We Already Celebrated Halloween!

 Our church congregation decided to have our annual Chili Cook-off and Trunk-or-Treat early in the month.  This changed my plans for preparing Halloween costumes!!  In short order, I pulled together 6 costumes, and my older teens managed their own.

Nature Angel as Eurydice from Hades Town

Ladybug as Hazel Levesque from Heroes of Olympus

Mister Man as Leo Valdez from Heroes of Olympus

Baymax as Samheed Burkesh from The Unwanteds

Lola as Florence, the giant ebony statue hero, from The Unwanteds

And Beowulf, Little Princess, and Brother as Minions!

I have always limited Halloween to one celebration, but this year with the church party being so early, I am unable to prevent other celebrations closer to or on the actual date.  

So. Much. Candy.

I'm not a fan.

But Brother, Mister Man, and Beowulf have been invited to a Halloween party and trick-or-treat with a group of boys from their church group.

And the 3 teen girls have been invited to another Halloween party and trick-or-treat with a group of girls from their former church group.

Looks like it will be just the youngest two and me staying quietly at home on Halloween . . . maybe doughnuts and cider will be a good replacement for the candy they won't get that night. :)

The rest of the week was HARD.

Beowulf had several violent episodes.  I consulted with his psychiatrist, and we both feel it was due to the final emptying of the old med out of his system and the new med not being at a high enough dose to be effective.  She upped his prescription, and the last two days have been better than the previous 5.

Yes, he fell asleep mid-play one day, but it only took a day for him to adapt to the new med dosage.  He's been wide awake the past two days.

We also have been dealing with sexual curiosity gone kind of sideways.  Some of the wonderings have been entirely reasonable for a pack of pre-teens, but some of it crossed lines of appropriateness.  Sir Walter Scott and I talked some of it out, some of it I talked through with our FSP, and after private discussions with the individual children concerned, I devoted one school day with the younger 6 kids to lessons on sexual maturity and reproduction as well as a Q-and-A session.  

Lola and Baymax were dismissed after a few minutes--they were really not interested in any part of the lesson--but I made them stay for a brief overview of the basics.  The other 4 kids participated in an age-appropriate discussion focusing on the sanctity of the human body and the sacredness of human life.

My goal was to explain clear boundaries for behaviors without shame or fear.  

I hope I did it.

I think I did it because the kids did ask questions, and in the long run, the discussion evolved into questions about the adopted kids' histories.  Mister Man was eventually excused while the other 3 stayed to learn as much about their bio-family as possible.  We talked honestly; the kids cried; I hugged them.  

It was an emotionally draining but important day.

Nature Angel is crocheting a dressy sweater for wearing to church.

In regular homeschool news, the teens and I moved from the Romantic era of American Literature into Realism.  Our favorite day of study so far in the entire text was this week when we read and discussed a dozen or so poems by Emily Dickinson.  Her poems are challenging, but the very act of sharing them together made them infinitely more approachable.  

Little Princess traced pictures while she listened to me read aloud from The Last of the Mohicans.

The kids and I finished Calico Bush and Phoebe the Spy.  We started Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. (It's our second time reading it in the past few years, but it's such a favorite!)  We're up to 13 states and capitals memorized.  This unit includes 4 paintings by Audubon to copy, and the kids painted the American Cardinal this week.  

We're still studying Galileo.  We continued to explore the law of relative motion, and we went on to talk about the life cycle of stars--something he did not understand but made observations about that led to further discovery in future years.

Dentist and orthodontic appointments took one whole afternoon. 
One of the offices has games on tablets in the waiting room!

Baymax and Beowulf spent 2 hours working with their gardening mentor.

Brother spent several hours chopping wood with Sir Walter Scott.

Little Princess went to CAP.  She's still working on passing her Mitchell Award tests.

This playhouse has been a source of creative play all day every day. 
It doesn't look like much, but if you were to take a tour with my kids as your guide, you'd be delighted!
It's been expanded and decorated somewhat since I took this photo.

Church activities included pumpkin carving (Nature Angel), cookie decorating (Ladybug), basketball (the older 3 boys), and Halloween crafts (Lola).

The 5 youngest kids went to their last day of homeschool soccer, and the older 3 girls attended a glow volleyball event at the church. 

Sugar Bear and Lola explored Little Princess' glowy solar system model while they hid under Nature Angel's desk (with permission).

We're making final progress in dance before our shows in November.  Unfinished dances still loom over us, but others are being refined, and somehow, our 10 rehearsals will come together into a show that will please our elderly audiences.

Nature Angel has some pistons in her class!

Nature Angel spent many hours making instructional clogging videos for her class, so that they can practice at home and hopefully be more prepared to participate in a group setting.

We'll be adding costume organization to our rehearsals for the next 3 weeks, and I'm in charge of all of that in addition to teaching my classes!

Am I feeling pressure?

YES!