A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 We had absolutely gorgeous days mixed with lots and lots of rain.  Somehow the overall feeling was one of cold and gloom.   I wonder if that has more to do with my mental state than the actual weather. (I'm going through a rough patch that has lasted long enough that I've finally gotten my meds adjusted.) This picture is from a couple of weeks ago, but I just found it in Little Princess' picture gallery.   We were delighted to get to celebrate our friend Z--'s high school graduation.  We've known him since he was about 5 years old, so it was practically a family celebration. On Monday , the kids walked with Sir Walter Scott in the morning.  It rained off and on all the rest of the day, so we had a quiet day indoors.  In the evening, we went to dinner with some church friends.  They have a family of 8 children--all around the same ages as our 12.  They're down to 5 at home; we're down to 8 at home.  Their kids are all as kind a...

  Everyone but Pixie--and she watched the live stream. That's Grandma in the front--Grandpa was in California taking care of a rental property. The graduation was long and lovely.   Six musical or dance numbers and three speeches. The presentation of 36 graduates individually with slide shows and personal bios read aloud as parents presented the diplomas. Tributes to military family members. Tributes to the graduation coordination committee. Tributes to two "graduating mothers" who were presenting diplomas to their youngest children after having homeschooled 40 years and 25 years respectively. It made me do some math . . . by the time I graduate Baymax and Lola, I will have homeschooled for 30 years. Pretty cool. We had about a bajillion photos taken, but we're waiting for the photographer to edit and release them, so they will have to be posted sometime in the future. In the meantime, Nature Angel had her last day of homeschool on Thursday of this week. We were going...

 In many ways, it was a regular week of school.   Morning Meetings, bedtime reading, history with the high schoolers, history and literature with the younger kids, math for all of those still finishing, copywork for those still finishing, various independent work for the high schoolers. And another one is done!  Mister Man finished Pre-Algebra. We did go to the psychiatrist for both blood work and a follow-up appointment.  Brother is very stable, so we're not messing with his meds, but Beowulf is still struggling, so we tweaked one med and are hoping for good results in the coming weeks. These two boys are now readers!  They read the whole time we were at the lab and in the psychatrist's office.  So many people commented on how cool it is that they can and do read so intently. Lola is a pretty big concern right now because she's so angry and so easily provoked that she's spending too much time away from us all in order to calm down.  I totally app...

Our week was absolutely hijacked by medical needs and working with our new insurance.   The learning curve is real. I'm not going post pictures or tell the whole story, but it was hard work. (One day reduced me to tears.) Baymax had an eczema flare-up that was so bad he actually said, "If I have to live like this, I don't want to live."  He couldn't sleep; he couldn't eat; he couldn't function.   I found him in bed one morning, body lifted off the mattress because he was arched so tightly in pain, tears falling back into his pillow. How grateful I am that we have medicines that give him relief.  He's healing nicely now, and he's glad to be alive--as any 10-year-old child should be. Then Ladybug was doing gymnastics in the church gym, and she fell . . . hard on her right arm. She was in so much pain, and her arm was so swollen that I suspected it was broken.  I splinted it overnight and gave her pain meds.  In the morning we got x-rays at urgent ca...

 I think we were busy more nights than we were not.  I can only remember doing bedtime reading twice during the week. One night the kids just played outside until really late. One night Sir Walter Scott was helping Belle buy her first car, and I was dealing with our van being in the shop. One night was the Civil Air Patrol annual awards dinner. One night was Uncle M--'s birthday. One night was our Friends and Family dance finale. Ceremonial cake-cutting with a sword! Waiting while honors are read aloud before receiving their Mitchell awards The big girls and I love it when there's a matching/timeline/grouping/card-moving activity for history. I found that Lola had been busy with spring wildflowers. Just sitting by the front door. :) We're still running 3x weekly.   Except for Lola. She's going to the park with us, but she's studying flora and fauna. There's a bird's nest with a mama bird in there . . . actually more than one! She seems to have bewitched the ...

 All is well. I'm taking my meds and getting exercise. The kids are doing mostly well--some issues, but nothing startling. I just feel . . . flat. It's hard to do the things that need to be done. Things that usually give me joy. Eh.  It will probably pass. The teens and I took the semester exam for The Mystery of History vol. 4 .  As usual, we laughed until we cried as we tried to remember what we learned (me for the second time, and I have the answer key!).  At one point the answer was George  Müller , and I unconsciously echoed the teacher in Ferris Bueller (the one who says, "Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?" saying in a deep and nasal voice, " Müller?" and my girls almost fell off their chairs laughing. Honestly, I can't give any of us a very good grade on remembering facts, but I do know from conversing with the girls that I can give them honors in discussing intelligently what we've learned from history and how it affects us today. We've alrea...

Monday  We started our week by attending our church Memorial Day pancake breakfast at the park.  My kids ran and played for several hours.  When we got home . . . 6 out of 8 kids fell asleep ! And the 2 that didn't nap, just lay quietly reading. We were all strangely tired, so we had a very quiet rest of our day. Tuesday was a regular school day for us with a single youth church activity:  the 11- and 12-year-old boys taught the rest of the youth how to change a tire.  Several brave men volunteered their vehicles for hands-on practice, and it sounds like the evening was a success.  On Wednesday we completed a few things.   The kids and I finished  The Horse and his Boy, Alice in Wonderland, and The Story of the World vol 1. Ladybug finished Math 4 !! I considered letting her have a break but decided against it because she forgets too easily.   I'd rather let her dive right into the review lessons at the start of Math 5 to sol...