A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

The calendar year is coming to a close.  Our school year is not quite half over, but as always happens after 3 or 4 months, it is time for change.  I've learned to not be distressed by the fact that schedules and plans never work for longer than a few months; we are all growing and changing so quickly that the need to make adjustments as we go is necessary. In general we had a good first few months.  We accomplished a lot and our schedule was not too hard. But it was hard. It felt as if we didn't ever have quite enough time for playing outside or saying yes to play dates or offering service to others.  Friends have begun to say things like, "We'd love to play if you can squeeze us in to your schedule."  That simply breaks my heart.  There should always be room for friends! Our schedule had room to allow for brief interruptions, but I always felt trapped and in a hurry to get back to where we should have been. I went to bed pleased with what we did eac

We're memorizing " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" together.  Actually A5 is memorizing it for the first time; the rest of us know it and are just reviewing. We also borrowed a book of Christmas poetry from the library.  In it is a copy of " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas."  A5 found it and has spent literally days poring over it.  Occasionally she's asked, "Mom what does h-u-r-r-i-c-a-n-e spell?" or another related question.  I've answered and gone about my busy-ness without too much thought other than to be happy that my girl seems to like poetry. Yesterday H3 asked me to read the "Cwismas poem" to her.  I sat down to oblige, and A5 saw what we were doing.  She sighed a big sigh and said, "Good luck!  That poem takes days to read.  I just finished." "Did you read the whole poem?"  I asked incredulously. "Yes," she answered matter-of-factly. "Wow!  What an accomplishment!"

The days roll peacefully, busily by. We're schooling gently. That's how I like it. We were pushing too hard in September and October.  November showed us how to find joy in the journey, and we are obeying that direction in December.  I've begun to wonder what January will look like. But that is not necessary. Now is where we live. I gave A5 and H3 little handwriting practice papers about cows to go along with our unit study of How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World .   H3 obviously doesn't need to do handwriting practice, but if someone bigger is doing it, she must do it, too. I sat across the table from her, watching. Watching her pudgy little fingers grip her pencil. Watching her sweet, soft cheeks. Watching her eyes deep in concentration. Watching her elbows propped on the table, supporting her body because she was sitting in a chair too low for her body. Watching a wisp of hair fall across her forehead. Watching perfect letters march out fro

I threw us right into the deep with our first service project on Monday; we prepared Christmas cards for soldiers for the American Red Cross.  The deadline for having the cards in Maryland is this Friday, so we just barely made the cut off, and we were only able to do one box of 18 cards, but that's 18 soldiers who will be getting cards who wouldn't if we hadn't tried.  Next year we can start earlier and do more.  Perhaps I'll pick up some cards at 70% off after Christmas this year . . . but then I'll have to find them next year! S10 said as we worked, "I'm not sure doing this is making me happier.  I think I feel kind of sad because these soldiers are away from their families." I just smiled sympathetically, "That's good.  It means you're feeling sympathy.  I do hope you feel happy because you're doing something nice, though." She smiled happily back at me. I think she's fine. Tuesday A5 said the prayer at lunc

So, we're done with International Day.  We missed it. The original plan was to have fun with this break from our regular studies and then return, refreshed, to the grindstone. But every part of me is rebelling against that!  I don't want to go back to what we were doing! It was good.  Our days flew by busy and productive.  But the very idea of it is horrifying right now. I want to do another project that brings us all to life the way Antarctica and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World did. Christmas could do it! What about a Christmas unit study? As I sat at the table after my personal scripture study I came up with this list: Scripture to memoriz e:  Luke 2 (And it would work for copywork, spelling, and dictation, too!) Poem to memorize :  'Twas the Night Before Christmas History :  Roman Empire, Jewish history/culture/religion Literature: Max Lucado storybooks, Who Am I? by Katherine Paterson, The Not So Wise Man by Alan MacDonald, El

Antarctica and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World fizzled to a sad end because we got very sick!  10 out of 10 members of our household have had fevers, coughs, sore throats, runny noses, and aches and pains; it began with little H3 and has taken 1 or 2 more down ever since Thanksgiving Day.  We did have our Antarctic movie day though--Blue Planet " Frozen Seas ,"  Planet Earth " The Poles ," Eight Below, and March of the Penguins.  It was a good educational day while we were just starting to feel crummy.  Once we were really, really sick we kept right on watching movies, but I also read for at least an hour a day from Troubling a Star by Madeline L'Engle--our literature connection to Antarctica.  We haven't quite finished Emperors of the Ice , and I'm not sure we will, but I'd like to.  Those explorers were intrepid! My little girls do want to finish exploring the world and then make apple pie together, and I quite think we should!

Day 3—Italy Read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World Get passport “stamps” Color map of Italy and find Italy on world map Learn Italian phrases [body parts and food words] with Youtube video by Silvia Look at pictures online of Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, and Italian countryside Read “Buried Treasure” [a story from Italy] from Usborne Stories from Around the World If there is time look at pictures of Sistine Chapel—can we paint upside down like Michaelangelo? **We did not get to paint, but the girls loved the pictures of the Sistine Chapel! Day 4 Reread story Read The Little Red Hen Read When Batistine Made Bread Color in wheat growth chart Look at wheat grains—make “seed” art Sprout wheat **We did not color in our wheat growth chart, nor did we make seed art. Day 5 Check on our wheat—is it sprouting? Color wheat page that we didn’t have time for during our last lesson Reread story Watch Youtube videos about trains Trai

In spite of the fact that I haven't reported on Days 3 and 4 I'm so delighted with what is happening right now on Day 5 that I want to write before I forget. Today is Iceberg/Glacier day.  We copied Isaiah 1:18, read about glaciers, took notes, watched videos of icebergs calving , and now the girls are making ice sculptures .  E12 wanted to divvy up the pieces of ice and make her own, but I insisted that this be a cooperative venture. I was nervous. Cooperation has not been E12's forte of late. But upstairs 4 girls are creative and cooperatively building an ice sculpture!  Happy voices, good ideas, even shared leadership are all taking place. I love the sound of, "Hey guys!  What about this!" answered with, "Oh yeah!  I like that!" And that's what I'm hearing today. And we also built our hydroponic growing tubes out of old water/soda bottles, shredded paper (recycled bank statements and medical reports), and cut up cloth dish towels

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. On Day 2 we talked about boats; we colored a picture of a steamship; boiled water and watched the steam collect under the lid of the pan (we have glass lids--perfect for this learning experience); opened the lid to see the steam escape; and talked about how steam powered the engines of the ship.  We also did copywork using this site to make a page with Psalm 17:8 on it (Keep me as the apple of the eye . . .).  We reread the story. The highlight of the day was making and playing with paddle boats in the bathtub.  Though they were not steam powered, they were ever-so-fun!  I did not find a pattern online that I particularly liked, but the concept was easy enough to help me realize that I could use the two styrofoam vegetable trays I had saved from my last shopping trip and a couple of rubber bands to make the boats.  I simply cut a rectangle out of the back, cut the cut-out piece in half to make a paddle, slipped a rubber band

The big girls and I enjoyed our first day of studying Antarctica.  We're using Classroom Antarctica as our main resource.  It is fantastic!  I was so impressed that I even sent the site administrators a thank you note.  We're also using library books in abundance, and I was inspired by this blog post to remember to incorporate the scriptures, too (rather than having separate scripture study sessions). So, yesterday we managed to accomplish the following in about 3 hours:  Read:   An 11 Year Old's Observations of Antarctica Prepare journals KWL chart Copy a scripture -- Gen 1:1 Draw a map study climate charts online make bar graph comparing our ave. temperatures to Antarctica's Read: Troubling a Star Read: Emperors of the Ice Introduce book basket The bar graphs were hard, even though the kids have done them before in Life of Fred.  I had to let J8 off the h

Whew!  I'm already exhausted. But it is a happy sort of exhausted. Our homeschool association sponsors "International Day" each November.  The kids sign up to do displays of an international flavor.  In past we did a display about Cinderella stories from around the world, studied Mongolia, and had an aborted attempt to study India.  This year we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled school for 3 week unit studies. For the little girls we are exploring How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World . For the big girls we are studying Antarctica. In 5 minutes I have to head upstairs to start the big girls.  I just spent the past couple of hours working with the little girls.  We made mini apple pies, read the book, and talked about passports.  I made really cute little passports for each girl by copying this idea and then using google images for the term "passport."  I printed out a homemade cover, pasted in the passport form, pasted in a pictu

This morning early I handed the kids each a cup of leftover snack mix--cereal, pretzels, peanuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc. Why not? They liked it, and we were in need of a lazy Sunday morning. Mostly they dumped it out on the table, organized it by item, and began wheeling and dealing for trades. When that got boring, the fun began; S10 began reenacting Bible stories. A stick pretzel propped up in a Cheerio became Goliath calling the Israelites cowards, and a raisin David answered the challenge. A peanut King Solomon picked up a raisin baby and told two larger raisins that he could solve the problem by cutting the baby in half.  One mother selfishly turned her wrinkled back on the baby, but the other fell on her face offering her heart to allow the baby to live. A white chocolate chip wearing a Cheerio hovered over a peanut named Joseph Smith saying as it pointed to another halo-wearing morsel, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased . . ."

Part of A5's learn-to-read program includes reading 1 verse each school day from the Book of Mormon. (We got the idea from Milestones Academy .) We're in our 8th week of school, and we're nearly finished with 1 Nephi 2. We also read the Book of Mormon as a family each night. Until recently the little girls have just repeated what we read when it is their turn. But one night A5 grabbed her large print scriptures and read her verse herself--with lots of prompting and help. "Zarahemla", "heretofore", "ascension," and the like are rather hard words for a 5-year-old to handle alone. I took this picture to capture this sweet stage of A5's development, but look at little sister H3, too! She's got an awfully good example in her big sister, and I'm sure that it won't be too long before we have yet another scripture reader in the family.

The sky was so blue I could feel it. The sun was so bright I could smell it. The air was so crisp I could taste it. So when we got home from our Explorer's Club meeting, I gave the kids each a thick slab of Three Cheese and Onion Bread and banished them from the house, "You must stay outside for at least one hour.  I will call you in when the baby is asleep and it is time for our cooking lesson." I hated to call them in.  But I knew they would hate me if I skipped our cooking day.  So I went out to them. They were building a log cabin out of the pieces of felled trees Daddy collects for our cousins' wood-burning stove. "No!  It can't be time to come in!" they groaned. "We don't have to cook everything on our list.  And we can certainly cook another day.  If you want to keep building, you're welcome to stay out here.  I'll call you in when we really get down to the wire, and  you can help make the treat." "Okay!&qu