Big brother: super hero or nemesis

I got a call about 10 minutes ago from the neighbor:
"Hi, I just wanted you to know that Papaya is up on your sheds in the back and my wife is worried that she will fall down and break her neck."

Sure enough, a quick confirming look out the back window told me Papaya was exactly where he said she would be, sitting calmly on top of our rickety old "lean-tos" (animal shelters), stroking one of our cats who had joined her. 

"I'll send someone out right away," I promised, more for his benefit than ours. (Q-dawg pointed out that the lean-tos were more secure than the many branches of trees she repeatedly climbs to insane heights and wasn't worried :).)

Time for super brother Goob to come to the rescue.

He came back a short while later with this report, and his sullen sister in tow:
"First, I went back and saw the neighbor coming. I told him thanks for telling us about Papaya.  I made my way back to the lean to and as I was climbing over the fence, I heard Papaya shout, 'Don't make me hit you!!!!'

"I continued coming and she yelled it again, even more threatening, 'Don't make me hit you!!!'

"I ignored her threats (brave man) and kept going toward her.  When I got to the lean-to, I started climbing up to get her.  She yelled down, 'I'll blake your leg!!!' (Yes, that is 'blake' and not 'break.')

"When I started climbing up, she began running away from me across the rickety boards, yelling, 'Don't! Don't! Don't get me!'

"'Come on, Papaya,' I told her.  'Look, I see giants, Papaya, and I see their big faces and their sharp teeth!' Her brave reply? 'I don't see them.'

"'They laid down in the grass.'  She looked at me skeptically, looked again and said, 'I see their axe.'

"'Come on, Papaya.'

"She brightened, "Do you remember the game when I am your daughter princess?'"  Things went better from there.

Papaya is now safe inside and the Goob is a super hero in my eyes, if not in his sister's.

"He's not in charge of me" Papaya just protested, hearing the retelling of the story.

"Yes he was," I informed her. "I told him to go out and get you."

"Humph."

...until next time...

Geology Field trip pics

 We have some great opportunities for field trips thanks to good friends...in this case, Brenda Black.  We had the Gilberts along with us on this one, a Geology field trip that covered everything from different kinds of rocks, "panning for gold" and other cool rocks, dinosaurs and fossils and erosion. 

 The Goob and Liliputian "panning for gold"...

 Hava and Chugger-dude at their stations.

 Outside at the erosion table (pictures courtesy of our friends, the Andersons)

It was a cool set-up with sand and solid formations together and water that would flow from one side to another.

Roll with the flow...

Over the years, I have really been trying to do what Thoreau suggests in "Walden."  He wrote:

"Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry–determined to make a day of it...Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner...Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill...If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings, why should we run?...Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion , and prejudice, and traction, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe,...till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake." (Pg 63)

Things I have learned about my family's "flow":
-at the beginning of the week we are full of energy and excitement to learn
-by the middle we are winding down
-by the end, we are ready for the weekend...sound familiar?
-morning times are good for a few classes, devotional and getting some basic straightening and cleaning done...and that latter always takes about two hours by the time you include breakfast (realistically, we can never have devotional before 9 am without a feeling of stress....I've tried :)....)
-waiting until "later in the day" practically ensures it won't be done

Embracing these flows and not fighting against them has been so relieving!  As you can tell by my personal school schedule right now, that's how we operate and it is so nice by Thursday and Friday to recognize that we are done, have had a good week, and can just do more personal directed studies or play...and that it is alright :).  Also, one more...
-Fridays are great for artistic, social things, like choirs, plays, etc...not so good for other types of academics :)...natural flow, baby, I'm telling you!

After a particularly full day of cooking and classes on Tuesday this week, I was tired...good tired.  It was nice to look ahead and see the easy meals I had tentatively planned for the next day and the little class prep and time I had lined up.  Whew!  It is great to embrace times and seasons.

Side note: Tuesday ended up being a deliciously worth it "European" day:
-Whole Wheat Belgium Waffles for breakfast
-Palacsintak (crepes) for lunch
-Peasant Bread and Rakot Krumpli (potatoes, boiled eggs, white sauce, cheese, and sausage all cooked together)...hungarian. Yum!
(We ended up having the "scheduled" dessert for breakfast the next day: German plum cake with streusal...recipes to come :)!)

Here are some pics from our "Time Machine" back to four aspects of colonizing the New World.  Four of us took a topic and were in charge of a station:

 The Goob got us going with an experience looking for the "Lost Colony of Roanoke"...he even carved "CROATOAN" on the stump...if you can't tell :).

Chugger-dude and the Goob made the hats for everyone.  Chugger-dude and Hava represented the Pilgrims

 Liliputian gave a great account of the colony at Jamestown, complete with adversity faced and negative interactions with the natives.

We didn't get a picture of Chugger-dude's set-up with Hava at the table with pumpkins, squash and popcorn, nor of Captain Jack (aka Pipalicious) and I taking them on board a "slave ship." (Our crawl space with its short height and beams above proved an excellent location for discussing the horrors of the Middle Passage as experienced by the Africans captured for the slave trade.)

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Yesterday glimpses...
Pipalicious created her poem and then shared the following statement: "I was just looking at myself in the mirror and I thought about [this]!"

God’s Poem of Yourself

By "Elizabeth" (her pen name)

I don’t care what the boys say about me

I don’t care what the girls say about me

But I care what God says about me

And I think that’s great!

 

Liliputian just came in, reporting on the status of her chickens. "Do you remember how I put in new fluff in the coop yesterday?  How it was all poopy before I did that?  Well, today when I gathered the eggs, it was like they had already been washed!"

"That's wonderful!" I replied. (Truly!!!)

The Goob paused for a moment, weighing his comment before deciding to share.  Then, luckily for us, he did...with a smile:

"Ohhhh.  The first thing that came to my mind when you said that I thought you meant that you had washed their bums.

Hava, the local news reporter, just came in with another newsflash:

"The toilet is clogged!!! The toilet is clogged!!!  There is too much toilet paper in it!" Sometimes her tattling habit is helpful.

"You guys...." I began, shaking my head.

**The names have been left out of the following conversation to protect their right of privacy**

One kid quickly protested, "I only use four squares!" followed by others' assertions to how few squares they used.  One claimed to use one.  Nasty.

 The conversation was prevented from deteriorating further by Hava's excited update:

"Papaya saved the day!!!!!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. "She flushed the toilet!!!"

Papaya came in with a swagger, "Ta-da!"

Whew.  Crisis averted, but not before too much information was shared. :) 

(Although an older child, upon hearing about this situation, comforted Q-dawg and I with the following statement: "Well, I use 52.4 squares..." Hmmmm.....

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Back to this morning, I stayed up late reading (and finishing) an interesting book called "Wonder."  After the first four days of pretty awesome homeschooling, I was ready for some personal time.  Good book.  It was the great end to a day which included the following:
-devotionals on how to make choices that protect us from pornography and its influences
-started reading "Wonder" aloud
-toilet paper art (hopefully pictures to come!)
-"final" discussion of the week's virtue of "choice" and then the rather strange 80's movie "Labyrinth"...lots of choices in that one! (Although, we decided that all movies that have any type of plot do so because it involves choices and their consequences.)
-Sports Day...dodgeball!  So fun!
-Dinner of quick tomato soup, scripture reading, and baths and dinner clean-up
-Short article discussion at a friend's house with Q-dawg, I, Avot and Lek
-Basketball for Q-dawg and then Author's in the Attic for all the older ones besides Lek (downstairs working on appraisals) while I listened from Spooner's room who stubbornly refused to sleep :)

Again, back to this morning :), I finished the last few chapters of "Wonder," did my personal devotional stuff and went upstairs in the "early" morning quiet to start "Daddy Rice"--a thick rice breakfast porridge.  What should I find as I lifted up the lid to the rice?  A half a pot full of moldy rice, courtesy of Spooner's inventive "cooking" one day with the cold soup that was left on the stove: he has distributed soup into both the salt jar and the rice jar on either side of the stove-top and then spooned rice and salt into the leftover soup.

For the record, I had been away and someone else had been babysitting while my baby sat on the cold stove top and did his "cooking."  My kids start at a young age with their own ideas of how the world should be run...don't they all :)?  Time to find more rice...

A Glance at The Goob

Okay...this sweet guy always has something up his sleeve.  Right now he is planning a nerf war at the church with Chugger-dude this afternoon before or after our basketball time.  Scarcely an hour goes by without a reminder of one scheme or another.  He is particular into weaponry and battles, strategy and swordplay...even taking on his little brother when Spooner will take him on.  This morning when Spooner needed someone to play with him, I asked the Goob to take on the task.  After a few moments, he came out.  "Spooner doesn't want to play anything fun," he mock complained.  I gave him a quasi-sympathetic look and he headed back into the room with a determined look on his face.

A while later he came out, describing an epic battle between him and Spooner's dump truck, complete with reinactments of Spooner's look of amazement and shock.  The Goob wandered off, searching for some new field of victory when Spooner crept out around the corner, look of nervous excitement on his face, sword in hand.  I called the Goob back, letting him know that Spooner was ready for sword play. I wish I could capture how the Goob enters a room when he is full of excitement.  Imagine a very happy spring from a rattlesnake: contained energy unleashed in blinding moments of pure enthusiasm.

He just got his Star award for scouting...not bad for a guy who basically took a year and a half off of scouts :).  It has been cool to see him keep working towards the Eagle Scout goal even though he is behind some of his more outspokenly competitive peers.  It would be easy to just "give up," but he just keeps going.  This weekend he is going on the Klondike. "I am going.  I am not excited about it.   I am anxious about how cold it will be." Yah.  The kid has no body fat for insulation.  I would be too :).  Q-dawg and Chugger-dude will be going with him.  When Q-dawg asked Chugger-dude if he wanted to go, emphasizing how cold and miserable it could be, Chugger-dude simply asked, "Is the Goob going?"  When the answer was yes, so was Chugger-dude's.  He loves his brother.

The Goob's current love in math is "Dice Wars." Imagine that...math meets the battle ground.  10 Minute Math is not a problem with this guy.  He does it in his "spare time."  

The Goob is particularly feisty right now, in a wonderful 13 year old boy kind of way :).  Between hormones and his already outgoing zest for life, we ride a roller-coaster of fun around here :).  My best current method for dealing with his is to let him and Lek have it out in their boyish, battling way, send the Goob for a run around "the block" or to his room with a book, or a giant squeeze hug.  His brain is always running a million miles a minute and he has a heart of gold.   Sometimes I think it is just too much between his heart, hormones, humor and brain that he just feels like he is going to explode. 

He is an early riser, always quick to get his living areas done, and writes some of the best Author's in the Attic stories ever.  One of the idea prompts was "If I could make a wish..." and this was his creation:

AND MY THIRD WISH...

I’m on my third wish already and I can’t decide what I want

I have already wished for a chest bomb and a happy aunt

Maybe I’ll get a dollar or maybe a ten

But then again maybe I might get a hen

Maybe I will get a unicorn with a saddle

Or maybe just a dummy to handle

Wait… I have a idea!!!!

I will ask for one more wish

Yes it came true..

Just one more wish to dooo…

Oh dang,

 I will have to start over again.

He had some amazing graphics to go with it, but you get the idea :).

The Goob also really enjoys our Sports Day and days where we go to the church to play basketball.  He is getting quite good at basketball, winning more than he loses at our Lightning games.  It is fun to see Liliputian and Chugger-dude improve along with him.  The little girls generally just find toys that were left from Sacrament meeting on the side and play with them while we shoot hoops. As far as other sports, he is quick to get the frisbee in Ultimate and doesn't mind being smeared by the more brawny young men when it comes to football.  

 I wouldn't change his passion and zeal for anything.  He has a great work to do and he is going to make it a lot of fun :)! 

Last two weeks of homeschooling at a glance: golden times!

The past two weeks have been fabulous in our homeschool, even if they were both very different :).

We enjoyed a very long break from structured homeschool...the entire month of December :).  Of course, reading, games, music and field trips happened, but it was all on the kids' own initiation while I nursed sick kids, took care of projects, and got through my tough emotional garbage.

By the first week after the New Year, we were ready to go!  We are not doing any "main" homeschooling groups--ones that cover "basics"--and it has been fun to apply the principles on a family level.  Below is a basic outline (more for my reference later, but you are welcome to read :)...):

For years I have run groups called "Vanguard Youth" that are based upon certain principles that I feel are inspired and effective for a variety of learning styles, also allowing for personal agency within themes and lenses.  It will make more sense, I think, when you read how it looked:

January Topic: "How to live a meaningful life in God's eyes"
Week 1 Principle: "God-centered Hope yields a meaningful life": I center the devotionals for the week and the subjects on this principle-
DAILY
-Devotional (one for older/one for younger): I use church magazine articles, inspirational stories and media, and music during these devotionals.  The younger ones memorize Articles of Faith and the older ones 
-10-Minute Math: I take 10 minutes during lunch with each child with age/interest appropriate math. Often we play games or review a chapter in Saxon math.
-Mom reading time: everyone listens while I read a chapter or two of a classic of my choosing.  We just finished "Summer of the Monkeys" and are reading "Strawberry Girl."  Normally during the morning, unless the older kids are really busy with outside groups.
-Quiet Time: after lunch, people are able to go to their own places to study or rest...at this stage of my pregnancy, I normally sleep after reading to the little ones.
-Memorization Review: poem and scripture that re-inforce our principle, recited during our "pre-breakfast" family ritual: family creed, memorization, religious song, prayer
-Exercise: Basketball on Mondays at our church, dance on Tuesday, swimming or outside play on Wednesday, Thursday community sports day, and something on Friday or Saturday either individually or as a family.

For our subjects I seek for examples and connections with this principle in the world around us using the following four "lenses":
Monday--Leadership Academy lens: start study of principle and learn skills to help think and communicate like a leader
-Word Study on related word ("hope," in this case)
-Reading out of "The Catechism for the Constitution," an out-of-print lesson outline published soon after the Constitution was ratified to help children understand the what and why of our constitution: this is for the older kids during their devotional once or more a week.  We take turns reading just a couple pages and talk about anything that comes up
-Penmanship (well-written segment of their word study or part of the memorization)
Lunch
-Short "writer's" lesson with "Author's in the Attic" challenge (see Thursday)
-Short Grammar lesson
-Leadership games: strategy, good sportsmanship, etc.

Tuesday--Geo-conquest:  look for examples in history and the world around us and increase our knowledge of places in the world, focusing on one continent a month: song, dances, food, etc.
-Family History moment if we remember :)
-Time Machine: we pretend to go back into time to a certain place and focus on an event or person: Joan of Arc, this week. We try to either act out, eat, or immerse ourselves in some type of activity to help us learn about this person or event on a deeper level.  We also may do a map study.  It was fun to do a "tennis ball" activity while studying Joan of Arc, one suggested in the study guide for Story of the World, as well as act out the intricacies of a crowning ceremony in medieval France.
-Geo-Safari Challenge: they try to pass off one or more Geo-Safari cards about the continent of that month on their own
Lunch
-Dancing: learn a cultural or historical dance from that time period or continent: a medieval folk dance this month that Avot found online...Avot-led
-Avot-led Sign language Choir with kids
-Cultural dinner (if mom has energy :)...)

Wednesday--Eureka! study the world around us scientifically and look for truths and connections we can learn from God's creations.
-Science chapter from "In the Beginning" or chapter of Apologia Biology
-Science games, field trip or project: this week was a Tasting Test

Thursday--Imaginative Arts: through the arts we finish up our look at the Principle for the week or just study it from this lens...art projects, stories, acting something out, etc.
-Do an art project of shields from Joan of Arc's time period and make paper dolls
-Read and act out a story
Evening: "Authors in the Attic": those who have written anything can join us around a candle-lit table and entertain each other with our writings while eating a yummy treat :).
**We were going to also do another art project I was excited about but the beauty of doing it with just my family was that I could say, "We're done for the day!" after the previous projects and just save the other one for another week.  I could feel that they were done and just needed time to do their own things for a while.  It felt good.

Friday--Catch-up day :)!
Any projects that we haven't gotten to that week, we work on then, while the older kids go to choir, theater, and biology
This week, it was putting together and artistically painting and embellishing a 3-D castle my parents gave the kids for Christmas.  We also put together and delivered our "new year love-you-neighbor" gifts since I missed Christmas: a package of popcorn with a note reading:

Thanks for being such a “warm and flavorful”

part of our lives.

Here’s hoping you have a “poppin’” good new year!

 

Next week I think we will go to the Museum of Art at BYU and see one of their new exhibits and hit the zoo on the way back...if I am up to it :).

Final activity for the week: Movie or other activity as a final way to look at what we studied for the week, bringing with us stories we read on our own, word studies and connections.  That first week we watched "The Man From Snowy River" after reviewing our study of "hope."  Throughout the week, we had realized that God-centered hope can only exist when acted upon in faith, which takes courage.  We discussed this, our word studies, and examples we had seen throughout the week, tying together everything from the game of "Greed" we played on Monday to our taste test on Wednesday.

What was remarkable about this discussion is that it was with the Goob, Liliputian and Chugger-dude, pretty much started by them while I cleaned up a half-gallon's worth of milk that Spooner dumped methodically all over the floor during family reading time :).  I was soooo frustrated, tired and angry that I stormed into their discussion and said, "sometimes it is hard to have hope that things like this will work out and hope that it is worth it even when things go so wrong!"  The discussion got better after that.  (Poor Spooner!  It was the first time I had really ever showed so much frustration at him!  I just wasn't quite up to handling it right then, poor chap.  He was just studying the effect of turning a gallon of milk upside down and pumping it up and down as it spilled all over the table.  He was so intent about it!)

I was also blessed to participate in a fabulous discussion based upon a fantastic book, "Thinking about Thinking" which has a collection of articles with much to digest.  So much to learn, study and share!

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This week represents the kind of the pattern I am currently following in outlining my family's homeschooling week using the Vanguard method in approach and application.  The older two kids still have debate on Mondays, Resonate on Wednesdays, Seminary Tuesday and Thursday (and sometimes Friday) mornings, along with the choir, acting and biology I mentioned.  Avot will possibly be joining a couple more groups and Lek has recently joined a history class.  We tend to have less planned as the week goes on, which seems to be the natural flow of our abilities and attentions, with more free time for the kids to do their own studies.  Right now, some of those "studies" include Khan Academy math, Algodoo (a physics-type game), Duolingo (a fun, free online language learning program), and, of course, reading, reading, and more reading.

The kids have the option of studying the material on their own or participating in the "classes" I offer.  The older ones sometimes prefer to do it on their own so they have more time for their own studies, but this way I know that they are thinking, learning in some areas I feel inspired to direct them in as their mother, and still giving them agency to choose the depth they want to engage with it, depending upon their current needs.  It feels good and enlightening so far, so I am happy to do it for now!

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LAST WEEK:
Reality check:  Even though I love my new method for my homeschooling that I used that first week, the next week demonstrated the beauty of adaptation to situation allowable in homeschooling :):

Monday-Friday: SICK KIDS! 
After devotionals and family reading time, Monday started out with a free day at the Utah Natural History Museum up by the U of U.  The Goob started not feeling well and really took a downward turn about halfway through our visit to the museum, unfortunately missing out on a really cool physics presentation, apparently.  He headed out with Lek, who had met us after his debate class and was more than willing to take another spin with the car and get the Goob out of there, although he was sad to realize later that he had missed a huge American Indian display on the top floor that had a lot of beaded artwork.  The snow storm that descended slowed our travel to my parents' house for dinner where we enjoyed a yummy dinner with some games.

Tuesday was pretty mellow, with Drew sick and absolutely no interest from the healthy ones in doing any organized activity.  Fine, I thought, I will study on my own.  So, after devotional and family reading, I sat down with my own books and had a great time studying until 10-minute math at lunch.  The afternoon went much the same, with me falling asleep while reading to the little ones and then all of us heading over to basketball later instead of dance and sign-language because Avot was in Africa and we had missed basketball the day before.

The kids really helped out that night, covering for me while I went to the temple with our ward, cleaning up the kitchen and putting the little ones to bed.

Our principle for the week (or two) was "Making God-centered Choices lead to happiness and a meaningful life," and our devotionals were based off of a fantastic talk by Elder Nelson, "What Will You Choose?" from the Ensign Jan 2015 issue.  I thought it would be a good way to start off the year :).  We took a different section from the talk to focus on each day, reading and discussing it and using complementary/reinforcing media and stories to further our understanding.  It has been nice that even if we are doing much less in the more periphery subjects, we are still building our moral character when sick :).

Wednesday I thought would be a great time to take advantage of the discounted homeschool swim day at the Bountiful Rec. Center to get some exercise and energy out, so we headed out after devotional and reading.  We stopped by the library for educational movies and "Alice in Wonderland" (talk about choices and consequences!!), the DI on the way to pick up some much needed maternity clothes and a couple Little Caesar pizzas for lunch...my first caving into fast-food since Q-dawg and Avot had left for Africa the Wednesday before.  Yay for me :)!

Swimming was awesome!  Spooner and Papaya were exciting to keep track of and fortunately Hava is tall enough she can go through most of their family pool on her own.  Lek, Liliputian and Chugger-dude were fantastic at including the little ones who matched us perfectly without Avot and the Goob, who was still home sick.  All in all, despite one near-drowning by Spooner, we had a great time and wore ourselves out.  In fact, we did such a great job wearing ourselves out, Chugger-dude started feeling very ill towards the end and by the time we got dressed and home, Pipalicious, Papaya, and Hava were all looking pretty ill.  I happily put in the beautiful series about nature recently produced by BBC ("Planet Earth" or something like that) and the kids were wow-ed and amazed by the beauty of God's creations.  True, sometimes they were devouring each other, but we got to learn more about the circle of life that way :).  I love saving movies for time like this!

Early that evening as I was cleaning up the kitchen and listening to something inspiring (I love that combination!), I heard a knock on the door.  Hurrying down, I opened the door to find one of my visiting teachers with two pizzas and the makings for rootbeer floats in hand.  "You haven't made dinner, yet, have you?"  When I shook my head, she happily put the bounty into my hands and said, "Here!  I was just thinking of you with [Q-dawg] and [Avot] being gone and thought you could use a quick meal."

Could I!!  We were going to have leftovers so the kids were ecstatic :)!  What a sweet lady Sister Woolley is.

The next day of "schooling" consisted of "Alice in Wonderland" with a discussion on choices, an abbreviated devotional and family reading, and a short reading of our history chapters for the week on the unification/creation of modern-day Spain in between movies.  It works!  I felt that the previous week had been so packed (and we could pack it in the future weeks!) that we could just relax and get better.  I did sports day with the healthy kids, dodgeball at a local LDS building, which was kind of crazy and intense. It was a small space and lots of kids, although the older kids were really careful of the younger ones and only one child sprained his finger :).  That is good, right?  My sweet friend, Anna Kimball from up the street brought over some "left-over" spaghetti and yummy biscuits for dinner the next night, surprising me yet again.  It was a week full of tender mercies.

Q-dawg's parents came up Thursday to bring us lunch for the sickies as a sweet way to help while Q-dawg and Avot were gone.   They also brought some packages of small plastic figures--dinosaurs and animals--which have been a big hit in our almost toy-less house :).  With everyone sick and watching movies, I was able to sneak out and get some friend-time both days for myself, although I was sad to miss out on one friend's visit as I got preoccupied with eye-doctor problems and sick kids, quite forgetting our engagement.

Lek had a crazy busy day on Saturday, starting with Resonate practice at 7 am in Ogden, Cabaret team training and then an extra training in the afternoon.  The rest of us madly cleaned the house to get ready for Avot and Q-dawg who were getting back that night.  The plan was to pick them up, head to Leatherby's (an ice cream place in West Jordan), and then come home, and we all worked hard to make it happen.  It was rewarding to see the kids work so well together as we cleaned walls and sang along to the Goob's choice of music which, if you know the Goob, is just as unique and fun as he is :).  (I love that kid!)

Looking back, it was a great week, still full of growth and learning even if using a different method.  The kids are thinking, making connections, looking for symbolism and application in what they learn and see around them, from the youngest to the oldest.  I see them excited about learning and choosing to make their relationships better.

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THIS WEEK:
I am excited about this upcoming week, especially after going to a teacher-training at church today.  I will start it off tomorrow by reviewing something our trainers brought up, a link on learning how to teach more like the Savior from lds.org: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/01/what-manner-of-teachers-ought-we-to-be?cid=HPTH011515625&lang=eng

We are continuing to focus on making God-centered choices in our devotionals and will be using the movie "Gifted Hands" tomorrow, as I still have sick kids and don't know that they will be up to games with friends or too much activity. (Most of them stayed home sick today from church.  We actually sat on a side bench, although it was still a bit tight :).)  For history we will be doing the Family History mystery out of the Friend (the "heirloom" hunt) and then the kids will split up into groups to each cover/study a different colonizing groups in North America.  They will set up their own station to teach the others.

We will have the usual activities of leadership skills, sports, dancing, and sign-language.  For science we are studying the aspects of light and dark from the sections "In the Beginning," an apt connection when studying "choices" since a big part of our mortal experience is deciding to choose to follow the light or the dark.  Our art project will be "toilet paper art" (hopefully I will get pictures!) with Authors in the Attic Thursday night. Our concluding movie will be "Labyrinth," that very strange movie from the 80's, while the little ones watch "Alice in Wonderland" upstairs.  I think I want to try and get to do "lasar tag" on the discounted day at Boondocks, but am not sure that is in the budget for this week.  It would be fun, though!  Maybe there is another "maze-type" place?  I will think on that.

Needless to say, I am very excited about this upcoming week, which is always good when it is something you need to do, right?  I am amazed at how much "free time" I have to actually homeschool when I don't have to spend so much time managing groups and schedules and drama via email with others.  This is a good season for our family and, while I sense it will not last forever, I am enjoying it very much in the meanwhile and felt that I should record it, this glimpse into our current life.