A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Baymax threw a huge tantrum--1 hour 40 minutes long--this week over having to try to do something new. When he actually used words, I listened to his concerns. I validated everything he said. I acknowledged that he would "be bad at it" at first and reassured him that the goal was not being good, but just trying. And I ignored everything that wasn't rational. He screamed. He sulked. He hit me.  (At which point I got Sir Walter Scott involved.) He said many rude things. He sulked some more. He screamed some more. He finally settled down, tried it, did it perfectly in under 2 minutes, and he was free. That's kind of what the whole week felt like. We accomplished a lot, and we were good at it!  It just seemed to take a phenomenal amount of wasted energy to get to the good stuff. Monday Sir Walter Scott took the youngest 6 on a field trip into downtown Kansas City.  (I stayed home with Nature Angel, Little Princess, and the daycare babies.) They rode the streetcar all over...

 We're trucking along in a good groove right now.  Reading, playing, talking, researching every day in some way or another. This was a week of being in the middle of books.  Nothing new started.  Nothing new finished. The teens and I completed unit 3 of American History, so next week we're returning to a couple of World History units. We had a friend for Lola over on Wednesday, and on Saturday, we had a friend over for the boys.  It makes the days both easier (because a friend makes all of the play activities new and fun again) and harder (because no one will listen to mom when a friend is over).   Pixie is hilarious with her students, and she's having a camping, hiking, rappelling outing this weekend. At the top of the cliff! Belle is still checking items off her mission to-do list. Rose Red is in a new, sweet relationship.  I have good hopes. Super Star has tonsillitis (boo) and a new job (hooray).  I hope she gets better easily and has joy...