A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

Little Princess did a water color painting project about color value. It has been a challenging first two weeks of school. I've felt it. The kids have felt it, and those who are capable have voiced their opinions about the challenges. We're doing our best, and I'm trusting that we'll find our way . . . Monday A pretty good day for a Monday.  We did almost all of the things on my homeschool to-do list, including attending a joint therapy session with Ladybug and reading aloud to the teens. We finished our first themed study of trees by examining tree shapes and drawing a triangle-shaped tree instead of a tree with a straight trunk and a fluffy top.  Our plan was to go on a nature walk looking for tree shapes, but it was storming violently, so we contented ourselves with studying a state tree book. We also colored pictures of Bur Oak trees. I did forget to do recitation with Mister Man and Ladybug. Mister Man understands his planner better t...

The quiet end of a long summer day Last week's trip definitely marked the dividing line between "There's no way we can start school," and, "It's time to get going because we're ready!" I'm looking at the 19th as our start date for the 2019-20 school year . . . as long as the last few school items have been delivered. I focused mostly on curriculum decisions and scheduling. Lots of long hours in front of the computer with a few open spreadsheets and a whole bunch of bookmarked curriculum websites. But there were other preparatory activities as well. One was yet another psych visit for Ladybug.  Her new psychiatrist told me that I am "torturing her." Then she said, "I'm sure you're doing your best, but it's just not enough.  You need to consider other options." After I picked myself up off the floor (figuratively), I said to her, "I think you need to remove the word 'torture' from your v...

Ladybug finished reading and narrating New Testament Stories. We went swimming. We played at the park. We played in the sand and water in our own yard. Super Star got her driver's license. Belle got hired by the amusement park, and in order to do so she HAD to have a state issued ID, so she got her permit . . . But she's not allowed to practice driving until she finishes her Personal Progress (which is what the older 3 had to complete to get their permits)! It was a week of quite a lot of peace. Enough peace that I began to think that the previous chaos had been all my fault. That it the anguish was mending because I was mending. Then Saturday arrived. We've been in a state of emergency ever since. Turns out the chaos wasn't all my fault.

The week started hard. But it got better. Monday I spent the whole day taking care of medical and psychiatric issues: 1.  Dr appt for me-- a depression screening revealed severe depression--as in "Are you sure you don't need to be hospitalized?  What support do you have to convince me to let you walk out of here?"  I showed him that I did have enough of a support network to go safely home.  I have started a med regimen and will continue seeing a therapist. 2.  Psychiatric appt for Ladybug--she's got a new supervising psychiatrist who believes Ladybug's ADHD symptoms might be PTSD in disguise, and that's why we're at 4 trials and 4 fails for medications.  Ladybug is now on an anti-depressant, but the ineffective (IMO) ADHD med is not to be stopped because the attending psychiatrist feels that both meds are going to be required to make a difference.  That makes 3 meds every day (counting the melatonin she takes for sleep).  In addition, she i...

The time change has knocked our socks off, but at least a bit of warmer weather and occasional sunshine are lightening our hearts. :) That's Nature Angel studying in the tree. We hit the park for Family Night on Sunday evening as we faced the first day's challenge of adjusted clocks, non-adjusted sleep schedules, and daylight past bedtime. The kids organized themselves into a hilarious game of hide-and-seek with almost no places to hide.  The same places were used again and again as the kids learned how to disappear in plain sight.  The teens all complained of sore muscles the next morning from contorting and holding themselves in strange positions under, above, and around playground equipment. It was a joyful Family Night.  The week was chock full of activities and events that interrupted our usual school schedule. First on the list was Ladybug's psych intake.  The intake was awesome!  The psychiatrist is NOT going to make us wait 6 or 8 mon...

Beowulf's Developmental and Behavioral testing wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, and on Monday Sir Walter Scott and I braved the ice/snow/slush to listen to the psychiatrist tell us her conclusions. It was not what I thought. At all. I believed that she was going to do a huge battery of tests and give me an overall assessment of all kinds of aspects of Beowulf's development. Nope. She tested his IQ and screened him for Autism. That's it. He does not have Autism. Though he does have lots of Autistic behaviors (sensory sensitivities, repetitive body movements, immature social skills, and some speech difficulties/quirks). I was quite intrigued to find out that based on the description she gave us of the tests she gave him, the testing for Autism is entirely social.  She tested him for being able to carry on a conversation, share, play imaginative games, how he used tone of his voice, and his ability to respond to body language. Autism is diagnosed when a ch...

I'm still working on making our days/weeks actually manageable. Until then, we continue in survival mode. One of Nature Angel's history projects this week. We had 3 Symposium meetings this week, during which we finished up our Language Arts Unit 1, reviewed ser and estar as well as learned some new ways to use both verbs and did some Book of Mormon translation for Spanish, and we completed Week 5 in History.  The girls have a fair amount of Language Arts homework over the weekend to make up for the short week of meetings. The art project for this unit was to sketch a leaf.  Here's Belle's. And Super Star's And Pixie's--alongside the photo they were to copy. We finished reading Little Women on Monday and had our book club meeting on Friday. There is a hole in our days without Little Women .  It is not a time hole, as there is plenty to fill the time we took to read each day; it is an emotional hole.  The kids feel it, and I feel i...