A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 We had our annual lighting ceremony on Monday night. And by sewing madly in the late afternoon, I managed to finish 24 gift bags (20 of them were made in previous years) for our Christmas book advent. We've been faithfully opening one a day, and I love, love, love how the kids still gather around and get excited over seeing what book is in what bag and then settle happily down near the fire for read aloud time. This week we opened Dasher, Santa's Twin, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and The Night Tree.   We're just reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever a chapter at a time, so it's fun to double up and read a picture book and a chapter book. We're also trucking along rather well with regular school. We did add The Jesus Storybook Bible to our Morning Meeting. We read The Big Wave , and we're almost through with The Master Puppeteer . The Big Wave is the single best book about grieving I...

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends. We baked, cooked, cleaned, and played a little bit of football (Not me!  The youngest 6!) Over the week, we did what school we could with having Little Mister over 2 days, having Sugar Bear and The Munchkin over on one day, and needing to devote all of Wednesday to Thanksgiving preparation in the kitchen. They fought with swords and set up a gaga ball pit! Sweet, patient Little Mister tolerating being mothered by Sugar Bear. :) I laughed listening to Brother and Baymax talk on Wednesday after I told them they had no school assignments at all. Baymax:  I love not having school. Brother:  Yes!  I do too!  It's such a relief! Baymax:  I know!  I don't have to think all day, "Oh no!  Is my school done?" Brother:  Yeah!  Me, too!  I wonder, "Can I go outside?  Is my school done?  Can I play?  Is my school done?" Baymax is usually done with his independent school b...

A quick science demonstration about breaking down fats  I've had unusually full Sundays for the past couple of weeks.  As Sunday is my writing day, I've not been able to keep up here.  I've got just a few minutes to sit with my computer, and I at least want to jot just a few notes. Morning Meetings continue as usual.  We don't mess with our Morning Meetings around here!  We're nearly done with Saints volume 1 and our 2025 Come, Follow Me curriculum.  We'll be ready to dive into the Old Testament again in 2026.  And the kids are starting to get antsy about picking our our annual reading of The Jesus Storybook Bible that we start right after Thanksgiving every year. Wudchuk Run The high schoolers and I finished A Girl of the Limberlost, and we are about 1/3 of the way through The Education of Little Tree right now.  We also completed our studies of North and South Korea, and we are making progress on Japan.  We are reading The Master Pupp...

We know how to take care of babies around here. We know how to do school with babies, too. But our skills must be dusty because Little Mister took over everything! Not that we minded so much. 😉 Little Mister during literature and history Little Mister during our walk Little Mister during chore time Little Mister when we would have been doing anatomy Little Mister during dance Little Mister during literature, again Things we did do while he was with us this week: *Chores *Morning Meeting *Math *Cursive/Copywork *Grammar *Literature *Eastern Hemisphere *Independent schoolwork *Dance *Go on a few walks *Church Activities *CAP (technically after he left for the day) *Sewing *Sent kids to work *Last day of Beowulf's and Lola's gardening apprenticeship for the season *Had friends over *Had my parents over Things we did NOT do while he was with us this week: *Anatomy *US Presidents *Poetry *Anything else we might have done if we hadn't needed to cater to the needs of a 5-month-ol...