A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 Yesterday ended the 2025-26 American Rhythm season. Stars Sparklers Stripes Firecrackers My dancers and me The whole troupe We had a blast putting on our Friends and Family show--a good audience always helps. :) Now we're on a break for a wee bit. This summer we optional clogging/swing dance workshops on the calendar for those who want to develop their skills a little bit. And by June, the other teachers and I will be deep in planning and choreography for the 2026-27 season. As for my personal crew, we are making progress on our academic goals, but we also had a week long spring break--mostly for my mental well-being. (Though I must admit that the change in schedule did not do my kids much good.  We had a few rough moments that made me very glad we're starting school again tomorrow!) We finished up our Book of Mormon Family Reader during Morning Meeting, and we started the book of Alma in The Book of Mormon during our after-dinner reading time.  We're still on volume 2...

 We've entered the season of finishing. Baymax finished math. Brother, Ladybug, Beowulf, and Lola have finished various math/language arts worktexts , and they're down to only 2 worktexts to go to finish for the year. Little Princess finished American Government. The kids and I have memorized all 47 US Presidents in order.  We're now trying to memorize some interesting facts about each president and develop a sense of each president's season of influence. We finished Little Britches and Great Expectations .  Both books inspired so much discussion!  (In totally different ways, of course!) I do have to comment that I knew a sad ending was coming in Little Britches , but the kids were taken off guard--kind of blindsided.  It was rough to watch them react, and I have a hunch this is going to be a book they're not willing to revisit any time soon. We picked up Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher as our next bedtime read aloud--it's a spin off of 1001 Arabian Nights ....

 I'm not doing well. I have built habits and routines that are keeping us up and running, though. Morning Meeting and morning meds Cleaning/Meal Prep  High School literature/geography Snack Elementary/Middle school subjects Lunch Independent schoolwork Cleaning/Correcting independent schoolwork Meal Prep Dinner/Scripture reading/Family Prayer Showers/Bedtime reading or Evening activities/get ready for bed Evening meds If anything interrupts us, I flail about, lost. Several times in the past few weeks, Sir Walter Scott has found me standing in the living room unable to move or think clearly.   Then I remember where I am, and I do what I can. I've taken kids to keep medical/psych appointments. In the pulmonary function lab I've kept everyone fed. We've gone to dance performances and practices. In the circle before our show, our little friend loved on Mister Man--one of her favorite humans. They've attended church activities. This activity was interrupted by tornado wa...

 And I'm a grandma to this beautiful little boy! In other news, we had a reasonable school week . . . not fabulous, but reasonable. The kids and I finished both The Turning and The Diamond in the Window .  We have yet to start new books, but we will! Beowulf started a  Spectrum math workbook to keep his math skills current (and to fill in some gaps)  because I've decided to move the kids out of Teaching Textbooks as they finish their current math levels.  TT has been a wonderful program for us to overcome some of our math fears and struggles, but I have kids who aren't safe online (even with supervision/parental controls), and TT does seem to have holes that never quite get filled. I do NOT look forward to correcting so much math, though! :) The teens had a great time at their Tahitian dance rehearsal last Sunday.  (Photos courtesy of a dance mom kind enough to share) I love my kids getting to know a culture new to them. We had another show with our ow...