A Week, Briefly (#10)

I'm almost laughing as I report that we had 104+ degree fevers, vomiting, rashes, and more snot this week.  I'm just putting it down in black and white so that I can look back on week after week after week of non-stop illnesses and be grateful for the good health that will again (someday) be ours.

In spite of it all, we soldiered through science lessons 11-16 about amphibians, reptiles, and fish.  Embedded in these lessons about animal taxonomy were lessons about ecology, habitats, and trusting the Lord to provide.

On Monday, when Baymax was really sick, the older kids took the little kids up to the field for some exercise.

We made origami frogs when we learned about amphibians--they're multiplying now!

These are beeswax models of the axolotl.

Little Princess gave her axolotl a face.

We experimented with balance and support to illustrate our discussion of a balanced ecosystem.

We had two days of preschool--one that focused on dancing, and one during which we covered nursery lesson #2 about the plan of salvation.  The BOTs and I did the little mobile craft.  I helped each boy hang his craft next to his bed, and they've been very, very proud of their work.  It's given us the chance to review each night how much they are loved by their Father in Heaven and their earthly family.  Of the three boys, Little Brother is the most charmed by his mobile.

Yet another picture of tired baby, tired dad.

 Little Princess and I covered letters D-H in her story/art curriculum that we're doing to review correct letter formation.  She loves reading the stories and drawing pictures of flowers with me.  She's reading quite well--now competently reading stories aloud to younger siblings and participating actively in reading aloud with the regular family school.

Nature Angel wanted something special to do with me, so I downloaded The Good and the Beautiful homeschool curriculum for her.  I had it professionally printed and bound, and it arrived on Thursday afternoon.  It is so beautiful and so perfect for this girl!!!  She can do much of it independently, but there's also a bit of time she gets to spend one-on-one with me each day, and it is a joy to work with her.  So far she's getting familiar with the materials, and she's practicing fingerspelling her new spelling words every day.

Rose Red gave her first speech in her dual-enrollment communications class.  Tuesday was a hairy day for us as I helped her fine tune her speech and get it submitted to her teacher, but we did it . . . and it is her work, not mine. :)  She delivered her speech on Thursday to solidly good peer reviews, and she looks forward to a good grade from the teacher.

Hurrah!  Baymax feels better now!

 Time management continues to be a weakness for Rose Red--though not as much of a weakness as last year.  While she completed her communications work in good order, both science and math fell by the wayside.  She has her first college exam this coming Thursday, and I've been working with her on scheduling so that she can do well in all subjects.

We'll see. :)

Rose Red completed her Personal Progress!  She received flowers and a certificate at YW in Excellence on Tuesday night.  This Sunday she'll be presented her medallion in sacrament meeting.

  

Super Star dances in the rain and hail.

 On Wednesday we had a family support team meeting to discuss the needs of our 4 new little ones.  During this meeting we found out that Little Sister's status has been officially changed from reunification to adoption . . . but we also found out that the adoption will take up to a year to take place!  Though not a surprise, that's longer than we were originally led to believe.

We've also been given official permission to withdraw Ladybug from her school!!!!!  The school has asked for 2 weeks to go through their discharge procedures and prepare for her "graduation" party.  We're happily acquiescing because her school is marvelous, and we're so grateful for their support.  Ladybug will continue to receive outpatient therapy with her same wonderful therapist, but she'll get to be home with us full time.  We'll be under lots of supervision to see if this experiment works, so I'm kind of nervous, but more confident than worried.

We're also going to get a play therapist for Brother . . . finally!  We need some support for some of his negative behaviors, and we want this precious boy to be truly happy.

On our way home from the meeting, Dad and I picked up a driver's education handbook for Rose Red.  She'll take the test for her permit next week!!

Dance rehearsals are increasing in work as we've approached the one-month-to-performance date.  The littlest ones are cute, but still require either me or the other mom standing in front of them to cue them on what move comes next for the one dance they're doing.  The older kids are doing beautiful and complicated partner dances involving lifts.  Nerves are getting tense.

We took Friday to go to our favorite pumpkin patch/kitten farm.

It was a good way to end the week.

(The vast majority of the photo credit goes to Pixie--she's a picture-taking champ!)