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...

My gosh!  This girl of mine is so cute!  This was the school year that depression took over her life. Any work she did with me or for CAP or for church or for her job was done beautifully well--continuing to prove to me that she is incredibly capable. Most of the work that she had to do independently was procrastinated until it was too late to complete this school year.   We had meeting after meeting after meeting trying to find ways to help her overcome her inertia, but nothing worked.   Finally, we headed to the doctor where she was diagnosed and prescribed meds.   At her follow-up appointment last week, she told the doctor she was feeling much better, and she passed the depression screening. However, she experienced a trauma this summer that she must now process. So she's starting therapy.   We've completed all of the intake forms and meetings, so she should be assigned a therapist and start sessions any time now. With the other high ...

 Books I read to the youngest six: The Mysterious Benedict Society -- Trenton Lee Stewart The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle -- Avi Lad: A Dog -- Albert Payson Terhune The Year of the Dog – Grace Lin Where the Mountain Meets the Moon -- Grace Lin Li Lun, Lad of Courage -- Carolyn Treffinger Sweet and Sour -- Carol Kendall and Yao-Wen Li The Princess and the Goblins -- George MacDonald The Kite Fighters -- Linda Sue Park A Single Shard -- Linda Sue Park  Year of Impossible Goodbyes -- Sook Nyul Choi The Big Wave -- Pearl Buck The Master Puppeteer -- Katherine Paterson  The Cat Who Went to Heaven -- Elizabeth Coatsworth The Best Christmas Pageant Ever -- Barbara Robinson The Bird's Christmas Carol -- Kate Douglas Wiggins A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus -- L Frank Baum Born in the Year of Courage -- Emily Crofford Burying the Sun -- Gloria Whelan The Princess and Curdie -- George MacDonald Breaking Stalin’s Nose -- Eugene Yelc...

 Little Princess graduated and came home from Cadet Officer School!  Graduation was available to families via Zoom, and we cheered for our girl at the dinner table as the rest of the kids prepared to head out the door to church activities. Little Princess with her flight There were twelve flights of 10 cadets each at COS. The extra people you see in this picture are her flight commander and sergeant. Our busy girl had one day off before heading into two days of work, a doctor's appointment, and babysitting her nephew. Then we found out that the daddy of one of our former daycare families died suddenly at work on Friday.  Little Princess joined the rest of our family in taking care of the two little boys as well as helping to clean their house.  We offered to take the boys again today (Mom is literally bed-ridden with grief, and Grandma is fragile), but they had a bad night last night, so they opted to have a quiet day at home together. They talked axles and wheels an...

 The 3 big boys got home from Boys' Camp yesterday.   (No pics have been shared yet.) They are full of stories about fishing, touring a cave system, river rafting, chair soccer (broke one of our camping chairs!), devotionals, and not showering even once. Those of us who stayed at home kept busy with Little Mister, The Munchkin, and Sugar Bear who came to spend a day with us here and there.   We didn't read together while the big boys were gone. We're reading a wonderful book called The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo!!!  We started it before the boys left, and we're finishing it up now that they're home. While they were gone the remaining 3 kids watched a lot of the Percy Jackson series (Lola has been rereading The Lightning Thief ) and some Harry Potter movies (Lola has been rereading that series as well).  They did a lot of personal reading--Ladybug likes teen romance novels, and Baymax has been working his way through Fablehaven for the third...

 As a family, we've been in a stable place for a season. And now we are not, again. We are facing some of the old challenges grown larger.  Weare facing some new challenges that feel simply too big. This week a few of the kids are at CAP Encampment. One, who should have been there, is not because of a mistake he made that had large consequences attached. In the past I have written somewhat freely about our challenges. Now, I feel inclined to turn inward. The only homeschool business I have to write about is that we're still reading My Friend Flicka , and we quite enjoy it.  It's wordy, and has some racially biased tendencies (and a nasty word or two).  I edit that out as I read aloud (or sometimes I stop for a conversation about what's in the story and why it's not okay).  The plot is quite engaging, and the peril level is just right for my crew to feel excited as the story progresses, but not actually frightened. We've got kids coming and going so much now that...