A Week, Briefly (10/21/19)

We celebrated Halloween this week because our church trunk or treat was on Thursday night.

As far as my under 10s are concerned, that was Halloween.

:)

My older kids are already finding more Halloween fun, and, as it's wholesome fun they're finding, I'm okay with that.

But I'm done.  My rule for costumes this year was this:  If you have your own money, you're welcome to spend it; the rest of you are dependent on what we have in the house.

I think the rule worked.

Thursday night was cold.  Everyone has jammies and extra clothes on under their costumes.  Many of the kids have extra hats, bibbies, and/or winter boots.

Here's the crew:

Nature Angel as scarecrow (she accidentally covered her straw-filled pockets)

Little Princess as Heidi--she helped Grandma make her cute top

Brother as a knight--he accidentally covered his helmet with his hat

Beowulf as Woody

Lola as "a worker birdie"--bird costume, hard hat, boots.  She was thrilled to wear these costume pieces--I don't know why she has such a goofy face here. 

Ladybug as Harriet Tubman

Mister Man as a hook-handed wizard

Super Star as a puppy

Baymax as Harry Potter

Belle as a llama

The whole event was 1 hour long.

And that's enough Halloween for me!

My favorite compliment of the night?

"I can't believe how cute all of your kids are!  I could barely get here with my ______ (insert number of children--this compliment came from at least 3 mothers) kids, and here you are with 10 kids all looking so great!"

Compliments are nice.

(Disclosure: I was only fully responsible for 6 of those costumes and part of another.  The oldest 3 took care of their own, and Grandma helped Little Princess with hers.)

Little Princess set up the sewing machine for Grandma.

On the homeschool front, the teens and I had a pow-wow.  We're dying from interruptions, crises, and trauma.  The carefully laid plans we made during the summer have unraveled to the point of chaos, and we are trying to rebuild.

Step 1:  We're cutting Symposium down to 1 subject:  Language Arts.  We'll do everything we can "in class" with as little "homework" as possible.

Step 2:  The teens are to work on Math and Health.  If it's a bad day, they must get 1 assignment done in each of these 2 subjects before going to bed at the end of the day.  If it's a good day, they can work double or triple.  But we're going to assume that every day is going to be a bad day (because that's how it's working right now).

Step 3:  Belle is going to stop trying to advance in Latin.  Instead she'll try to keep what she's got by reviewing flashcards and doing a weekly grammar review, so that she can pick up where she left off when we're ready to increase the work load.  (Super Star is not doing a language study this year.)

We'll make further plans as we see fit.

Already Belle's and Super Star's shoulder seems less slumped, and their faces seem less drawn.

I, too, feel less dead.

The young ones did as much school as they could--the tweens and Mister Man accomplished rather a lot of individual school.  I only managed 1 or 2 Colloquiums and writing classes with them.

Ladybug, Brother, and Beowulf did individual school 5 out of 5 mornings with varying levels of completion depending on their mental health status for the day.

Ladybug finished this workbook, and is finally back to using real literature for her reading.  It was a worthwhile pause to review!

 We had only 2 Academy sessions.

We're studying The Ox Cart Man, so we did these fun little paper-weaving projects.  The kids were stunned to see how weaving really works, and even though we did some more "real" weaving with homemade stick looms and string a few years ago, this paper project was a true challenge, and the kids are quite proud of their work.

We've continued to read about Kit the raccoon every day at lunch.  We pause every so often as we read to look up a creature or plant mentioned in the story.

Listening to the call of a loon was a thrill.

We also pause to narrate what we've read.  The kids and I are unanimously enamored of this story as a learning experience.

This sketch is by Nature Angel--done during some free time.

This watercolor and poem are by Little Princess--a language arts assignment.

Nature Angel crafted this autumn angel just for fun.

We had as much free play time as we could.  Nature Angel helped the young ones build a house out of string, clothespins, and scrap fabric.  I could not capture its charm with my camera, but I've included a couple of photos that fail the least.

The dining room

The bedroom.  Lola is still in bed.  Baymax is "getting dressed."

Mister Man and Beowulf were more interested in playing super hero than playing house.  They did visit the house once or twice to perform heroic acts of service when needed, though.

Without adult supervision (I was inside helping teens and cleaning up trauma messes), Ladybug could not join the other kids down below.  She cuddled with the cat, observed some spiders, did cartwheels, and sat daydreaming in the swing.

Brother has a good ear for music.  He likes to pick out beloved melodies and play them over and over again.

Brother's therapist lets him make all kinds of concoctions when he plays kitchen.  He made us a "cake."  He was very proud of it.

Beowulf's medication protocol is continuing to be more of a blessing than a curse, but the tough times are truly tough.  I'm watching closely and getting to the point of needing to make a decision about how much medication his little body can handle successfully.

In spite of the sweet pictures of Brother in this post, his behaviors are growing more dangerous to himself and the community by the day.  He cannot be safely medicated any further than he currently is, and his psychiatrist has asked us to seriously consider residential psychiatric care.

We are quite serious in our deliberation.

I am still trying to qualify for and receive therapies that will allow Brother to stay home with us.  But the lack of progress is devastating right now, and we're desperate.

How grateful I am to have Sir Walter Scott home this weekend on FMLA leave!