October Homeschool Highlights

A couple overarching observances from the mama/teacher. I have always appreciated teachers and school staff, but homeschool has taken my appreciation to the next level. I am so grateful for teachers, administrators, custodians, cafeteria workers, and those who appropriate funds for schools. Their work is so important. Also, the homeschool life is really hard. In some ways, I've become a working mom. That's both working and momming all the time. I haven't figured out how to balance things, still, and  our house and yard and dinner menu are suffering because  of it, but I honestly feel like I'm doing the very best I can figure out how to do. I'm grateful to have Nate on board in such a hands-on way. He is such a support and a strength to all of us. We're firmly committed for the year, though. And every once in awhile there will just be a sublime moment when it feels so right and amazing. But mostly it's really, really hard and Nate and I both live on the edge of nervous breakdown. Thank goodness for weekends!

All that said, we're learning lots, and having amazing experiences as a family. On to the awesome:

We're studying geology in science and have done lots of interesting activities lately.

We busted open some geodes.

We bought an annual pass to the Utah Museum of Natural History. For our first visit, we got to preview the brand new Antarctic dinosaurs exhibit. It was very impressive and interesting. They're doing a really job Covid-proofing their museum, I think. You have to make appointments to attend and they really limit the number of people they let in at once. The more interactive exhibits are closed, and they provide free styluses to each patron for screens, etc. that can be touched. And there is hand sanitizer all over the place.

The rocks and gemstones are mesmerizing. I could just stare at them all day long.

And we got these sweet dino masks for free!

We made rock candy to study how crystals form.

Asa took great pride in these sentences that he wrote and the illustration he did for the last one.

He also did an amazing job coloring this symmetrical butterfly.

Emmie, the greatest and cutest challenge of homeschool, is learning to play with her siblings and on her own.

She takes every opportunity to invent "her oboe" so she can be just like Addison.

Her favorite thing is to make popsicles and cookies.

And she's in the process of quitting naps.

We read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler out loud as a group. We all really enjoyed it.

Nate took the four oldest to a dramatic retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Done by our city. It was really cool. The actors were really into it, and the kids got free books.

We've been studying Japan in social studies.

We did some kawaii drawings. (Really fun and not too hard.)

And tried our hand at making onigiri. (Tasty, but hard to make.)

We made bats to decorate our classroom with for Halloween.

Addison, Bryn, and Asa have been in a Ninja Warrior class for p.e. They have really enjoyed it and always come home sweaty and sore. Unfortunately their gym just went out of business because of Covid-19. We're all sad. We're looking forward to trying some new p.e. classes, though.

Poor Addison faceplanted directly on the cement and got his upper lip and braces all tangled up. He was extraordinarily brave as Nate ripped the lip out of the braces in the bathroom. And he earned himself a free pass out of band homework for about a week.

Leah did a book report and really went to town on it. She made a poster, and all sorts of extras like a model of a wigwam!

Every day, Leah reads some poetry out loud as part of her language arts study. During October it got pretty spooky.

In math one day, she got to open a fruit and vegetable stand for me to shop at.

Spelling practice.

And 100% on a spelling test!

We had a snow day!

We realized during Asa's math one day that it was his half birthday! And then before we knew it, his classmates were there with half a banana and a birthday song to celebrate!

We joined Postcrossing as part of social studies. It's a super neat opportunity to learn about and actually interact with people from around the world. And it's free, other than the cost of stamps and postcards. We've sent cards to and received cards from all over the world already! Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Washington, North Carolina, Canada, Russia, France, and China are just a few of the places we've exchanged postcards with. And who doesn't like getting mail? And who doesn't like that secretly it's language arts too, because the kids get to practice their letter-writing skills.