in pursuit of wild things

The past couple of weeks have been rough. Wrestling with anxiety is an exhausting task. I am ready for a quiet week of healing after two weeks of heart flutters, breathlessness, stress sores and nightmares. I’ve been so stressed this week that we showed up at piano lessons without our music! We even stopped at the house after Lego Camp to get the music. I was ready to break down and cry.

Instead of starting up our summer session this week we are going to take a break from school. No math, no science, no grammar, no history…well that might be too drastic. I think we will read one of our medieval history books. We have two books about Eleanor of Aquitaine to enjoy so maybe we will binge-out on read

aloud time. Maybe I’ll find a copy of The Lion in Winter with Katherine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole for us to watch too. I spent a couple of hours in the school room today preparing a scrapbooking project for the kids to work on this week. I got each of them their own photo album so they can put together their own photo books of our last trip to Disney. I’ve set out all of my shape cutters, stickers, and pre-cut papers for them to get creative and have some fun.

While the kids are working on their creative project I plan to explore “the Hive’s” (the Well Trained Mind Forums) opinion on Teaching Textbooks. I think it may be a good fit for Sparkles. Before ordering it (or some other math

curriculum) I plan to try working with her a bit on decimals, place value, and fractions. Since the curriculum we currently use reviews frequently she may be fine anyway. Emotionally, it might be better for her to use a different curriculum from her little brother who has caught up to her academically. I’ll also spend some time pricing out art supplies for next year and getting those items ordered. I’m also going to register for Julie Bogart’s writing conference at The Well Trained Mind Online Conference. The more I read about her Bravewriter lifestyle the more I believe it will work for our family. The kids are excited to add a Poetry Tea Time to the week and actually asked for Shakespeare! I told them I wasn’t exactly ready for Willy but planned to start with my

all-time favorite Shel Silverstein. I did get a copy of the Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare for my crew. I’m really looking forward to this conference!!!

Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely outing to the Land Between the Lakes. We left early and walked around Hematite Lake. The morning was perfect! The kids explored everything along the path. This year they were fascinated with the teeny-tiny frogs. We found a fish that had cleared out a spot for some unknown reason. We speculated that maybe the cleared area was for laying her eggs. Littlest walked the entire path around the lake! I took pictures of mushrooms this year. I was fascinated by their colors which did not show as vibrantly on the

camera. At The Nature Station I just loved the St. John’s Wort plant. I’d like to have one of those. I once had a lovely herb garden…many moons ago. I think I’d enjoy having one again…something to dream about. The rangers keep and tend to injured birds at the station. of all the birds Littlest loved the Screech Owl because he thought it looked like an Angry Bird. After a picnic we went to The Homeplace and enjoyed some Bluegrass music. I found a treasure trove of American history projects for the kids for next year. I also purchased a lucet and embroidery project for Oldest to use with his medieval history course. The sky opened up and rained on us at The Homeplace but it was so warm that the rain felt wonderful. The kids just played in the rain and had a blast. I didn’t feel

well at all while we were out but didn’t let that get in the way of spending a lovely day with my family.

Today we said goodbye to our pastor at church. He has been assigned to another church. I will miss him…so will the rest of the congregation. He seemed really sad at times. I thought Sparkles would cry but she didn’t. I think she just didn’t have any more tears to shed since her best friend moved away last month. I didn’t cry either and I always cry at times like this…

I’m already detached…

This weeks reads:

Beautiful…I hope my kids know that I believe in them…no matter. Have your tissues ready!

Did you see these chalkboards! This video explains the math circles on the chalkboards. Here is a printable to use with the math circles.

Experiences not things…makes sense to me.

The season I am in at the moment.

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

bust of Crazy Horse

Deadwood

Dinosaur Park

final part of trek around lake

Sparkles

Littlest

Oldest

Spearfish Canyon

Sparkles and bison

outfit worn in Dances with Wolves

at Tatanka

Buffalo Jump

drumming