A Week, Briefly (11/1/21)

"It was the best of times.

 It was the worst of times."

 

That's life around here.

 

One day we get through a lot of school, and everyone does their chores and gets along reasonably well.

 

Like this morning--they got dressed, did their chores, and read until breakfast!!!

 

The next day we have violent outbursts, 911 calls, and psych evals.

 

It's no wonder none of us knows which way to turn next.

But we are looking for what beauty we can find, and we try to be grateful in all things.

 

I found this on Nature Angel's photo roll--it's of her desk (aka her bin of yarn) in the early morning when she does her personal scripture study.  She is ever seeking for and aware of beautiful moments.

 

Early Tuesday morning the sky was crystal clear, and a waning crescent moon glowed perfectly.  I told Little Princess.  She got the telescope set up in record time.  She and Nature Angel had a glorious half hour looking at, admiring, and taking pictures of the moon.

 

Then on Friday, Little Princess' two dozen astronomy books came through at the library.  Every time I turn to look for her, she's knee deep in another one.

We read What's the Big Idea Ben Franklin? and started Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin.  We read several chapters in Shepherd, Potter, Spy, and the Star Namer, too.  

We managed 3 psych appointments and an intake for Lola for case management.  She's not really in need of it at the moment, but when it was offered, I jumped at the chance to get her enrolled to make sure she's not left out of any services that might bless her.

Belle didn't get her score back for her second speech because her teacher's daughter has been very sick.  However, Belle was asked to speak at stake conference (a semi-annual meeting of several local congregations).  Many people opted to stay home and participate via live-stream, but there were still approximately a thousand people present, and Belle's 7-minute talk on the virtue of godliness was perfect.  

When she wasn't working on her talk, Belle spent a lot of time this week working on reading about and watching online classes for the US Constitution class I've assigned to her.  

Thursday was devoted from 9 am to 4 pm to dance.  I spent the whole morning organizing costumes and finding out that I was not as prepared as I thought I was.  Lola ended up dancing in bright red play shoes, Mister Man didn't have clogging shoes, and Nature Angel had to tie a pair of my black pants as tightly as she could around her waist because her pants disappeared.  (Where did they go?!?!?!)

 

If a bad dress rehearsal means the show will be great, then we're due to have the best show ever!

The rehearsal was so bad. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This sweet moment during clean-up, after the rehearsal, melted my heart.

 

We know where our weaknesses are now, and we'll hopefully do better when we have an audience!

Baymax finished the first of two books in his grade 1 math program.

He's somewhat disappointed to learn there's another whole book at this level, but it will cover some interesting stuff, so I'm not too worried.

Mister Man told me he was bored once too often this week, so now he's added his language arts program back into his daily schedule.  A few of the other kids will be adding to their days' work, too.  In spite of the fluctuations in our days, we are managing to hold on to enough of a schedule to get schoolwork done.

(I've been thinking a lot lately about enrolling at least some of the kids in school because of how much it seems I am failing at homeschooling.  These past couple of weeks have restored a little bit of my confidence and hope.)

We're still walking every day.  The days have truly transitioned into cold nights and warm afternoons.  After a few mornings of having to bundle up this much:

 

I've moved our walking time to a warmer hour of the day!

Eventually we'll have to bundle up no matter what, but skipping coats, hats, bibbies, mittens, and blankets means we can get outside in under 10 minutes instead of over half an hour.  We've logged 100+ miles.

The younger kids continue to try to read a sentence, or paragraph, or page out of the first Warrior Cats book.  I don't know what the magic is about these stories, but I'm taking it for the magic it is.  It is due back at the library in 18 days after maxing out our allowed renewals, and we'll probably have to check it out again on another card, because the kids are determined to learn to read it.  Mister Man helps Baymax and Lola through their reading lessons.  Brother and Beowulf ask for help as needed.

I'm delighted!  This is what unschoolers love about child-led learning, and while I'm not primarily an unschooler, I love seeing this happen!

Our church primary program--where the children present to the congregation what they've been learning in their classes--is in two weeks.  We've been practicing the songs, and we're going to dive into memorizing their parts tomorrow.