A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Cupcakes by Nature Angel.  She made them at a church activity. We had Morning Meeting every day--with a focus on Matthew chapter 5. We had 3 Symposiums.  I cancelled Tuesday's meeting in order to take Ladybug to the psychiatrist's office to start the process of getting her established as a patient.   They changed their intake procedure at the new year, so I just filled out paperwork, and got her an appointment for March 11.  Then Thursday's meeting simply never happened because Pixie was really sick, and all of the teens slept late.  I figured sometimes we need sick days. On Friday they took their Unit 7 test for language arts and earned excellent scores.  There was significant moaning about the essays and and sentence diagramming, but I don't know why, as they aced both sections!  After the test, Pixie started crying because she was still just sick and wiped out, so we skipped history and Spanish in favor of me reading aloud to them from the second half o

I ended last week's post stating that Brother's arm seemed fine, but that proved otherwise when I took him to urgent care Saturday morning (his pain was growing rather than abating) where x-rays revealed a very clear buckle fracture. The doctor gave us nothing more than a splint and a warning to avoid sledding or other activities that might exacerbate the fracture. I know it's protocol to keep treatment as simple as possible, but a cast would have been a blessing as  Brother couldn't keep his hands off the splint, and he kept tightening until his circulation was cut off, and his fingers would swell.  I finally took the splint away from him on Thursday, hoping for the best.  As of Friday afternoon, he's been fine without it. But it's been hard to choose--a potentially more broken bone or damaged circulation?  Which "poison" is the one to pick? I'm sticking with leaving him splintless until I have reason to do otherwise. I hope it is not a

It has been frigidly, freezingly freezing cold here, and we had an ice/sleet storm that shut down everything for 2 full days this week. But today is sunny (albeit barely in the double digits), and the kids are making the most of the icy yard by sledding without sleds. Looks like a snowy yard . . . but it's not!  It's a sheet of ice.  The kids get running starts at the top of the hill and slide all the way down and across the street and into the ditch . . . even without sleds! We're really in the season of finishing thing and being ready for changes. Ladybug finished her first spelling book (above) and her literature book and all of the books that go with it (below).  She's now doing phonics review activities out of The Good and Beautiful Grade 1 Language Arts that I downloaded for free a few years ago.  I'm printing just a few pages at a time and dating them each time she reviews them.  Done with this book--took a year and a half.  She co

We thought we were going to receive Pixie's college track assignment this week. . . but we didn't. Now we are edgy. It will come.  There's no doubt of that, but the waiting is hard. Lots of events were cancelled this week due to the extreme cold--MOCSA, church youth night, seminary--but the funniest one involved Pixie.  Her college campus was not closed, so she went to class and settled into her favorite study corner to use the time wisely until dance would start in the late afternoon. But it started snowing--a slippery, icy snow that caused further cancellations . . . including the closing of her campus. Somehow she didn't get word. Campus security traveled about securing the buildings and was shocked to find Pixie, contentedly studying away. "What are you doing here?" the officer asked. Surprised by the question, she answered simply, "Studying." "The campus is closed.  Didn't you hear?" "No.  I had no idea