A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 I forgot to report in my last post that seminary also started up this week.  Little Princess is doing online seminary at home, but Ladybug, Mister Man, and now Brother are all attending in person. This means early mornings for them . . . and for Sir Walter Scott! 😁 This also means that I find teens sleeping in random places at random times. 😂 Everyone but Lola loves having science to do each day. Baymax is the best at knowing that if he just does the work right away, then the rest of the day belongs to him. Lola is happy if it's a drawing assignment. Mister Man did a few simple experiments. This is the density activity. Everyone loves their electives. The week was a little bit rough because of how much more work they have to do, but they're finding their groove. This week we're adding Family School:     *Western Civ     *American History     *Good Books     *Shakespeare     *Golden Book of Natural History (Yes!  We're s...

 Whew!! I ususally sit down with my computer to think back on the previous week on Sundays. But 2 Sundays ago, we had my cutie patootie grandson staying with us while his Mommy and Daddy celebrated their wedding anniversary. (pics posted with Mommy's permission) Could I have written a post while he was visiting? Yes. Did I want to ignore him long enough to write a post while he was visiting? Nope! He's terribly, terribly fun! And then last Sunday, I fell asleep after church and took a seriously deep nap. I didn't write, but I don't regret it! Anyway, we're pretty deep into school. Just a couple more elements to add. The youngest 6 kids are all doing all of their independent work:      Gratitude journal      Wednesday research      Language Arts      Math      Science      Elective(s) Wednesday research is really fun! We already go the library every Wednesday, but now we're staying longer so th...

About 3 years ago, we took a math sabbatical. Just from formal math. (We did a lot of real life math.)   When we were ready to start again, we used Teaching Textbooks online.  It was perfect for our needs at the time--relaxed, simple, neutral (meaning Mom was not the enemy teacher), and easy for everyone. Then the problems with having kids online that we'd thought we'd solved began coming back. So I began the slow shift back to pencil and paper math. This year, everyone is back offline except Little Princess. I was so nervous!! But (and I know I'm speaking too early) it went really well the first week. Yes, Baymax, Lola, and Ladybug threw math-related tantrums--but only once each! And look at Mister Man. Can you see that he's smiling? He. Loves. Geometry. It's so fun! He works so long and hard at it, and he smiles while he does it!  He comes out to report that he's done, and he has a grin on his face every day (at least every day of the first week).  He talks a...

 Did we do anything summery fun? A few of the kids did; there was a church Back-to-School swim party in a neighboring stake, and four of my kids happily attended. I don't have any pictures of that night, but here's where the party happened! Looks fun!!! And Sir Walter Scott took the youngest 6 to a baseball game.   It was $1 hot dog night! They whooped and hollered and got on the jumbotron twice and had the absolute time of their lives. Even better, the home team won! Otherwise, we took care of back-to-school details and took care of littles every day of the week! One day our extras included 2 kids all day, 3 kids in the morning, and 2 kids in the afternoon--all before attending the funeral of our little friends' daddy in the evening. We had several appointments this week including 2 case management appointments, 2 therapy intake appointments, and Ladybug's last therapy appointment until she is assigned a new therapist (CAPA relies on interns, and they tend to finish/st...

My gosh!  This girl of mine is so cute!  This was the school year that depression took over her life. Any work she did with me or for CAP or for church or for her job was done beautifully well--continuing to prove to me that she is incredibly capable. Most of the work that she had to do independently was procrastinated until it was too late to complete this school year.   We had meeting after meeting after meeting trying to find ways to help her overcome her inertia, but nothing worked.   Finally, we headed to the doctor where she was diagnosed and prescribed meds.   At her follow-up appointment last week, she told the doctor she was feeling much better, and she passed the depression screening. However, she experienced a trauma this summer that she must now process. So she's starting therapy.   We've completed all of the intake forms and meetings, so she should be assigned a therapist and start sessions any time now. With the other high ...

 Books I read to the youngest six: The Mysterious Benedict Society -- Trenton Lee Stewart The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle -- Avi Lad: A Dog -- Albert Payson Terhune The Year of the Dog – Grace Lin Where the Mountain Meets the Moon -- Grace Lin Li Lun, Lad of Courage -- Carolyn Treffinger Sweet and Sour -- Carol Kendall and Yao-Wen Li The Princess and the Goblins -- George MacDonald The Kite Fighters -- Linda Sue Park A Single Shard -- Linda Sue Park  Year of Impossible Goodbyes -- Sook Nyul Choi The Big Wave -- Pearl Buck The Master Puppeteer -- Katherine Paterson  The Cat Who Went to Heaven -- Elizabeth Coatsworth The Best Christmas Pageant Ever -- Barbara Robinson The Bird's Christmas Carol -- Kate Douglas Wiggins A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus -- L Frank Baum Born in the Year of Courage -- Emily Crofford Burying the Sun -- Gloria Whelan The Princess and Curdie -- George MacDonald Breaking Stalin’s Nose -- Eugene Yelc...

 Little Princess graduated and came home from Cadet Officer School!  Graduation was available to families via Zoom, and we cheered for our girl at the dinner table as the rest of the kids prepared to head out the door to church activities. Little Princess with her flight There were twelve flights of 10 cadets each at COS. The extra people you see in this picture are her flight commander and sergeant. Our busy girl had one day off before heading into two days of work, a doctor's appointment, and babysitting her nephew. Then we found out that the daddy of one of our former daycare families died suddenly at work on Friday.  Little Princess joined the rest of our family in taking care of the two little boys as well as helping to clean their house.  We offered to take the boys again today (Mom is literally bed-ridden with grief, and Grandma is fragile), but they had a bad night last night, so they opted to have a quiet day at home together. They talked axles and wheels an...