A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 On Sunday we made the most of the sunshine and took a walk along Rock Island Trail.       The last post in which I can find recorded miles for our 300 mile goal is 18.2.  We added 3.15 miles for a total of 21.35 miles .   The trail follows an old railroad.  It's a fairly new trail, and a lot of the trash from the railroad is still on the ground.  My kids began picking up bits and pieces, and eventually convinced me to let them bring their treasures home.  We did a little research, and the best we can figure is that these railroad plates and spikes are 117 years old.      Whatever their age, these artifacts provoked a lot of interest in building and trains this week. We couldn't stand to lose any daylight before the gloom came back, so we had an impromptu marshmallow roast in the evening. We woke up to gloom that stayed until Friday again. We did our best to add light and life to our days.   Baymax finished the first of 2 math books and has a good start on the second.  We'r

Books we read this week.   The Frog Book was outstanding.  The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden made all of us cry.  It's about dealing with grief, and it is perfect.   Monday . . . Gloom Tuesday . . . Gloom Wednesday . . . Gloom Thursday . . . Gloom Friday . . . Sun!  And I came back to life. Seasonal Affective Disorder . . . it's real. Crocus photo by Little Princess Today is the last forecasted day of sun before 10 more days of rain and gloom.  I've soaked up as much sun as I've been able to this weekend, and I'll do my best today. But the truth is, I'm scared of the gloom that is coming back.  I saw my doctor this week for my annual depression screening and follow up, and we can see that my med is working, and I'm managing my symptoms.   Went on a little walk with just a few of the kids to collect tires for our pond structure.  Walking helps.   But a lack of sunshine is a real problem, and I don't want to feel half dead and sad and incompeten

 False spring left, and so did my spirits.   All is well.   I am blessed, and so is my family.   But I'm fighting the blues.   As a result, there's little visual documentation of what we did this week. :)  Here's what I've got.  Just before the gloom came back, we gave our little seedlings some time outside to get them ready for planting.     Baymax finished book C in his phonics/spelling studies.  I feel like he's not ready for book D yet, so I ordered a set of primary phonics readers/workbook to give him time for the concepts he's been introduced to to settle in his brain more solidly.   My teen/tweens still manage child care and personal studies with panache.  Nature Angel is reading The Diary of Anne Frank.  Apparently the little boys are interested. We did read books about India and a bit of nature study.  I usually like to take pictures of the front covers, but most of these are ILL books, so the cover is obscured with ILL stickers.       What I want to kn

 Usually February is one of our most productive months in our homeschool.  I can't remember ever having the February blahs that many people write about. I think we had them this year! Whatever the case, the weather has warmed up dramatically, the kids and I are spending hours and hours out of doors, and suddenly I like my kids again, and I like waking up in the morning again. Hurrah! How many kids can fit in a sand pit!?!?!? We're still doing minimal formal work each day--just a few hours in the morning with nature study or geography picture books read during meal times and our traditional evening reading together.  We finished a biography of Thomas Edison on Wednesday evening, and now we're intensively reading The Winged Watchman . Ladybug finished her 5th and final Literature Unit for the year! Our new white board is waaaaaaay cool!  Math is fun on the giant board! Brother really likes this book stand.  It's been a game changer for him to have it to hold his book open