tired, hungry, and happy.   I had our usual Monday night huge pot of pasta ready and waiting for them as they walked in the door. Earlier in the day, our case manager made his weekly visit, but this time he had a nurse with him because she did some digging into files and found that we'd not had a nurse visit at any time in our history with this service, so she started fixing that lack with Brother.  He got weighed and measured in various ways, and we spent a good part of the afternoon answering questions about health habits and history.   I am delighted to repo...

I just found him like this! It was a week of beginnings and endings. The teens began seminary --a full week of it--and they are enthusiastic, energetic, and faithful thus far. Pixie began her World Geography class at the local community college.  She came home laughing, "The first assignment is to fill in a world map with all of the countries!  I couldn't stop smiling as the teacher passed out the maps."  Pixie has long since already memorized the names and locations of every country in the world, so it was an easy and encouraging start for her. This is Nature Angel and Little Princess helping me choreograph "Cooties" from Hairspray .  Our theme this year is American Musicals, and we're having a lot of fun! We all began a new year of dance.  After hours and hours and hours of choreography, we were ready to gather, and we doubled our numbers with 45 committed dancers ages 3-16!  It was a delightful start to the year with smiling kids who work...

The Lord's Prayer is one of the simplest, humblest, and most beautiful examples of scripture in all of the Bible. Memorizing and studying it has long been part of our family's homeschool tradition, and Nature Angel and I were delighted to have our study broadened and deepened when we received a copy of Weave Your Word in Me--Part 1 by Kid Niche Christian Books . This is a physical product (not a digital download), printed in full color.  It arrived as a shrink-wrapped, pre-drilled set of worksheets that we put into our own 3-ring binder.  A 1/2" binder was plenty big enough. We have family scripture study each day, and we encourage each child to read scriptures each day independently, but we also like for our children to form the habit of personal study--to know the word of God more deeply than a cursory "Yes-Mom-I-read-Matthew-chapter-3-today." Nature Angel is 10 years old--at the young end of the target audience for this product.  She did just...

Monday morning we (mostly--I can never count Rose Red in these things) started our school-year morning routine.  We're starting half an hour later than we will be starting in a couple more weeks, and I still have a few habits to get better at, but I'm still enjoying morning running, and I am just not ready to give it up. Besides, it's still too hot for afternoon exercise. (It's starting to be too dark to be out at 6 am--I'll be shifting to afternoon running once the temperature drops.) Lola loves combing long, smooth hair.  And Belle is so patient with her. I still get up between 5 and 5:30 am and start my day with scripture study, journaling, and prayer.  Then I get on my running gear and hit the pavement with one or two teen daughters while another teen daughter gets the privilege of mindless internet time in return for babysitting the babies.  If I get home fast enough I can get a shower before throwing on my clothes. Everyone else is to be up by ...