School ~ A little catch-up

What happened to weeks 5 and 6 and 7? sigh. I don't know. One little African who continues to topple my world upside down then right side up then sideways then all pretty and (seemingly) perfect again. But, if I'm being honest, it's not perfect. Seriously though, perfect is terribly overrated, especially for us natural, homeschooling, attachment parenting, adoptive, wish-I-had-a-homestead sort of moms. James has stretched our family in unimaginable ways. Stretched in ways that eight weeks ago I'm sure would have made me crumble. There are days, like today, that I was fairly certain I will not survive. Can not survive. Do not want to survive another day like today. Adoption is hard. Adoption is beautiful. Adoption is blessed. Adoption is painful in eleventy-billions layered ways. It's like childbirth. Ouch. Holy heck that hurt for those endless hours. Wait, hurt? What hurt? I'm clinging to the light at the end of the tunnel, and as my dear friend has said to me before along our adoption journey together, sometimes it's very dim and I'd settle for a third of the way down the tunnel. That said, the last three weeks have been brimming with new school lessons, ridiculously wonderful new materials, visits from family, James's first toes-in-cold-Atlantic beachy sand in the big wide ocean, insane temper tantrums and grief, strep throat times six, including one little Ethiopian who cannot say (still working on good ol English) that he is nauseous but it becomes very clear very fast in very bad ways always in public, and the quiet at the end of the day with my husband and two bowls of cereal thankful that we are still snuggling on the couch together ... 20 beautifully blurry years later ~ gosh it goes fast.

We are in week 8 of our lessons and I can say that we have found our niche. Stumbled maybe, or more accurately gave up control and sat still enough to listen to what God was pressing on my heart. All along.

SCM's Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt is perfect for us. Just the right fit. I am shouting this from the rooftops. Finally. Peace. No more up-all-night scouring curricula and wasting precious money on materials that never work like I want them to or like I think they should. This does. All of it. Wow. It surely helps that Mae and Viola absolutely crave Bible time and illustrating Bible stories and timelining history. Throw in Ancient Egypt to uncover what life may have been like for say, Abraham, and pure success. Short, varied lessons, living books, read-alouds, narration, and lots of one-on-one with my girls and we have success and happy lessons.

Oh, I did buy Mae a new Bible in the same translation as my preferred reading Bible (ESV) and she really loves it. We had her initials monogrammed, too. She was ready for more substance than her Discoverer's Bible and we prefer a translation that is word-for-word over the NIV we had been using with Mae. Her 8th birthday is in three weeks ... I am terrible at saving presents!

I read Ganz's Herein is Love: Genesis and absolutely adored it. It is a commentary for children, but perfect for me, who has just so much to learn. I am definitely going to be reading her series as we read through the Bible. Sparks gorgeous discussion. 

Viola lost her FIRST TOOTH! She's 5 1/2 and this was such a rite-of-passage for her after witnessing her sis lose seemingly all of her teeth. She was thrilled to find $5 under pillow and this mama took her and the others to the dollar bins at Target ... $20 later the tooth fairy had made a new friend (well, four actually).

The necessaries are moving along wonderfully ... reading, handwriting, and math. We will begin next week with adding Life of Fred: Apples from their Elementary series two days a week to spice things up and to make their minds work in an entirely different way when approaching math ... it's also going to be a unique way to bridge family learning and math. I have wanted to use LoF for years, but until this year it was only Fractions on up, so this is a special treat. Viola breezes through her math lessons, though we love Math Lessons for a Living Education, so we will use the additional math a couple times a week and still enjoy her math core. Mae's Math Mammoth is exactly what she needs, but it is quite worksheet-y, so some LoF will surely break up the routine nicely.

Love our Pathway Readers!

This is what a sick day at home school looks like. :(

Even the 2-year-old loves book basket!

Queen Language Lessons ... just the right amount for Viola.

Cheerful Cursive with Mae ... most delight in her day, aside from Map Skills. Silly girl.

Our Place Value Village

Up until this week we were using 106 Days of Creation for science and nature. It is a lovely program and ties in with our study of creation seamlessly. Life is somewhat a cluster at present so I reread my Charlotte Mason Companion as well as Pocketful of Pinecones and again, we're taking a step back and focusing on nature. We will pick up 106 again in the fall, but we have changed course to Queen's Discovering Nature Series with All Nature Sings. From Queen's website: "It is a year long study of forest plants and animals, dinosaurs, the days of creation, and Noah's ark, etc." 

Our most recent lesson with 106 was on shadows and we had a fantastic time studying God's wonderful works through scripture and nature. First, we were greeted by turkeys ... if it's not turkeys, it's deer or moose. Then the girls took turns tracing each other's shadows several times that day. Our discovery: shadows shift with light and sometimes objects get in the way. We then turned our attention to our Bibles and learned that God never changes. He is constant and everlasting. We discussed our lesson and then the girls notebooked their findings. I am eager to turn back to this guide on science and nature next year when I hope that all four kids might participate a little more fully. Until then ... 

I'll close with Mae's favorite part of school ~ her Map Skills B workbook. She just has that knack and spatial perception (that I lack). Here she is mapping her room. Love this girl so much.

Peace.