January Homeschool

January Homeschool was beautiful and cozy, tender and routine-centered. Sue passed away mid-January and at this point everything in our life feels like a "before" and "after". We are so sad and deeply grieving. We are also so grateful. Grateful for the beautiful life Sue lived. For the wonderful mother and grandmother she was. Grateful for the Plan of Salvation and the knowledge that we will be with her again and that her spirit is at peace.  Grateful for the healing balm of the Savior through difficult life experiences. And grateful for the homeschooling lifestyle that helped us take the time we needed without penalty, but also kept us structured and moving forward through this difficult month. 

Here are some highlights: 

-Homeschooling 

Spelling words on the front window. Puzzle time. Book reading. Craft making. 

Plus a whole lot of Math and Language Arts workbooks, speech practice, reading, handwriting, computer skills, makerspace classes, coops, and field trips. All the things. 





Here are some of the more formal activities we've been up to: 

Girls Club

Because this is the start of a new year's blog book, just a quick re-cap: Lydia attends a weekly meetup with homeschooled girls in our neighborhood, called "Girls Club". They do a variety of activities, mostly at the Millward home, but once a month we host the meetup. Last year we did a lot of watercolors, but we have plans for some different things over the next couple of months. 

"Wrap the World with Quilts" is a local organization that makes, gathers, and donates quilts to send to those in crisis around the world. (http://www.wraptheworldwithquilts.com/ You can read their story here: https://weallsew.com/wrapping-ukraine-with-quilts/) They started by overcoming the helpless feeling as they watched the war break out between Russia and Ukraine by asking for donations and sending quilts to Ukraine to help the refugees. Since then they have made, gathered, and sent 43,688 blankets - their goal of helping to “wrap” someone in need with the comfort of a handmade quilt turning into an incredible impact! Their headquarters is located just a few minutes (walking from our house) and we were able to go tour their facility and help them with a few things as part of a Girls Club activity. We then took home quilt kits and plan to make the quilts together to donate. 

The activity at our house this month was to watercolor a printed picture of a girl with a braid (learning how to add different shades to the hair) and then braiding long yarn strands into braids for small child dress-up hair. 

Thursday Coop and Mini Coop
Austin got to start attending Coop with Lydia because there was an opening and it's been SO great! I'm so happy that he is able to join this amazing group and be there for the neat experiences they are having. Ali sent this picture of Lydia and some of her friends during co-op study hour. 

Mini Coop is held with the smaller kids while the big kids are at coop. Now that Austin is going to big coop, we had another little girl, Ruby, join us here. We do some small activities and let the kids play together and it's been a really good thing. 

Field Trips: 

Field Trips are a highlight of our homeschool and we did some great ones this month. We missed a field trip to a Museum because of Sue's Funeral - but my other friends covered the leadership portion of that meeting so that I didn't have to cancel. 

We went Sledding at Hunter Park and loved it. 





We went Ice Skating (Lydia and Austin didn't come with us because they were at the Ski Bus skiing classes.) Caleb and Lucy and I had a nice time, even though it was just a few days after Sue had passed away and our feelings were still pretty raw. It was so good to get out into the sunshine and move our bodies and enjoy the winter season.  

-We needed a family pick-me up so on one Wednesday afternoon, when we had a couple of hours open we spontaneously decided to go sledding at Donut Falls. The kids were so excited because it was just our family and the snow was SO deep up in the mountains. We couldn't stay for super long, but we were there as long as we could possibly squeeze in and we sledded and laughed and breathed in the fresh mountain air and it was wonderful. (Minus the bloody nose that Austin got going down his first hill that stopped and started on and off the whole time we were there.) 



















Frog and Toad SCERA Youth Performance

I love taking my kids to the theater and was really looking forward to this. I tend to be late for things and had decided that we were going to be EXTRA early so that we could socialize with the group we were going with beforehand. Right before the American Fork exit, our BRAND NEW van got a flat tire. Thankfully we were able to pull right off and into the park and ride next to the off ramp. We didn't have long enough to call David and have him come get us, but I made a split second decision.  I ordered an Uber from my phone and paid $20 to have them drive us back to our house. Then we hopped right into the silver van that we still haven't sold and immediately started for the SCERA again. We made it JUST in time to grab a poporn and drink as we walked in and sat down with the lights out and the curtains opening. I was SO grateful that we had left early enough to deal with the trouble of a flat tire, so grateful that we just happened to have an extra van at our house, and just happy to be there with my kids. (Also grateful that the tire was covered under warranty and when we had it towed and fixed later that day it didn't cost us anything.) 

At our homeschool retreat in February we asked everyone to come prepared to share a recent experience where they had FUN. I shared this one: 

"Last month I went to a performance of “Frog and Toad” with my kids at the Scera Theater. The whole way there I told my kids that it was “Ichabod and Mr Toad” because we had just watched that Disney movie. We had some trouble getting there and rushed in right as it started. It wasn’t until quite a bit through the opening song that we realized I was wrong. My 11 year old Lydia leaned over and asked “did you mean Frog and Toad” and laughingly I admitted that I had been wrong. My kids were totally sucked into the play and during the cookie song we were all laughing. Several times Lydia and I would make eye contact and laugh together. I felt completely immersed in the moment and a deep joy that I was experiencing that moment with my kids."