A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

On a whim one day some months ago, I bought this book .  I keep it next to my blue rocking chair where I feed babies and browse through it for ideas when I have a quiet moment. (Yes, all of these ideas can be found for free online, but I don't like to be on the computer all of the time.  Sometimes a print format is such a blessing.) Since our newest 4 have arrived, I've felt a strong need for some quiet, independent-but-somewhat-directed play for all of the preschoolers/toddlers.  Quiet bins are perfect for this, but I didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of bins--not even cheaply at the dollar store.  I feel that we have so much stuff around our house already . . . what to do?  What do do? On the other hand we've begun to buy birthday ice cream in big plastic buckets; 1.5 quart bricks aren't big enough for our growing family.  We have a lot of birthdays each year, and the buckets have begun to stack up . . . what to do?  What to do? This week...

image found here The judge granted permission to transfer the children to our home after a lengthy delay.  We knew the children were not in a healthy atmosphere at their current foster home (the state closed that license as soon as the children left), and the whole team had been anxious to get them out.  When the social worker told us that he couldn't transfer the children for a minimum of 5 more days we were discouraged; however, he told us we could pick the children up ourselves at our own convenience. I didn't want to do this, knowing it would be an emotionally devastating experience, but I didn't want to leave the children where they were.   We made arrangements to pick them up on Saturday evening--a day that wouldn't disrupt their school/daycare schedules and allowed for extended family and friends in their current placement to say their goodbyes. We arrived in our 15-passenger van, our whole family.  We piled out, met the people who had loved an...

  photo found here At Brother's therapy intake meeting a week ago the sweet therapist looked me in the eye and asked, "Would you consider writing about the lessons you've learned in your foster/adoptive experiences?  You could help so many others." My brain whirled:   Yes, I love to write.   Yes, we have rather a lot of collective experience around here.   But I'm up to my eyeballs trying to love and care for my family as it is.     It's not my season, I reasoned. But I think it is. The therapist's request lent weight to unformed thoughts I already had slipping here and there through my mind. Which leads me to the here and now in which I will write about lessons learned in no particular order and following no particular schedule.  Rather I will write as I am living--sometimes frantically, sometimes peacefully. And someday I will have enough lessons to order them, organize them, and share them with others more formally than...

It never fails . . . the things I'm absolutely sure I'll remember all week are absolutely gone from my memory by Saturday morning.   I didn't make the notes I thought about making, and now I'm sitting here with a blank mind about Monday and Tuesday. I know that we completed our fairy tale unit for our literature lessons--The Emperor's New Clothes (pride) and versions of Cinderella from various cultures (archetypes and true beauty).  The older girls had to write essays about how to engrave the image of Christ on their countenances (inspired by Alma 5:19 ). We did not do any chemistry lessons, but Rose Red completed All About Spelling Level 1 and finished lesson 1 of Vocabulary from Classical Roots . The older girls did 2-3 math lessons each this week. We finished reading Old Yeller .  I cried . . . I always do.  The older girls smirked and pretended indifference to the beautiful story that we all know and love.  The little girls were quite affected....

This week our only schooly school day was Monday . The older kids and I did literature lesson 4 about The Nightingale and The Ugly Duckling; the theme was our unique missions in life.  We also completed chemistry lesson 4 about using the metric system. For preschool we danced.  I found this cute site.   We danced to the first 2 classical songs and then to the Teddy Bears' Picnic. Preschool dancing--the only "school" picture I took this week.  On Tuesday our copy of Black Ships Before Troy finally came through which we needed to read for our cousins' book club meeting the very next day, so we spent the whole day snuggled around the living room reading and eating popcorn and sliced apples.  With interruptions from babies and toddlers, we made it through 92 pages. In the late afternoon Rose Red made tang hulurs to take to share for the book club we should have had in October for Little Pear (it was repeatedly canceled because of illnesses). On Wedn...

Monday We began a literature unit this week--we're studying fairy tales for style, structure, themes and.  Lesson 1 covered The Princess and the Pea .  The older 4 girls are assigned to write their own fairy tale this week. We also began chemistry lessons with God's Design for Chemistry: Properties of Matter.   It is excellent.  Lesson 1 was easy and fun for everyone from preschool to high school. The littles and I danced to the 1812 Overture .  It was terribly exciting.  Parts of it were so exciting that they actually stressed Brother and Little Brother, so we'll dance to less stimulating music next week. Tuesday Another lit lesson.  Another chemistry lesson.  We began reading The Disappearing Spoon .  I'm intrigued.  This experiment--measuring which sweetener feeds yeast best--was simply a vehicle for practicing the scientific method. Waiting, waiting, waiting . . . it turns out that honey causes the faste...

Monday In preschool we danced to the William Tell Overture again.  We tried Flight of the Bumblebees , but it wasn't very fun, so we switched over to The Ride of the Valkyries .  Then we ended with a waltz . . . a week later none of us can remember which waltz it was, but it helped us settle down after such an exciting dancing experience. I took a video, but I think I called out some of the kids' names, so that fun will stay private. :) Pixie finished Saxon Math 8/7 and started Algebra 1/2! The bigger kids finished their murals.  It took a long time!  But I think it was well worth it. The only colors the kids had were black, white, dark yellow, brown, and dark red.  With those, they managed to create greens, pinks, and shades of blue.  Remarkable! They're hanging on the wall of our formal living room/music room.  They're breathtaking in real life. Tuesday In preschool we used a...