Completing Work at the End of May

Monday 

We started our week by attending our church Memorial Day pancake breakfast at the park.  My kids ran and played for several hours.  When we got home . . .

6 out of 8 kids fell asleep!

And the 2 that didn't nap, just lay quietly reading.

We were all strangely tired, so we had a very quiet rest of our day.

Tuesday was a regular school day for us with a single youth church activity:  the 11- and 12-year-old boys taught the rest of the youth how to change a tire. 

Several brave men volunteered their vehicles for hands-on practice, and it sounds like the evening was a success.

 On Wednesday we completed a few things.  

The kids and I finished The Horse and his Boy, Alice in Wonderland, and The Story of the World vol 1.

Ladybug finished Math 4!!

I considered letting her have a break but decided against it because she forgets too easily.   I'd rather let her dive right into the review lessons at the start of Math 5 to solidify the information she just learned.

She'll get a 1-week break during Girls' Camp in a couple of weeks, and then she'll get 10 days off while we're traveling later this summer for Pixie's graduation.  I think that will feel special for her, and it will be good for her brain to avoid a long break.

The teens and I finished The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and started Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.

On Thursday we left all of our books on the shelves because we had 8 extra children in our care for the day!  We had our usual Sugar Bear and The Munchkin.  We also had all 4 children (ages 3-12) of friends who are moving back into town; their parents were house-hunting (successfully!).  And last, but not least, we had Little Mister Frog and Nugget for one day of care because their school is on break, and their mom couldn't find anyone else for that one day.

And we had a park day with dance friends, too.

They picked a whole cup of mulberries before breakfast, and they ate them on their oatmeal!

Nugget loved, loved, loved the chickens.  When I took this picture, he was calling to me, "I'm down here!  I'm in here!!"

In my opinion, putting a Little Free Library in a gazebo in the park playground is a brilliant idea!

The extra 4 kids are cousins to Sugar Bear and The Munchkin. 
They had so much fun playing together!

Little Princess helped get lunch on the table for 18 people.

She's so peaceful in the middle of the busy-ness of all of the rest of the kids.  
Nature Angel supervised their play while Little Princess and I worked in the kitchen.

These two renewed their friendship that was interrupted nearly a year ago.  

It was a crazy, joy-filled day.

And when everyone left, we all collapsed in total exhaustion.

I mean utter, complete, consuming exhaustion!

Friday

We woke up grateful for the memories of the day before and equally grateful for a quiet day ahead of us.

The teens and I finished reading the excerpts from Letters from an American Farmer that were included in our American Literature text.  That concluded a chapter and unit of the text, so I put the text away until August, because camps are starting soon, and Little Princess will be gone more than she'll be home.  It's just a nice, clean place to pause.

I think we'll finish the Frederick Douglass Narration next week, and that will leave us at another clean stopping place before we pick up again with formal studies together.

The kids and I finished this book after reading it over the course of the week:

The kids each wrote a biographical narration page for their history binders.

And lastly, on Saturday night, we completed The School Mouse by Dick King-Smith during bedtime reading.

We have one more regular week ahead of us, and then the summer camps begin!