A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 We'll keep reading--still working on Gilgamesh and The Hobbit . But we'll put the other stuff away to re-center ourselves and get out in the autumn sunshine. Everyone is making progress--math, language arts, science, their various electives. And the cutest part is how they're developing their ability to express gratitude!  Their gratitude journals are getting so creative (toilets, socks, YouTube videos about speed cube algorithms, etc.), and they're strarting to explain their reasoning more thoroughly.  I think the best part of each day is getting to review their gratitude journals. And my next favorite part is reading their Wednesday Research papers. Last week's compositions were about the Wonders of the World, and this week's were on world religions.  They're getting interesting!  And the kids are learning to write more clearly. But I found Ladybug in tears one day over science. Brother is profoundly struggling with algebra. Mister Man is putting school a...

 We did nothing exciting in our homeschool this week.   Actually, we did do one exciting thing--the youngest ones (minus Lola who simply could not stay focused) illustrated their Owlets haiku books.  We all wrote the same poems together, and I printed a copy for each child.  Then they illustrated their individual booklets.   Beowulf's pages.  I didn't think to include his front cover!  :( Mister Man's booklet This one is by Baymax Ladybug's--such a cute nest full of babies! Brother's   Other than this cool project, all of my exciting energy was put into getting our dining room/school room walls mended, prepped, and painted and putting up the new interior window trim.     We moved along with Morning Meeting every day, book work time every day, read aloud time every day, and lots and lots and lots of free time.    . . . or Advanced Mathematics . . . that's almost as good as free time, right?   The weather was kind of forbid...

 It was a strange week--filled with milestones both joyful and aching.   In addition, I'm struggling to feel that book work school matters very much right now.   It does!   Even though a few of my kids are good at unschooling, many of my kids need explicit teaching in reading, writing, and arithmetic in order to progress in their abilities to function in the world.   Plus, there's that whole legal obligation to follow state homeschooling laws!   Sugar Bear came over one day, and we reveled in baby care.  Nature Angel reported that even with an extra baby in the house, she was able to get all of her independent work done. We practiced a lot of compassion for this sweet boy, whose mommy came home from the hospital after many days, and then turned around and went right back when her situation turned life-threatening again!  Poor Little Mister Frog doesn't know which end is up, and we've worked to pour extra love into him to make up for this separatio...

 Well, Sir Walter Scott felt sick on Saturday night.  On Sunday he ran over to the hospital for a covid test (available to staff), and it came back positive!   Mine came back positive the next morning!   He was more tired than I was.   But I had a runnier nose and more of a cough.   We figure the runny noses and coughs that all of the kids had were also covid . . . but we're not testing all of the kids.   Super Star felt sick this week and got a test; her test came back negative.   So she waited 2 days and got tested again . . . negative!   How crazy is that?!?!?   Maybe we should test everyone . . . but we all feel better, so I don't think it's worth it.   Little Mister Frog was sick with us, so, with our enthusiastic consent, his mom brought him over all week.  She and her partner had covid back in the spring, and they've stayed healthy through it all.    The Munchkin's family opted to stay clear of us (I don't bla...