The First Wave of Cancellations . . . And Valentine's Day

 Obviously, our homeschool goes on as planned (mostly) when the weather turns bad, but the extreme winter weather has caused most--if not all--of the kids' activities to be canceled.

We're starting a round of winter colds.

But we dove into regular school all day Monday.  Nature Angel finished her star blanket while I read To Kill a Mockingbird to the teens.

She hasn't blocked it yet--hence the curling points--but isn't it so pretty?

It used to be half of another blanket that she started.  When it turned out much bigger than she thought it would be, she searched for more yarn, but it turns out that this yarn is now "vintage" and costs an arm and a leg per skein.  It sat half-finished for a year or more until she was inspired to do this star.

It was so funny to watch one blanket unravel and turn slowly into another blanket.

The teens and I still have most of To Kill a Mockingbird to finish, but we did complete the quarter 1 exam for The Mystery of History vol 4.

Nature Angel has turned from crocheting to drawing as she listens to me read.

She's been pulling out and redoing old drawings.  I asked her to take pictures of the drawings side-by-side so that I could post the comparisons, but she hasn't done it yet.

It's amazing to see how her skills have grown!

The kids and I made it out to walk on Tuesday afternoon.

But there was heavy machinery in the parking lot, so we HAD to stop and watch that for the first little while!!

Then we walked.

It was so cold that not only did my phone battery give up, but the kids gave up, too!  When we got to a point where we could do the full loop, or cut it in half, they unanimously voted for the shorter option!

When we got home, I had the kids write narrations of the experience while I made lunch.  I've been reading Know and Tell by Karen Glass, and it has been fabulous!  I used one of her suggestions: Have the child read his/her own narration aloud to you.

Holy cow!  

Every single kid caught a bunch of their own errors and voluntarily fixed them!!

Brother is inserting words he thought of but forgot to actually write.

Their narrations were delightful--most especially Beowulf's.  His surprised me to no end because he knocked out a full page of writing without batting an eyelash.

It was full of spelling and grammatical errors, but his voice was fluid, consistent, and engaging.

And he didn't complain once about writing it!

He'd been really struggling--including an elopement last week--but we had a virtual appointment with his psychiatrist early Tuesday, and she modified his med regimen.  

It is definitely working.

The past couple of days have been rough, but he's flat-out sick right now, so I think the oncoming illness made him irritable beyond what meds could control.

Ice, cold, and snow kept us indoors for much of the rest of the week.

Look how intent he is on his reading!

Library day!

Lola is reading Hank the Cowdog to Toby.

For geography with the kids, we talked about maps and plans.  After spending one lesson demonstrating how to measure and use a scale, I assigned the kids in sets of two to map and draw plans for their bedrooms.

I didn't give them measuring tapes, so they had to use 12" rulers, but I promised them that close was close enough. :)

Simple but adequate--completed by Mister Man and Baymax

Quite a bit of detail--by Brother and Beowulf

Full color with a corresponding key!--by Lola and Ladybug

We finished reading Davy Crockett, and they narrated it with varying levels of detail and interest.  

I love finding out what is important to each kid.  It's consistently amazing how the same book affects 6 kids 6 different ways.

They also completed another Studio Art lesson using watercolors, and we did another Art Appreciation lesson together.

We're still reading Tom Sawyer.  The kids are higher with excitement and indignation every night.  They're making amazing connections to other books we've read and sharing their opinions of right and wrong with solid reasons for their opinions.

We started The Merchant of Venice.

Shylock is in this story--the wicked Jew who asks for a pound of flesh from Antonio.  I've used it as a lesson in bias in writing.  All of a sudden, the kids are coming to me with book after book saying, "I've found the bias in this book!  Listen, Mom!!"

It's been an amazing week for learning around here.

Lola finished a book she started a year or two ago and has worked on intermittently since then.

We finally had a chance on Friday afternoon to watch a production of Twelfth Night.

The kids LOVED it!

Of course, two days later, Super Star reminded me that when the oldest 4 were teens, I showed them a movie version of it with Helena Bonham Carter.

Well, now!  We have another Twelfth Night experience to look forward to!

We spent the whole week making valentines for one another, and on Friday evening, we had our traditional treasure hunt

I used nursery rhymes as clues this year.  They're in the kitchen reading Old Mother Hubbard and trying to figure out whether I mean look in the cupboards or look for the dog treats.

After treats were happily found, we gathered for dinner and our valentine exchange.

I can tell in this picture that Lola is already starting to feel sick.

We laughed and talked and joked and had a marvelous time.

Little Princess got the idea to read a list of conspiracy theories and ask Sir Walter Scott whether he agreed or disagreed with them.

Some of his answers surprised us and gave us MUCH to talk about!

Some valentine delights:

Nature Angel painted this pet portrait for Super Star and Mr. E.  This is Sophie at 3 weeks old.  They have 5 weeks to go until she gets to come home with them!

This is my bookmark painted by Nature Angel.  This book is the top of a folded slip of cardstock.  Inside the slip is her valentine message to me.  Folded up like this, it slips perfectly into a book, and this little painting stops it from getting lost in the pages.
She made dragon wings for Lola, a flower for Rose Red, a NASA symbol for Little Princess, etc.

I love the fact that Lola writes messages voluntarily now.  Her spelling charms me to no end!
And even though she forgot the 'e,' she did better than most at knowing there's an apostrophe in this kind of "you're."

Cute Little Princess hates art and craft projects, but she willingly gave it her all this year!

Sometimes the simplest drawings make me smile.  By Ladybug.

Row of boys reading valentines!

Our American Rhythm show was canceled due to both cold and illness in the group.

Seminary was canceled due to extreme cold coupled with icy roads.

Church activities were canceled for the same reason.

That pink lump on the floor of the dining room is Lola.  

She sought out company as her fever started ramping up . . . even though that company was sitting in the least comfortable room in the house!

Since this photo, she's had an off-again, on-again fever for 3 days; Beowulf has done the same for 2 days; Ladybug is coughing more and more emphatically; and I'm taking garlic!!

Even with a brand-new battery, our van is refusing to start in the extreme cold . . . and temperatures are still falling.

Looks like we'll be homebodies for at least another week!