Thursday, April 28, 2011

Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 7



In my life this week…

How do I summarize our week?!?  It was a roller coaster ride.  The oldest has started to have something similar to manic episodes.  Well it feels like we all have to walk on egg shells because we are just not sure what things could trigger it.  It's been stressful on Joe and I and I know that it is trailing down to the rest of the kids also.  This though brings out all kinds of arguing and bickering since Lydia finds it funny to get Joey started screaming.  Watching her though has brought a whole other set of worries into my head.  I am trying not to over look at things, but ughhh it feels like we are drowning daily.  But each day we wake up for a new day and we still stick next to each other.  Even with mini-bickering with each other because of all frustration we know we can rely on each other because only the two of us know what it is really like on a daily basis.

In our homeschool this week…

We got a little behind in classes.  We were working on Time 4 Learning though (for a product review to be posted in about two weeks) for Math.  We did finish our study of Greenland and Iceland in Geography.  We didn't get our weather unit started because I didn't get all of our books in.  So we will be starting that on Monday.    To the State of Ohio's standards we have completed 880 hours of the 900 required for the school year.  Since we piece together our curriculum according to interest, well life goes on.  We'll keep chugging along at all of our projects until they are complete.  They just be listed on our next year.  Who says we have to finish all of our curriculum each school year.  The Flexibility of homeschooling!!!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This week, Lydia and Caty had a tea party at a friend's house.  The boys didn't have soccer due to the weather (lots and lots of rain and wind).  The girls also didn't have soccer because of this.  But we did do our volunteer time at the Humane Society and visited the post office here in our town.  We also had LEGO Club this week.

My favorite thing this week was…

Not sure what favorite time was.  It was nice to get some things done in the garage (that's code for emptying out lots and lots of garbage).  It was nice to see Caty riding her new Barbie bike.  I did enjoy watching Lydia's face light up when we did our volunteer work at the Humane Society.  The look on the boys face during the Globe Trekker video on Greenland where they were eating fried fat was pretty good too.

What’s working/not working for us…

So far I am noticing that morning work is working better for us than afternoon.  Also using the workboxes is definitely better than not using them. 

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…

Does anyone have any disciplinary techniques that work with kids with Aspergers?  Or is anyone familar with Bi-polar and have any calming techniques for manic episodes?  I ordered some more books to read and hope to find some new calming methods, but any suggestions that have worked we would appreciate hearing them!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…


The new cat we brought home from the Humnane Society...meet Princess.




8 comments:

  1. I have a bipolar daughter. She was the hardest child to deal with. Of course, that was long before we knew what was wrong. I really like the "love and logic" approach. Go check out their website at loveandlogic.com. I have most of their tapes and some of the CD's. We used to do foster care and it was recommended to us as something to help deal with a difficult team. I saw it worked, and use it now. Hope you find something that helps you!!

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  2. I second Love and Logic. And what does he find soothing? My boy like video game music and listens to it on his iPod. I wish I could help with discipline. My Aspergers boy combines it with major ADHD and I fear he will never learn. We just stick to natural consequences and Mom letting that happen. When he gets mouthy/rude attitude, the consequence is not being with people; he goes to his room. That kind of thing. It takes him MULTIPLE times of living a consequence that he think is lousy and often he still does it with no idea why. *sigh*

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  3. ((hugs)) We just adopted a lab. We have never had a dog!

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  4. Cute Kitty!! Love and Logic is always highly recommended. I like information from BiblicalParenting.org, very similar to Love and Logic.

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  5. I do not have a bi-polar child but what worked well with my own children was teaching them about the virtues. Find a list of character traits, definitions, and scripture references and apply them to characters in novels you read together. Help them see that there are virtuous ways to act and solve problems. I know the Duggar family has a list. I printed off a few from The Homeschool Lounge.

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  6. what a cute picture! I'm so sorry about your tough week - I have no words of wisdom but I can pray for you!

    Our family really enjoyed Time4Learning. Wish we could have kept it but it is just too expensive for us to continue right now.

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  7. I have to say alot of patient and Love and logic !

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