A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Our school week began on the weekend because Super Star made chicken noodle soup as part of her home economics class.  It was the first time she handled a whole raw chicken, and it rather grossed her out. But she survived. She also had to chop 2 onions, and that was a true problem for her as she is very sensitive to the onion fumes.  She wore a pair of swimming goggles, put a clothespin on her nose, sang songs of woe, and muttered, "I'm going to be rich when I grow up, and I'm going to eat pizza every day, and I will prosper, and I will never, ever chop onions again . . ." I laughed so hard, I cried. The soup was delicious. The next lesson learned was a practical lesson for Rose Red. Be careful when handling sharp tools. She thought she'd be cool and slice up a pair of old jeans to look like designer ripped jeans.  She found an old utility razor blade (where?!?) and set to work. She sliced her left index finger open necessitating 2 stitches and ...

We dove back into our school schedule and gasped in shock. The previous two weeks were really pleasant. I pondered quite seriously the idea of throwing out our plans for the year and continuing to alternate reading great books with having out-of-doors experiences.  I know that a truly wonderful education could be achieved that way. But it was the littles that convinced me to resume our regular schedule. "When do I get to do my school?" "What happened to my school?" "Can I do my school just for a few minutes, Mom?" The question came with increasing frequency over the course of the second week.  I looked at why.  Our days were so full of really good educational experiences;  why were the little ones asking for their book work? One-on-one time. In a family as big as ours, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle.  The littles like our usual routine because it includes one-on-one time with Mom.  They like drilling math facts or reading history b...

With the pressure of a mid-week call to jury duty heavy on my mind, I decided that we would not dive back into traditional school only to be interrupted after 2 days.  Instead we began a David Copperfield marathon. Monday As part of our Morning Meeting (which happens every day whether we have school or not), I discussed the importance of civic responsibilities such as jury duty and motherhood.  The older kids were quite intrigued about serving on a jury, but we all agreed that a mother at home is far more important than a mother on a jury.  I've been praying fervently for several weeks (after my personal efforts were all denied) to be excused from jury duty so that I can be home to care for my family, but I got the kids to commit to praying as well. For the main part of our morning, we put together a bunch of snacks, and the oldest 6 girls and I headed to the basement for 2 hours of David Copperfield while Sir Walter Scott watched the youngest 6.  We read and ...