A Week, Briefly (#4)

Poor Mister Man fell off his trike at the church bike parade.  The x-rays showed there wasn't a break, but he's been in pain and unable to use his arm all week.  I'm worried there's other damage because a week later, he's still standing crookedly!

Summer did come back (sort of), and we've spent each afternoon busy with water play.

Rose Red and Little Sister spent some time at the piano.  When her hands are free, Rose Red continues to pick out favorite melodies and create beautiful accompaniments.

We finished 3 geography lessons this week.  Here, the kids are practicing latitude and longitude skills with a game.

We also spent time labeling balloons with various "circles" of the earth--equator, prime meridian, etc..

Pixie spent much time this week practicing hairstyles on Belle.

We also had our first art lesson--studying Genesis 1 to find the principles of art as created by God in the creation of the earth.  We were supposed to go outside and sketch, but raging thunderstorms kept us indoors, so we made collages out of old science magazines.  The little boys joined us in this activity.

We harvested our first watermelon!  It was good!!

We concluded our week at the lake with our cousins for our first book club meeting.  We read Island of the Blue Dolphins, so we pretended we were on an island in the Pacific.

We found rocks.

We found clay.

We studied our environment. :)  Baymax got up close and personal with the sand.

Nature Angel made a bowl out of the clay.

After leaving the beach, we picnicked, had our book discussion, and then we made jewelry out of shells and natural beads.

There was a playground, so we played . . . and slept.

Our cousin (the one who picked this month's book) made a wild dog target and shared her bow and arrow with everyone, so we could shoot wild dogs--like Karana.  This activity was a real hit!

It is hard to have to leave out our most treasured photos because they feature the faces of our newest family members. 

Tantrums and oppositional behavior rule the day right now.  Every day is a tremendous emotional struggle, but we see progress and joy, too.  The CASAs came over, and when they saw the kids they were delighted, telling us that the children have never been so clearly thriving as they are now. 

I am grateful for their support.

Ladybug's therapist is helping us withdraw Ladybug from preschool.  After spending time at home with us, she has no desire to get on the school bus--sometimes actually climbing my body to get off the bus.  The therapist is happy that Ladybug is in a safe, happy home.  She can continue weekly therapy appointments with her same therapist on an outpatient basis.

Again, I am so thankful for this support.

Last night was the homeschool Not-Back-To-School picnic.  It was a tremendous strain to keep track of all of the little ones in such an open, busy environment, but our friends were wonderful about pitching in  and helping.


Support--Sir Walter Scott and I are not doing this alone.  We are so grateful for so many helping hands!