A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I handed out new chore assignments this week, so everyone has worked diligently and with a (mostly) good attitude. The new assignments are challenging for a few of the kids, and I keep reminding myself and them that learning takes time. And I totally forgot to assign a kid to tidy/sweep the mudroom! Little Princess is supposed to work herself out of a job by teaching Lola and Brother how to feed the chickens, so I guess I can give that job to her in a few months. :)  We released 3 or 4 butterflies this week. Only 2 viable chrysalises (yes, that's a correct plural--I looked it up) remain . . . nope!  Ladybug just found a new butterfly!!  We'll release it in a few hours, when its wings are full, and it starts fluttering around the enclosure. Only 1 left! It is so very true that watching a caterpillar munch and crunch its way through plants, then wander about searching for just the right place to rest, then change into a chrysalis, then emerge as a butterfly is completely mi...

This is a big, long list.  (You should see the stacks of boxes in my living room!) It might be fun to read; it might be exceedingly boring. For me, it is going to be the starting place for my end-of-year assessments.  I wish I'd done this last year.  (But I excuse myself because of what we were living through at the time.) Hooray for a much easier summer and planning period! :) I'm not homeschooling these three, but here are my homeschool grads' plans: Rose Red has successfully purchased a car all by herself and is hustling between being a server at Applebee's and Door Dashing.  She's working hard to save enough to be ready to get her own apartment, and she's beginning to think about training as a surgical tech.  She's not ready to commit to school, but she's looking ahead, and that's progress. Pixie is headed back to school to complete her freshman year of college.  BYU Idaho is offering students the choice to attend in-person, online, or a hybrid...

It was a 3 hike week! Unusually low temperatures and rather a lot of rain got us out on the trails again. (Rain means the kids don't play outside much on their own, which means I need to organize them into going outside.  That's why rain gets us out on the trails.) Monday was a quiet day of errands and organizing.  Super Star had to call in sick to work for a cold, but she was told she could not come back to work until she'd either had a 2-week quarantine at home or a negative COVID-19 test.  We got her an appointment for a test, but the results are long in coming. Tuesday morning we set out with the goal of adding miles to our 52 Hikes record.  Along the way, however, we found water, and we stopped to enjoy that instead of marching on. First stop was the natural bridge for a bit of exploring and play. After a rather long pause at the railroad track, waiting to see if the noisily stopped train would resume its journey, (it didn't) we headed along the path. At firs...