This week went much better than last. I never really got healthy enough to be alone with my kiddos, which is sad, but we got through it and we had a lot of fun. The week did start off a bit bumpy for myself and Rob, but not really for the kiddos, and that is what matters.
Monday was a holiday, Labor Day. We don’t always take holidays off. But with my health being so poor, we decided it was best.
Tuesday, because we have such an amazing community, my kiddos were still able to go to their Classical Communications group, even though I wasn’t healthy enough to attend with them. In a way, I hate to go on and on with how happy with are with our CC year so far, because I don’t want it to sound as if last year wasn’t also great. But last year we had a lot of struggles with one of our children, and I was just really worn down with it all. If I could have the chance to do it again, I would do it again in a heartbeat though. CC was a huge help in getting two of my three children where they needed to be. I could have a child scream to the top of her lungs as I dragged her down the hall to an empty classroom, and all anyone did was offer support and would help care for my other children. This year though, a few things have changed. One, we are stuck at home all week and CC is their big outing. Two, the children aren’t transitioning from schools to homeschool, they knew what to expect this year. Three, all three children are in different classrooms. My youngest daughter works so well with the tutor she had last year, and the new tutor she has this year. Though she doesn’t want to be separated from her sister, she very much wants to stay close to those two adults. My oldest daughter desperately wanted the older student’s teacher, she thinks he’s fabulously fun. She also very much wanted to be separated from her younger sister. Our younger daughter is gifted academically, and our oldest is not. She doesn’t see her sister as gifted, she only sees herself as slow and stupid. We have a very difficult time with her self-esteem, so this year has been incredible for her so far. She is actually learning the math songs, maybe not at the same pace as the others, but she is still learning them. And, to my great surprise, she actually has been learning the history sentences and some of the science as well. To top it all off, she is doing it proudly with a big smile on her face, instead of through tears like she did last year. So that is why I am raving about this year. Not because last year wasn’t great, but because this year, CC has really been more of a blessing to us than I have the words to explain.
Instead of going day to day (what we did Monday, then Tuesday, and so on) this post, I thought I’d give a little insight into what we did this week in general. Every day, I got a little stronger and was able to do a little more. Again, I was not able to be alone with the children this week, but on Wednesday I started going downstairs and becoming more involved with their work.
Bible for the most part, we use GrapeVine. I love to do bible first, because what better way
to start a day, but in God’s word. I also have a very inquisitive daughter, who makes teaching the bible very entertaining. We are working on the Old Testament, and will be for some time. But we often draw eyes that are looking ahead. These eyes are to remind us that what we are learning is our history, not our present. Hopefully it helps the children from getting 
bogged down, because the Old Testament can be difficult to get through. This week we spent most of our time on Adam and Eve, and how their relationship with God changed because of sin, but how God continued to love them. After I told them that God made Eve to be a helper to Adam, my oldest stopped me and said that women weren’t made to help men, but were made for men and women to have each other. It was a very proud moment for a mommy of a little feminist.
We also do challenges. This idea started when the school year, last year, was ending. I wanted school to continue, but without my children knowing school was continuing. So myself, Rob, and Anne’s amazing therapists put together a long list of challenges. Once a challenge is complete, they get a badge. Some we have premade, my father gave me a bunch that he found once, and we have a button maker for the other badges. Well, my heath, as always, got in the way, and that ended up not happening. Therefore, we are starting it now. They have been working on swimming safety, snorkeling, golf, street hockey, and cards. I am not really a part of any of this but the cards, being that my health just hasn’t allowed it. I am sad to miss the fun, but I know that they are in the safest hands with our therapists. This week the girls got to work on their swimming safety and snorkeling, I mean … how cool is that? And all of the children got to work on cards. In order to get their badge, they need to master the games Phase Ten, Uno, Solitaire, and War. Anne’s therapists are the ones who determine once something has been mastered. This week they got to master Phase 10. This is a card game that I rocked at as a child. Though I did have to lay my cards out on a chair next to me, in order to stay organized. I did not do that this time, and I started off losing miserably. But no worries, I ended up winning, because that’s just who I am, a winner;-)
We have been doing a ton of work on History and Timeline. I didn’t plan on spending so 
much time on History this year, but our oldest daughter just loves it, and our younger doesn’t hate it, so I decided to go with it. We have been working on our Timeline with CC. I have a new and super awesome Timeline book from Usborne, but we just haven’t had the time to dive into it yet. I’m thinking maybe on a week where we have off from CC, we can back track and work on our Timeline with our new book. And Story of the World, I mean, we couldn’t love it anymore if we tried. We do own SOTW Ancient History, but my husband and oldest daughter love the Middle Ages so much, we decided to go with that one for this year. I’m not sure who is learning more, me or them. Probably me. This past week we finished up chapter two and started chapter three, the girls made their presentations for CC using Story of the World, and we made broaches that the Celts would have worn with their cloaks in the cold weather. As for presentations, they were both supposed to present on the middle ages, and even better, maybe how children lived in the middle ages. We just learned about the three slave boys, and how they lead to England becoming Christian through Augustine. Anne, our younger daughter, likes happy stories and she decided on that story. But last minute Isabella, our oldest daughter decided that she just had to present on Beowulf. Why? Because it’s bloody and goory of course. She even watched a movie on Beowulf with her brother, while her sister played upstairs, as far away from the television as she could get. They made their presentations out of felt, and had a great time doing it.
As for math, we do a ton of it. But I don’t feel great about it. One child is advanced and bored, and the other struggles and her self-esteem gets run down too easily. We are currently memorizing CC math, as well as using RightStart Math. RightStart Math is an incredible curriculum, but I feel it was written more for math teachers, or just for those who math in general;) That, is not me. So this week I gave the girls a placement test for Saxon Math, and we ordered the books that they placed into. We also ordered Life of Fred, and we ordered the stuffed toys that come with them. It’s too much money to keep changing our minds on curriculum, but math is too serious a subject to take lightly. I need to make sure that I am doing the best for them that I can. We also use This Is Not A Math Book by Usborne, but we didn’t have time this week. This is a book that makes math into art. My children are all little artists. They have an Uncle who is an artist, and they believe that because of him, they are artists as well. So the work isn’t easy, but it is different and fun. Another thing we haven’t had time yet at all this year for, but you may find super cool like I did, is Minecraft Math. Next time we do it, I will show photos so you can see some of the stuff they do.
Music. For some reason I am determined to have all of my children be able to read music and to play the piano. They can play whatever else they want as well, but the piano is mandatory. An incredible woman at one of our churches found us a piano at an auction for 10 dollars (which she paid herself and would not let us reimburse her for). I used to take the children to lessons at Freeway Music, but I obviously can’t do that anymore. So we use Hoffman Academy which is an online program. Anne enjoys the piano the most, but she doesn’t enjoy reading music. She just likes to learn from listening to others play. I have a friend who is a professional drummer, and he said he was the same way growing up. He strongly suggested that I leave her be, and let her learn how she wants to learn, so that is what I am doing. She is doing Hoffman Academy once a week these past few weeks, and then the rest of the week she gets to play the songs that she learned from her therapists or from listening to others play.
Reading. I read a ton to my kiddos, but as for them reading for themselves, that’s different. Anne can read very well, so I make her read, and she does it, but she does not enjoy it. Isabella gets very frustrated with her reading, but she is doing such a great job. Last week we found Amelia Bedelia. How did I not know of her before last week?!? She loves her! Isabella is a very literal person, so she relates to Amelia and she thinks she is hysterical. She is almost through the whole book with very little help from the adults sitting with her. Vincenzo is only 3, so I just read to him. He enjoys books very much, but not just any books, only the books of his choosing. Usually after I read to them, I have them complete a reading comprehension sheet. But these past few weeks they have accomplished so much, I decided to give them a break from that. We are currently reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We are reading the books how the author suggested to read them if you are a mother reading to your children. We started with The Magician’s Nephew. When we are complete with the series, we plan to have a Narnia party!
For science we have so much going on. We have science through CC, which we review at 
home throughout the week. We have science dictionaries that we use. And we also read an Usborne science book that tells science as a story. We have so many activities to do for science, we just have to find the time. And my children adore learning about animals. Before getting sick we used to go to the zoo as a field trip almost every week. Now we are learning about animals at home, it’s not as much fun, but we will work on getting more creative. Also, we got into outer space last year because the children really wanted to. Even our 3-year-old wanted to. Come to find out, CC is covering outer space this year, so we get to do it again, which has been exciting for us. So, once again through Usborne, I bought the girls Astronaut Academy books, and this week they were supposed to make space shuttles. Myself and Anne’s therapist ended up doing most of the work, but it was educational and good therapy for the children;)
We have other subjects that we work on, but the ones I mentioned here, are really the areas we touched this week. The children also do 15-minute exercise routines, very much like basic training for children. Since they can’t get out of the house, this helps get their energy out and get their brains working again. We listen to music and the children dance. We used to have dance parties, but now just the children dance, and Vincenzo more flips around. We have play equipment in our backyard to get everyone outside in the fresh air throughout the day, and sometimes we do some school work on our back patio.
As for my health, I have a blog post coming about that tomorrow. But because we had to slow down our schooling Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a school day on Saturday to make up for the lost time.
Also, our daughter with Autism is terrified of Halloween. Every year she gets a little better at it. This year she is determined to have a perfectly scary Halloween. How can I say no to that? So we have decided to make a scary wreath for our front door. Usually I make our wreaths, but this time not only are the children helping, we even let them do the shopping for the wreath. We then invited Anne’s Godmother and God sister (they love having a big family!) over to make this spooky wreath with us. Well someone (me) lost the eyes that I had ordered from Amazon. So, no wreath. But, oddly enough, I had enough things in the house for the children to make their own miniature spooky wreaths to hold them over until our new eyes come in the mail. I hope they don’t scare you too much;)
Overall, I’m really thrilled about this week. I think because it had such a tough start, I had doctor appointments throughout the week, my husband had some troubles to deal with, so my expectations were pretty low. Though the week started off slow, it ended with all fun and smiles. Looking forward to another week of educational fun.
Also, I just want to say a quick thank you to my friend, and to my community for taking such good care of me. Rob had a doctor appointment this week, which he had to go to, and then he got called into a meeting at work. I was not able to be alone with the children yet, and my military respite care is still lingering in no man’s land. So a friend came over to stay with me while he had to be away, and I know that others were willing to come over if she couldn’t. I really feel loved and taken care of through all of this, and through it all, I have made a new friend and gotten closer to some older friends. So, thank you.
https://www.facebook.com/onecakecloseradoption
One Cake Closer 