A Week, Briefly (2/18/19)

Cupcakes by Nature Angel.  She made them at a church activity.

We had Morning Meeting every day--with a focus on Matthew chapter 5.

We had 3 Symposiums. 

I cancelled Tuesday's meeting in order to take Ladybug to the psychiatrist's office to start the process of getting her established as a patient.   They changed their intake procedure at the new year, so I just filled out paperwork, and got her an appointment for March 11. 


Then Thursday's meeting simply never happened because Pixie was really sick, and all of the teens slept late.  I figured sometimes we need sick days.

On Friday they took their Unit 7 test for language arts and earned excellent scores.  There was significant moaning about the essays and and sentence diagramming, but I don't know why, as they aced both sections!  After the test, Pixie started crying because she was still just sick and wiped out, so we skipped history and Spanish in favor of me reading aloud to them from the second half of the John Greenleaf Whittier biography we started some weeks ago.

We had 3 1/2 Academies.

We read a variety of fairy tales we'd never heard of before from The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature.  We also studied Duke Ellington's music and biography.  His music was a hit!  We also started studying The Usborne Children's Picture Atlas.  Then we read stories about knights, castles, and William the Conqueror for history.

Individual school continued as usual for everyone. 

Mister Man finished his last LifePac science book for grade 2.  I ordered God's Design for Life:  For Beginners for him to work on for the rest of the school year.  It is written at about the same level as the LifePac set he just finished, so it is very basic, but the information is just a hair more detailed (e.g. LifePac grade 2 teaches that humans beings are God's creation and that we change and grow; God's Design teaches the same principle but then teaches that there are different body systems with different functions and teaches some basic facts about each.)  Mister Man can read and complete the assignments 90% independently. 

The book does have flaws.  At the front of the book is a science supply list by lesson number.  For many of the lessons, I could find no experiment to go with the supplies.  Why do I need a plastic bag, yellow gelatin, and red & green grapes for lesson 4?  There are no instructions anywhere in lesson 4-- or anywhere else in the entire book--for how to use those supplies, and I've gone over it several times very carefully.  The same is true for at least 8 more lessons that I've found so far.  I've sent an email to MasterBooks.  We'll see what they say.

In the mean time, I'm happy with the book as a simple text/workbook that makes Mister Man smile and keep loving science. 

Pixie's illness has been weird, and she missed her college class Wednesday and 4 or 5 dance classes because of it.  We took her in for blood work because her body temperature keeps falling to 95 degrees or lower, and the thyroid is responsible for regulating body temperature.  The doc first ruled out influenza then ordered blood tests for mono, thyroid levels, and whatever else. 

All results are normal.

Pixie still feels cold and sick and weepy.

We're not really sure what to do next, but Sir Walter Scott says he thinks it might be exhaustion, and rest might be the best plan. 

Rest is a good plan no matter what, so we keep her bundled up, keep the heating pad on, and keep filling her with hot herbal tea.

I hope she improves this weekend.

The most exciting part of our week was when I was pondering what to do with Rose Red, and I realized that she's made a friend who takes her to the gym where he's taught her about strength-training.  I quizzed her about it for a few minutes, and I found I was right in my guess that she's learned a lot and has practiced what she's learned.  After a few minutes' calculation, I was able to mark a quarter of a P.E. credit to complete her high school graduation requirements.

She's done!

She graduated!

I ordered her lovely custom diploma that should arrive early next week.

(It was the only thing we're splurging on for her--no party, no ceremony, no announcements per her instructions.  But Sir Walter Scott and I need to discuss a graduation gift for her, as we are getting Pixie one!)

She had a job interview this week, but the pay was $2.00 less per hour than what she's making at Chipotle, and she would have been on-call only--no regular hours. 

She didn't take it.

She's working on applications for other companies for entry-level jobs that don't require a college degree.

My job this weekend (in addition to grocery shopping and other home-keeping) is to attach Pixie's transcripts to one of her scholarship applications and press "submit."