A Week, Briefly (11/9/20)

It was a regular old homeschool week for us--Morning Meetings, book work, Academies, Colloquiums, Evening Readings, child care, behavior management, ABA therapy, daily walks, outdoor play, indoor play, and feeling like the days are both too long and not long enough.

 

Hike #43 of 52--neighborhood walks

94.11 miles + 3.4 = 97.51 miles

Oh! The Munchkin loved that dandelion!  He "smelled" it and loved it and carried it for the whole walk.

 

We did not take a hike on Friday because Sir Walter Scott worked overtime,  I did about a million chores, and the kids made their own outdoor fun raking and jumping in leaves.  Little Princess took over 200 pictures!  Here are a very select few:

That's Baymax, somersaulting into the leaves.

Love that landing!

Brother, diving in!

Nature Angel--I can't tell if she's at the beginning or end. :)

Lola, hurdling.

I think Beowulf can fly!

Mister Man dove in deep!

Ladybug walked on her hands--she held that pose for a while!

Little Princess, levitating.

Who am I to drag kids away from self-directed play like this!?!?!?

We finally got Belle to take some cute pictures.  Here's my favorite.

For Family Night we had a fire and ate homemade chocolate bark.

Brother finished book 4 of 5 Grade 2 arithmetic books.

He's so crazy proud!  Just 32 more lessons until he can start Grade 3!

I had a little buddy one day as I looked up some history videos for Colloquium.  

And I had several buddies when I worked on sanding our deck in preparation for staining or painting it (I'm still deciding) and doing some mending jobs to keep it functional.

Brother did some challenging hammering work through the deck rails.

Family Read Aloud time is going well.  We're adjusting to the change, and we are very, very invested in Little Britches.  We finished The Singing Tree, fighting tears through several of the chapters, and laughing until our sides ached in others.  It was a perfect read at a perfect time.

Though some listened more intently than others. :)

Beowulf is still struggling.  His psychiatrist had his new prescription called in and ready for us first thing Monday morning, and he was thrilled to take it that night.  He woke up on Tuesday morning so confident that the med would help that he got dressed, did chores, and started school before he realized that the med was not working at all.

(It's a slow-acting med that takes time to build up in his system, and he's taking less than half of what he probably needs right now, so it will actually be months before he's functioning well.)

That placebo effect was so powerful that his heart just broke when reality set in.  As he struggled to do what he wanted to do, he threw himself to the floor sobbing, "This med doesn't work!  I can't do anything!"

My heart broke, too.

 

We struggled mightily each day.  For a day or two, I was afraid the med was causing increased violence, but in thinking about it, I'm cautiously going ahead with the dosing because the tantrums and destruction are probably related to disappointment and increased effort to do school work.

The autumn days are a perfect blend of cold and warmth, sun and rain right now.  We're just working and living each day the best we can.