A Week, Not Very Briefly (8/19/19)

This first week of school was hard.

School was fine . . . we need a few tweaks here and there, but it was mostly okay.

It was real life that demanded our attention in shocking ways, usurping our strength and leaving us in grief and confusion.

Photo from 2018--when Pepper, Nature Angel's birthday present and new best friend, was new to the family.

Pepper the bunny died on Monday afternoon.  She was not quite 2 years old, so we were completely unprepared for her death.  Nature Angel's grief has been as dreadful as grief can be for a loving 12-year-old girl. 

I did not cancel her schoolwork, even though I know that grieving is more important than math facts, because it gave her focus and a way to get through the long pale days.  For several nights she broke down in wracking sobs, and I held her until she fell asleep in my arms.

I've chronicled the rest of that story on my family blog.

Sir Walter Scott is sick.

It's probably just a cold, but I'm saying that I depend on this rock of a man for more than I can describe, and when he's out of commission, I'm just lost.

Brother is having a dreadful number of dissociative episodes, and one of them led to his running away again.  Long story short, some angel neighbors helped us catch him before he was crushed by traffic (and some careful drivers paused in their journeys to avoid crushing him).

Other terrifying developments led us to call the mental health crisis hotline which led us to call intake at the local pediatric mental health hospitals in search of an open bed for our boy. 

We didn't find one, and we made it to Brother's appointment with his psychiatrist first thing the next morning.  The psychiatrist dismissed our safety concerns, adjusted Brother's meds, and said he'd see us in 4 weeks.

Our therapists seemed far more concerned about our safety issues, and Sir Walter Scott and I have some very serious conversations/decisions ahead of us on Brother's behalf.

And through all of this we did as much normal school as we could each day.

Everybody needs some normal!

During Morning Meeting (5 days), we finished the New Testament portion of Egermeier's Bible Storybook, and we read the first story in the New Testament portion of The Bible for Children.  We read Alma's heart-to-hear talks with his sons from the Book of Mormon, and we discussed Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians.

Symposium (3 days) is not long enough.  I wish I had more time for my oldest girls.  We're doing what we can, and we've had good talks about the early Pilgrims and Puritan world views, Genesis, and Medieval literature.  We also started Unit 1 of TGTB High School 2.

Colloquium (3 days) is simple and fun.  The girls and I quite enjoyed the first week of Greek Mythology; we found the history of the study of human anatomy interesting; and we enjoy welcoming Mister Man to our American History stories.  We read theories of how Native Americans came to the Americas, a description of the Acoma Pueblo, and a summary of Christopher Columbus's adventures.

Academy (3 1/2 days) is awesome!  Art is going to be a major focus for us this year.   And our first project from Deep Space Sparkle was super cool.

Nature Angel and Little Princess aren't part of Academy this year, but when they saw what we were doing, they dropped their own projects and ran to join us!

Ladybug and Mister Man joined forces this week for a writing class (3 days).  We're reading a book about Christopher Columbus and gently practicing the art of crafting sentences.

And lots and lots of individual school was done. 

Mister Man took the week to understand how his planner works.  He tried to do the whole week's work the first day, and when I told him he was doing too much and tried to explain his planner again, he tried to finish all of the work the second day.  He broke down more than once.

I realized that I was asking too much for my 7-year-old to read and follow his planner on his own, so I stepped up the level of instruction and checking I was doing, and we both settled into a rhythm that's going to work.

Little Princess and Nature Angel LOVE Duolingo!

10 minutes a day of Chinese (Little Princess) and Modern Greek (Nature Angel) is all it is taking for  these two to make astonishing progress!

Super Star (Algebra I) and Belle (Algebra II) have found that they can finish their books by next May if they only do 4 lessons a week. :)  That's a big relief for them both, as they have dance, work, church activities, and volunteer work (Belle) to balance with academics.

Health has been more intense than they thought it would be, but Biology (Super Star) and Chemistry (Belle) have been less demanding, so the work has balanced out.

Seminary also began for the teens this week.  They've been faithful about getting up and on their way before dawn each morning.

I love, love, love Lola and Baymax's Jr. Kindergarten program (5 days).  It's pure joy, and it's just the right fit for them both.  We've read stories, practiced letters and numbers, played games, danced to music, colored, cut, glued, and generally reveled in one another's company.  My favorite, favorite part of their school is "recitation."  They stand straight at tall and recite memorized bits of information.  Their 4-year-old cuteness refreshes my heart every day.

And the time we're spending together is filling their little heart buckets as well.

We finished week 1 and have started week 2.

We had our first dance rehearsal.  We have new families and a new rehearsal space, so it was rather overwhelming, but we soldiered through, and the first day was a success.

Church activities included a final swim party (Little Princess), yoga (Ladybug), and glow-in-the-dark human foosball (the youth).  All of the girls came home exhausted and happy with their experiences.

Ladybug had her usual therapy session on Monday afternoon.

Brother and I had a full Friday of appointments and therapy (as described above).

Pixie, Brother, and Beowulf had eye exams on Thursday morning.  Pixie is getting new glasses to take with her to college (2 1/2 weeks until she leaves!). 

Sir Walter Scott took them to their appointment, and they brought home my new glasses which are a tremendous disappointment as I see far better without them than with them. :(

I tried for two days to make them work for me, but I have to hold my head sideways and cocked to see up close, and I have to tilt my chin down and force my eyes up to see far. 

If I take them off, I can see just fine.

It's Saturday now--laundry waits to be folded, groceries wait to be bought, library books wait to be returned, and toilets wait to be cleaned.

I'd better get to work!