A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 And I'm a grandma to this beautiful little boy! In other news, we had a reasonable school week . . . not fabulous, but reasonable. The kids and I finished both The Turning and The Diamond in the Window .  We have yet to start new books, but we will! Beowulf started a  Spectrum math workbook to keep his math skills current (and to fill in some gaps)  because I've decided to move the kids out of Teaching Textbooks as they finish their current math levels.  TT has been a wonderful program for us to overcome some of our math fears and struggles, but I have kids who aren't safe online (even with supervision/parental controls), and TT does seem to have holes that never quite get filled. I do NOT look forward to correcting so much math, though! :) The teens had a great time at their Tahitian dance rehearsal last Sunday.  (Photos courtesy of a dance mom kind enough to share) I love my kids getting to know a culture new to them. We had another show with our ow...

 It's hard to believe my "babies" are 10.   When did 10 change from a big kid to a baby? This baby of mine, though, is no baby any more.  He's an opinionated, stubborn, bright, and capable boy who alternately makes us laugh with delight and scream with frustration. Math Baymax completed  Teaching Textbooks Math 5 .  He does not love math, and he's frequently angry at his lessons, but he masters the material. Morning Meeting Baymax was an active participant in all of our Morning Meetings.  He read, sang, answered questions, memorized scriptures, and contributed spiritual insights to our daily lessons.  He also challenged our music conducting activities to the max!  He hates leading music, and he barely cooperates under duress with following my instructions.   At this time, he has not actually learned any music conducting skills, but at least he's been exposed to them! What Baymax does do well is family and church history.  He is...

He's little . . . but he's big . . .   I'm just stunned not to have any babies anymore. I've tried to never treat him like the baby--even going so far as to run our little daycare for a few years so that he wouldn't be the youngest and he could learn to care for others more helpless than himself. But as with Lola, my heart is constantly gasping as I switch between delight and sorrow in his growing up. He's a reader and writer. He writes long, long journal entries every single night. I love helping him spell random words--survivor, movie, commandments, etc. His narrations are simple but enjoyable, and he's willing to make a few corrections at a time, so he's slowly learning the rules of grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. He reads like Mister Man . . . and his mom (me). He can't hear anything when he's reading.  I have to get right up to his face and wave a bit as I call his name to get his attention when it's time to clean up or eat or ...

 I took pictures this week, but not of my kids. They're all pictures of American Rhythm costumes because we had our costume return session, and as I put them away, I took photos, so that we can catalog them in a more organized spreadsheet than we currently have. I'm also making cross-referenced spreadsheets, so that we can look up what we have by costume/accessory name or by bin number. It is strangely satisfying. The kids were invited to be stage hands for a play their friends are in (we cannot afford the co-op the friends are in, or we'd join them).  5 of my 6 younger kids volunteered immediately; Baymax abstained, saying, "I prefer to watch the shows." I was worried that he'd feel left out while all of his siblings were involved, so I encouraged him to go to the first rehearsal and see if he liked it. He didn't. For exactly the reason he expressed beforehand. I am humbled by his 9-year-old sense of self. (But I'm still glad he went and knows for sur...

 I have tried innumerable ways to write the kids' assessments individually, but this year does not lend itself to individual recording.  It was a kind of sabbatical year. We rested from our usual labors, and we employed ourselves in an array of activities that all blended together into general growth. Morning Meeting This continued as usual because it is one of the anchors of our days--keeps us from flying away into chaos.   Half of this school year included the end of our Come, Follow Me Old Testament studies.  We also read the Old Testament portion of Egermeier's Bible Story Book as well as our usual rereading of The Jesus Storybook Bible in December.  As part of our studies, we sang a hymn or primary song every week at every Morning Meeting.  We memorized the primary scripture of the month And I chose a scripture each week to go with the  Come, Follow Me  lesson that we recited 3 times during each meeting.  We didn't really memoriz...

 Baymax is just shy of being 7 1/2 years old. He's more grown-up by the day. He became a fluent reader this year . . . after starting the year needing to sound out every word. His habit is to kind of mumble over words that are too hard for him at the moment, but he's reading full-length novels regularly, and he's understanding most of what he reads.  I know the harder words will come with time and experience. He completed a lot of leveled reading books and a variety of spelling and phonics workbooks.  In addition, he has read all of the stories in the Old Testament portion of The Beginner's Bible , writing and illustrating his own narrations for a good portion of that.  He started the New Testament portion, but we ended our formal school year before he could finish.  He loves the stories, and he plans to finish reading and narrating it eventually.   He prefers writing his narrations without illustrating them, and when he asked if he could skip drawing,...

  My baby boy is not a baby. Cliche, I know.  But what words are there adequate to describe the writhings of a mother's heart when she looks at the end of baby-hood? How grateful I am that this boy still grabs my face and hugs my neck as he kisses me goodnight after prayers! How grateful I am that he still tries to climb into my lap for a cuddle even though he is far too big to fit! He's had an entirely adequate kindergarten year, and even though we are lightly schooling through the summer, he's definitely finished what he needs to finish for this season of his academic education. Reading He's reading. He's not fluent. He does not enjoy it (at least in a formal setting). But he has moved from First Start Reading A-C (which transitioned from joyful learning to drudgery) to Primary Phonics level 1 (something to which we will return for spelling practice) to reading from classic children's literature, narrating what he read, dictating a sentence for copywork, and...