A Week, Briefly (4/22/2020)

Bike riding, gardening, and septic leach line building ruled our week.

The older girls took turns taking the younger kids biking up and down the street.

It led to more than one accident.

We joked that we needed one of these signs:

The problem is, ours would say "0" for every day of the week!

We didn't have any broken bones or any trips to the emergency room, though, so no one is complaining.

Lola is our last child who does not know how to ride a bike.  Nature Angel and Brother have worked with her many times, but the balance and control remain elusive.  We're not sure why, because she's so coordinated in so many other ways!

But this week, Nature Angel got her to pedal successfully for about 20 feet without falling!!!

No one had a camera in the moment.

I'm hoping for pictures and videos next week.

We did a lot of school, and finished a lot of math.

This book 5 of 5 finished.  Next step?  Arithmetic 3, but not for a little while.

Done until August!  I think she did a happy dance in the kitchen.

Also done until August!  No happy dance, but lots of relief--which actually makes me sad, because she used to be my girl who loved math more than any other subject.  I'll be thinking about how to reignite that joy.

 It rained a couple of days this week.  On one of them, my Kinders dug out drawing books and initiated independent drawing lessons.

And Mister Man made himself a new costume during quiet time one day.

On another rainy day, I raided our craft cupboards and made "craft kits."  I set the kids up at the table, passed out kits and left them to explore while I retreated to the kitchen to do dishes (our dishwasher died a few weeks ago) and chop vegetables for freezer meals.

Nature Angel and Baymax made bird masks together.  The next day Baymax pulled out a bird costume we have in our dress-up bin, added this mask and was all set for some serious dramatic play.

Little Princess is very near the end of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 5, and she was in a very arty mood.  She skipped through the remaining lessons doing art projects wherever she found them.

Academy lessons have been more hands-on this week as we've gotten deeper into our Botany studies.  We've examined monocot and dicot leaves, soaked and examined bean seeds, and we have another batch of seeds germinating in bags in our windows.

I've combined Kinder recitations with the Simply Classical Level 3 recitations I was working on (and dropped) with Ladybug for everyone during Academy.  It is a fabulous success for us all!


I love reading lessons with Lola.  Aside from the fact that each lesson is a gymnastics event--that little girl actually spins in my lap sometimes--she's learning to read, and it's extremely fun for me to watch her progress.

Baymax is learning also, but his progress is kind of stop-and-start because he is very opinionated about what he will and won't do each day, and I'm unwilling to fight him into learning to read.  However, he has discovered that hand-washing dishes is really cool, so I've got a willing kitchen-helper in him.

I'm finding the paperwork for ABA therapy to be overwhelming . . . and this is during our break from other activities!  I waffle back and forth between wanting to continue and despairing that I'll ever be able to keep up.  That said, the parent-training session we had on Friday afternoon was invaluable at putting into words various aspects of positive- and negative-reinforcement, and then the therapist and Sir Walter Scott and I were able to discuss some of the complex challenges of implementing what is a simply idea in theory.

My reaction at the end of our session was, "Every foster/adoptive parent should get this training as part of the licensing process!"

The therapist says she gets that reaction a lot.

Super Star has set goals for physical health, hoping that working on these goals will help her mental health.  I'm watching her work hard, and I hope she will have a sense of accomplishment and healing as she works.

Belle keeps stalwartly helping me through our bedtime routine each evening, and during the day she retreats to work on Algebra 2 at an intense rate.  I think she may finish her book in a week . . . possibly two.

Here's some good news in the world--Sir Walter Scott's hospital has so few COVID-19 patients that they are able to fit them all in ICU and reopened the 2 wings that had previously been designated for suspected and diagnosed patients to regular services!