A Week, Briefly (5/11/20)

Mother's Day morning

Our library system opened its book drops, so we were able to return a whole bunch of books that we're tired of keeping track of.  The books will be "quarantined" for 72 hours before being available for check out again.  On Monday, we will be allowed to call the library for an appointment for curbside pickup of books on hold.

I'm very excited.

But on Thursday I got an email from the library informing me that the 100 books I have on hold are not allowed.  There is a 20 item maximum on holds, and until I get below 20 items, I can't place anything else on hold--not even if I have them suspended.

:(

I was trying to prepare for the upcoming school year, and now I can't.

I certainly wish I'd allowed the kids to all get cards . . . I thought that our 200 book limit was sufficient for our family, and I didn't want to keep track of so many accounts.

Hindsight is 20/20.

I've officially decided that we are schooling year-round as long as the playgrounds and pools and beaches stay closed.

I've read our county's plan for phased reopening, and while no dates are attached, I do not feel optimistic about summery activities this year.

We will switch to a summer school schedule as soon as the teens and I finish Plutarch's Lives, but we will keep on schooling because it gives desperately needed order to our days, and it is good for us all.

These 5 year olds constantly keep us laughing.

Nature Angel and Little Princess have been wanting to study astronomy for some time.  I've been researching various homeschool courses, and I was discouraged because they were either too elementary, too expensive, or too complicated.

But then I found one!

MasterBooks.com has a course in their high school section that is certainly not too hard for my middle schoolers (in fact, I find it hard to consider it high school level).  I ordered it, and we started it this week.  So far, it is basic enough to do two days' scheduled work in one (because it is scheduled to alternate days of reading the text and answering workbook questions).  Little Princess would not be able to do this study on her own, but Nature Angel certainly could.  However, we're working on it for our Colloquium time, so I'm present to clarify and expand concepts that might have been confusing, and we're quite happy with what we're doing.

And our telescope arrived this week.

We spent a happy hour putting it together and trying it out. 

The weather has been overcast all week, but it's supposed to clear this weekend, so we're preparing to do a bit of star-gazing as soon as we possibly can!


Super Star did double duty at work this week as she finished out her final 2 shifts at Freddie's and started her first shifts at Sports Clips.  In spite of her careful instructions to her supervisor, she is scheduled for 27 hours of work next week.  She made a couple of calls, and hopefully she will be scheduled for fewer hours until after her scheduled graduation date of June 12th. 

Brother had his first dissociative episode in months this week.  It was quite minor compared to what we got used to experiencing, and I was not surprised that it happened.  He's been increasingly edgy for the past several weeks, and though he's trying so very hard to use his calming techniques (really, I'm so proud of how hard he tries), he's fighting a tremendous battle every day.  Sir Walter Scott checked his blood pressure because it dropped precipitately a month or two ago, and he had to reduce his med, but it was normal when we checked it.  He's also been complaining of fatigue at times that don't make sense for a healthy 8-year old boy.  I'm going to see if I can schedule some blood tests for him to see what's going on.

Good news in Brother's world includes the fact that he's our newest reader.  The kids are already gathering to listen to him.

Kids keep finishing school books.

The chaos of our first semester of this school year left us with some bad habits, and Little Princess is still working on the poetry memorization, the grammar and geography flash cards, and the fact "ladders" that are part of this course.  But she's done with the readers and the book work.

That's book 2 of 5 finished.  He's already started book 3.

Now that Ladybug has completed both book 3 and book 3 1/2 of this program, she's shifted back to her Simply Classical Spelling Book 2 for the summer.  The repetition of spelling rules and skills is really helping her.

Ladybug is doing very well most days, but she had a 3 hour tantrum at the same time that Brother had his episode.  I am SO thankful that my teens were home and able to help!

Her therapist sent me an email informing me that the office will be allowed to reopen June 15th, but only to the therapists.  We have the option of doing telehealth sessions or staying on the waitlist for in-person sessions.  I've chosen to wait.  Tantrum notwithstanding, not having appointments has been very good for Ladybug.

Sir Walter Scott either broke his thumb (x-rays showed what looked like an old break, but it was hard for the doc to tell) or injured it and contracted an infection; it kind of looks like both.  He's on antibiotics and wearing a splint until he can follow-up with the hand specialist.

Nature Angel has been in craft heaven now that her core subjects are complete.  She's working hard on her Greek studies, and she thinks Irish Gaelic is very fun, too.  She's been experimenting with photography a lot, and she took these pictures of the younger kids.

This is Little Princess, but it looks like me 35 years ago!  The kids thought is was me at first!  We had no idea our profiles were so similar.

And then she had Little Princess take these pictures of her, so she could edit them.

Now I just need the teens to consent to a photo shoot with her. :)

Boxes and envelopes of school books have been arriving in the mail.  Some are being put to immediate use, and some are being stored for the fall.  I planned to use Teaching Character Through Literature by Beautiful Feet Books this summer, but the primary level guide is basically a book list and advice to read to children.  I tried to pull the desired character traits out of each "lesson," but they're too abstract for my crew.  I'd need to write my own curriculum to go with the book list.

I don't want to do that!

The intermediate half is great, so I'll shelve the guide until they're ready for that.

We're just about done with Myself and Others Book 2, and Book 3 is too advanced.  I wonder if I should just pull out Book 1 again for a repeat.  On the other hand, I may be busy this week ahead putting together my own manners/social skills/character study for the summer.