A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 My Lola. She's so very firmly her own person. Any efforts to get her to march to anything but the beat of her own drummer are met with failure. She's strong and unique. I just love her! Academics are not Lola's strong suit. *She's still wobbly with her number and letter formation. *Copywork is the only form of writing she'll do, and even that is iffy. *She is almost done with Math 3, but it's been accomplished with heavy assistance, and I plan to have her repeat it for mastery. But the drawings this girl can create . . . they are marvelous! Her constructions are architecturally awesome. And her ability to cartwheel, back flip, and do other feats of strength and agility is amazing. Her grandpa says she could be a champion gymnast, and I don't doubt it, but I have neither the money nor the stomach to support that pursuit.  (I do not believe competitive gymnastics is a healthy place to be.) Her best academic accomplishment this year was becoming a reader. And ...

 This week the pics are all about Lola.   This is what she did instead of chores one morning.  She's a brand-new 7 year old, and the drawing she did is amazing!  Done with her non-dominant hand!!!  I couldn't even be (too) annoyed that she'd been ignoring her chores.  Her Northern Finch is hanging on our gallery wall, and I hope she'll do more sketches like this! She did it!  She finished the entire book!  She's faking stoicism here, but she was super proud of herself, and all of us are proud of her!  She's now working on Language Lessons for a Living Education 1 in order to review and build on the skills she's worked on here. I excused her from all written work seeing as it's her writing hand that's in a cast, but she loves her math games and begged to play a few of them this week.  She's becoming more and more adept at using her left hand.  In non-Lola-related news, we kept losing our read alouds. We were working on Tales from An...

  It has been an extreme week around here.   Life has been either extremely joyful or extremely challenging. For example, tonight my crew are playing with the wooden trains.  Mister Man is reading a new library book, and older kids are doing their own thing, but 5 of the 6 young ones are playing with complete cooperation and solid problem-solving skills. It has been an extremely joyful hour. On the other hand, Pixie is not doing well; quarantine, covid, a broken foot, and the impending end of the semester have conspired to crush her into a serious depression.  We pick her up in a week, and I've got an appointment scheduled with the doctor for the first day we're home.  In the mean time, I'm checking in with her several times a day, and I've been encouraging friends to check on her as well. But I'm worried. Reading the scriptures with Baymax--extreme joy!   Then Ladybug is just collapsing under the holiday season.  Wretched old behaviors are back. ...

Bike riding, gardening, and septic leach line building ruled our week. The older girls took turns taking the younger kids biking up and down the street. It led to more than one accident. We joked that we needed one of these signs: The problem is, ours would say "0" for every day of the week! We didn't have any broken bones or any trips to the emergency room, though, so no one is complaining. Lola is our last child who does not know how to ride a bike.  Nature Angel and Brother have worked with her many times, but the balance and control remain elusive.  We're not sure why, because she's so coordinated in so many other ways! But this week, Nature Angel got her to pedal successfully for about 20 feet without falling!!! No one had a camera in the moment. I'm hoping for pictures and videos next week. We did a lot of school, and finished a lot of math. This book 5 of 5 finished.  Next step?  Arithmetic 3, but not for a little while....

Oh my!  It is cold this morning!  We had mild, rainy weather all week long, but this morning is a hard freeze.  Our garden began sprouting 2 days ago, so last night, Sir Walter Scott mulched all of the baby veggies with straw and then covered them with tarps.  We brought Nature Angel's potted baby clematis indoors, and Lola's little seedlings have been going in and out every day to make the most of rain and sun but stay warm enough to thrive. In spite of the fierce cold, I can hear the cardinals welcoming the new day--which makes sense as they're winter-loving birds anyway. :) Monday We marched through our usual school routine. An art project Nature Angel produced as part of a history/geography assignment Ladybug finished all but the creative writing assignments in this book (we tried them, but she's just not there yet), so it's officially put away and marked "complete."  She's working on a lovely scripture copywork booklet now. Th...