A Week, Briefly (4/13/20)

It snowed on Friday morning!

Huge, wet, floppy flakes of snow fell for over 10 minutes!

But the ground and air temperatures were just warm enough for it not to stick, and by 9:00 am, there was only soppy, muddy ground to show it happened.

And I knew, I just knew that we couldn't have a regular school day.

Routines are our saving grace, but the atmosphere in our home has been increasingly tense.  We're having more tantrums (really, though, not enough to worry about), more frustration, less joy in the usual work of the day.

I think much of it has to do with the fact that we were supposed to take Pixie back to school this week, and we couldn't.

Sir Walter Scott had vacation time scheduled.
Super Star had vacation time scheduled.
I had mentally prepared to have a break from school for everyone.

We all felt it.

Especially Pixie, who officially pressed the "Defer" button on her school website this week.  She's made the decision to work full time this semester rather than take online classes from home.  She knows her strengths and weaknesses, and she knows that she'd struggle mightily without the stimulation of needing to get up and get into the classroom.  In addition, the entire dance department shut down for this semester, so even if school were to open up again, she'd still have no dance classes.  If she stays home, and the Shelter-In-Place rule is lifted, she can return to dance at her studio here.

So, as I looked around the table during our Morning Meeting, I made the instant decision to cancel school for the morning and go on a hike.

It was not all peaches-and-cream, but it was good.

There was a lot of new construction at this trail.  The city had been busy digging drainage trenches and installing piping to prevent trail flooding.  Beowulf loved the underground pipes.

We don't hike quickly.

Bridges and water are always interesting--even if it's the third bridge of the day!

Getting off the beaten path to look at the river

Two awesome lichen examples to bring our Botany study to life--we'd just learned about them the day before during Academy.

Hike #12 at LVL/LBR/MMP
26.56 + 2 = 28.56 miles

We ate a snacky lunch in the van on the way home, and when we entered the house, we had school as if we'd just finished Morning Meeting.

Sir Walter Scott and I had another ABA training session--this one was half spent learning how to navigate the parent portal and half spent playing with Brother while our clinical supervisor watched  to collect data on how we interact with him.

Earlier in the week, she'd had another observation session that was supposed to be half-school/half-play, but Brother got his school done early, so it was all play.

I can't imagine how frustrating it is to be stuck inside a computer while trying to observe a child at play!

I had to remind him once to play in front of the computer camera, and another time I had to move the computer so she could see him. :)

It was another week of finishing:

Brother finished book 1 of 5 on the same day that Ladybug finished book 3 of 5!

Belle finished knitting a scarf that will be lovely to use this coming winter (I wonder if she used in on Friday?!?!).  She's since moved on to creating an embroidery project.

And Brother finished even more books this week!

This book is the end of this early reader series!  He still struggles with tracking and long vowel words, but he's really ready to practice those skills with "real books."

We went to a birthday party on Thursday night.

We made a sign (hidden by his head in this photo) and threw candy out the window at him.

One of the teens' friends turned 17, and his mom organized a quarantine parade for him, since there was no other way to celebrate with friends. :)

We halted the parade partway through, and hollered/sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  (It was awful and funny. 😆)

Afterward, the teens drove up to a nearby parking lot, arranged their cars in a couple of lines in every other parking spot, and visited from their trunks.

Nature Angel, Little Princess, and I are enjoying reading A Comedy of Errors together.  We still have acts 4 and 5 to go, and then we'll find a production to watch online.  

Belle, Super Star, and I have now finished Plutarch's stories of Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius.  I must say, that even though Plutarch thought he was being unbiased, he is decidedly biased toward his Greek compatriots.

Baymax found a dead lizard.  He counted its toes and told me about them.  We poked at it and studied it together for a little while.  He was quietly concerned that it was dead.  "What should I do with it, Mom," he asked.  "You could bury it," I answered.

He liked that answer, and went right to work, but when he tried to put the lizard in the hole, the hole was too small.  He didn't fuss, but I could feel his frustration.  Ladybug could, too.  She offered to help him dig.  Together they dug, tried the hole on for size, dug some more, and were finally satisfied that the lizard would fit.  It was an oddly touching shared learning experience.

The little boys have been writing stories this week.  I find them tucked away in corners writing/drawing/coloring intensely during their free time.

Nature Angel had to draw a physical map of Africa.  I so love her projects.

And she's teaching herself how to crochet new patterns.

Beowulf is reading a book a day, and I'm keeping a list posted above his chair at the table.  He smiles every time he looks at it.  One day he was so eager to get reading that he got started on his own while I was busy with Ladybug; Mister Man came over to help him with the harder words when needed.

Because this week included some meltdowns and required that I complete a major re-stocking grocery-shopping trip, my Kinders had 3-ish days each of reading lessons and our official Kindergarten sessions.  Lola was quite disappointed when she realized we'd missed some classes, but she was mollified with some extra hugs and kisses from me.

The forecast shows 10 straight days of spring ahead!