Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 27

In my life this week....


Too much drama!!  Just alot of trying to keep up with cleaning and the kids.  Caty had an appointment with the Pediatric Urologist...finally.  We wait an hour to see a nurse practitioner.  WHAT!!!  And then of course, no answers...just more questions.  We will chart her toilet habits and need to take her in for an ultrasound of her bladder.  That ought to be fun to hold her down for about 10-20 minutes.  Hopefully though we will be able to get some answers for her recurrent bladder infections.


In our homeschool this week....


Lots of little projects and learning.  We actually had a successful week of getting alot done!!!  We are trying to get back into our history program.  We'll be doing history/geography every week.  Lessons from each one day a week.  So states one day and then another day will be Story of the World.  If we need an extra day for some reason, no big deal...we can add it in.


Lydia started a new reading program to go along with Reading Eggs.  She is doing awesome with that, so we bought the Harcourt Trophies Grade 1 series.  This is the first book we are working through, along with the workbook.  We will be using the all 4 books as long as she is enjoying it.

She is liking it alot, and can almost read the first story without help.  She is still only at about 15 site words memorized, but doing well...when she chooses to.


Brayden is working on a Cars 2 trivia lapbook that I created for him.  We are really needing to limit his video game time.  We started limiting him.   He is not wanting to leave the house again.  Full screams with kicking and screaming happen each time.  We tried to get him to go to his cousins house for an hour, and he about took Joe and I both out.  Good thing we have a specialist appointment tomorrow for him


Ever since we let Caty go back to preschool to go to Speech therapy, I have been having difficulty with Caty working with me like she was.  We finally have broken some ground and she is willing to play with me more and do some activities.  I was getting nervous since this is her last year of preschool in an school outside of our home.  She will be fully homeschooled next year.


Joey is working his way through the week.  He is having trouble with getting info down on paper.  If I verbally ask him the questions, he can give me the answer.  If he has to write the answer....forget it!!  I can tell he is having a medication issue.  Can barely sit still right now.  Ever since we had to pull him off the meds that were causing episodes, it seems as if his morning meds have not been working properly.  Looks like the specialist will be getting lots of questions and earning his money tomorrow...lol!


Places we're going and people we're seeing....


We stayed home most of the week!!!  Whooohooo!!!  Lydia did have an American Club luau today in honor of Kanani.  She had so much fun.  Caty had a specialist appointment yesterday and both boys have one tomorrow afternoon.  I just have to say, it was so nice not needing to run all over the area.


What's not working for us....


All the kids starting school at the same time.  I am seriously running between all 4 kids answering questions and to work one-on-one.  I am killing myself.  So I have decided to try and stagger the kids school times.  I'll pack the workboxes and mark the things that need to be done with me, because sometimes Joey wants to work on his assignments gradually.  If they can work independently, go for it.  My starting plan is to do an hour of school with Lydia and then each of the boys.  The afternoon will be reserved for group projects.  This will allow me to focus more on each kid....hopefully.  Like everything else in life, it will be an ongoing experiment to see what works best.


Questions I have....


I need some advice on a good way to get vitamins into our 9 year old.  He is having a horrible obsession with certain foods and then doesn't even eat that much.  He is losing weight.  I thought about Ensure and using it in making him some foods like homemade pancakes, ice cream and smoothies.  But those are full of all kinds of processed chemicals that are not healthy.  Any suggestions???  He is currently obsessed with eating frozen waffles and mini-pancakes.  For dinner he finally ate half a cheeseburger that I had made.  Just about fell over when I saw him actually eat.  But he was very precise in how much he ate.  His only protein is coming from the milk that he drinks.


Things I'm working on...


Just trying to keep up right now.  I am optimistic that I will be able to clean (or de-clutter) some this weekend.  But not sure with a busy weekend planned.  So we will wait and see.  I may change the background on or blog this weekend.


I'm cooking....


I have been trying gluten-free brownies this week.  Not going well so far.  It's a work in progress.  We got to chocolate pudding today.  Maybe tomorrow.  I was so tired when I came home from the luau that I just didn't have the energy to attempt another batch.


Photo to share.....


Monday morning I opened my email to find that I won a wreath from Wreaths of Maine.  I was sooo excited.  It arrived today.  FAST Shipping!!!!  This product is beautiful and smells wonderful! Thank you Amanda Bennett unit studies for sponsoring this giveaway!!!

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