A Week, Briefly (9/2/19)

Over the weekend, Nature Angel inspired the kids to create a city in our yard.  They played for hours!

"Oh, Mom!" Belle said ruefully, "We almost had a normal week of school!"

This was late Thursday morning as we regrouped after the police caught Brother for us about half a mile from home.

I'd given chase and gotten within 10 feet of him, but then we hit a hill, and his adrenaline-driven 52 lb body glided up the hill ever so much faster than mine did.

He was rounded up, and appropriate information was shared with the officers from each city involved (we live on the border of the two cities), and we were all home within the hour.

It was only half an hour later that Brother's dissociative episode ended, but everyone was so wiped out that Sir Walter Scott stayed home with Brother while the rest of us went to dance.

(If I weren't the teacher to more than half of the children, and if my children didn't comprise nearly 1/4 of the students, I'd have skipped it.  But I am, and they do.)

Really, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were "crisis-free" days.

Not without their struggles  . . .

As in Beowulf is caught between doctors, and no one will refill his ADHD prescription.  I asked for an appointment, and I was turned down!   He's on nothing right now, and he is close to impossible to work with.

 . . . but honestly, they were simple days for our family.

Lots of school.
Lots of food.
Lots of playtime.
Lots of reading.

I wish I'd thought ahead to how impossible this project would be for my color-blind Brother!  I offered what help I could by identifying and organizing colors for him, but it was too much.  It was also too much to ask my littlest ones to "draw what you see."  It took significant encouragement and help from me to complete these drawings.  Beowulf was unable to join us because he could not control his body enough to stay with us. 

These two made jello/candy cell models.  All of the young ones watched, and we shared leftover candy at the end.

Another day Little Princess and Nature Angel made playdough figures with and without toothpick "bones" to demonstrate how important our skeletons are.

The little boys are learning how to "pop a wheelie" on their bikes.

Sir Walter Scott went to work all three of those days, and the rest of us managed at home just fine.

The Academy crew were crying for their promised lion craft as Sir Walter Scott took Brother off to the bedroom to wait out the end of the episode and I came to the kitchen to see to lunch.  Little Princess and Nature Angel jumped to the task of lunch-making, and I shifted gears back to our planned activity--all laid out on the table--in order to help the young ones feel normal after the crisis.

The amount of trauma we've all felt in the past weeks is staggering.

The lion crafts pleased all of the crafters.

Friday morning dawned as usual, and the teens took 2 exams--Unit 1 for The Good and the Beautiful, and Chapter 1 for American Literature.

(Heads up for anyone planning to use the Apologia American Lit student notebook--the chapter 1 test has errors in it; I've yet to examine the later tests.)

And they completed their art assignment for TGTB Unit 1 as well--Belle's is above, Super Star's below.

Ladybug aced a timed math drill (addition facts to 6), and her whole countenance changed.  The success at that little drill brightened her attitude toward math.  It was truly a joy to behold.

For Academy, we started a "Lion Lapbook."  We only made it through coloring and creating the front cover, as we'd had behavior challenges over cleaning up outside beforehand and Brother and I had therapy appointments to keep afterward.  But it was a relatively happy experience to do this simple activity, and it included far more teaching/learning than I thought it would, as several of the children struggled with understanding what color lions are and how to mimic the colors with crayons.

While they worked, our Primary President (the leader of our church children's organization) stopped by with flowers and a treat--just to say she loves us and is praying for us and wants us to know she cares about how hard each day is.

She is as lovely a person as ever could be.

The flowers are delighting us by the hour.

We needed their beauty.

I am more grateful than I can say for the support our two therapists offered as we all joined forces for half of the session time to do some decompressing and planning.  Their knowledge is greater than mine in several areas, and they taught me things I needed to know about Brother's diagnosis and treatment options available.

I am tired.

Super Star, post-Symposium

The kids are tired.

But as school time gives us small group time and/or one-on-one time together, the kids were clamoring for us to pick up where we left off on the schedule for therapy, and I did so. 

It is sweet shared time.

He wanted to know what it is like to write with both hands at once. :)

But Brother's time was interrupted with an emotionally charged phone call from Pixie, and in spite of my best efforts, it deteriorated into a dissociative episode.  He did not get a chance to run away, and it ended quickly (under half an hour), but it bruised us again in all of our tender places.

The teens headed off for a good-bye party for Pixie for their homeschool friends.  She is the first in their group to head off to a school that is actually too far away to come home for a special weekend.  Her leaving is a challenge to them all--especially Pixie.

Nature Angel and Little Princess made pancakes for dinner while I talked with Brother.

During and after dinner, all 6 of the youngest kids were charged with something that pushed them to challenging, defiant behaviors.

Many of them were odd even for our household.

Brother . . . I just don't know what to say . . .

other than to record that I've contacted the Autism school.

We'll see if what they have to offer is better for him than what I can offer at home.