A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

--I receive  printables about General Conference in my email inbox every 6 months. --I stumble across ideas on blogs . --My kids come home from church with handouts and challenges from their primary leaders/teachers. All are great ideas.  I have no criticism of them.  I've even printed a few of them out and let my own kids have a go at them. But I've found that for the most part they are distractions from the real event. If a kid is playing conference bingo, I'm usually hearing, "Mom, Mom, did he say 'faith?'" instead of hearing the talk about faith. It's the same for the kid playing conference bingo--listening for isolated words instead of messages. E14 has received numerous packets encouraging her to use her general conference experience as a Personal Progress value project.  She has successfully ignored every one of them, choosing to nap instead of listen or take notes. Nevertheless, I've felt faintly guilty over the years...

I opened J10's Book of Mormon journal just to mark her most recent entry.  Though I offered the girls the choice between summarizing what they've read and copying a meaningful scripture, they've chosen the copywork every time.  J10 chooses scriptures of such majesty that my heart is lifted each time I read the ones she chooses . . . even though I've just read the same ones myself a few hours earlier.  There's something about knowing what touched her heart that touches mine as well. This is H4 "reading," marking her scriptures and taking notes.  The example of the older kids is amazing! E13 has been giving the littles their baths at night.  She's a hilarious bath buddy--telling stories and leading the little guys into their jammies with a Pied Piper-esqe-ness that never fails to amaze me. We received the most marvelous gift of a 1/4 size violin this week.  M11 had been teaching A6 and H4 how to play it.  A6 already had grand plans to perform i...

Today E12 was headed down to the TV room to watch her Latin lesson.  H3 was having a minor tantrum because her computer turn was over.  E12 said, "Hey, [H3], do you want to watch Latin with me?" Immediately H3's tears stopped, and she enthusiastically plopped her little body on the couch next to her big sister.  A5 was a little bit disappointed that she had a reading lesson scheduled, but she read beautifully and happily with me then ran down to join her sisters in Latin. No one in our family has ever studied Latin before, but because of the example of this big sister, leading the way [albeit reluctantly] into a learning adventure, our littlest sisters are growing up right in the middle of it. How rich their little lives are!