Week 27 ~ Eggs, Awards, End of Quarter

On My Mind ~ Goldilocks ~ This was the last week of our third quarter. This week is built in to be either a catch up week or a review week. This quarter it was a catch up week. I will talk about all we did below. I am also thinking and researching options for next year. I spoke in the blog entry before this one about changes coming for Goldilocks. She is struggling so much with her studies. In addition, she is becoming more and more disruptive to her siblings' studies and challenging me all day long. A part of me just wants to send her to school. I even called one of the local private schools that has a special education program and asked for a tour and about scholarships. I regretted that phone call almost immediately! I really don't think school is the answer. School for a child like Goldilocks opens up a whole new can of worms. RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder) children tend to triangulate the adults in their lives and create huge amounts of chaos. It is extremely important that the adults on her "team" understand her issues (really understand) and work together to create "a steel box with velvet lining". This means a very structured environment where there is little wiggle room for the child to feel unsafe and thus feel the need to create trouble. It also means an environment where the child is being nurtured even when they are causing trouble. Goldilocks rarely feels truly safe because trust and receiving/giving love is so hard for her. So for now, I am looking at private tutoring, a homeschool co-op, and placing her in respite care much more often. We will be spending the majority of our homeschool budget on Goldilocks next year. I have a lot on hand already for the other children and will make do where we are lacking. We must get Goldilocks back on the academic and behavioral road. In addition, Goldilock's doctors are filling our paperwork and trying to get her funding to receive more respite care with a specialist in attachment therapy. Goldilocks has worked with this wonderful respite care provider since she was about 4 years old, but in recent years there has been very little funding so she has had just a few hours a month of contact. This will hopefully be changing in the very near future. I am also looking for a new attachment therapist. She has not had therapy in several years.

Festival of Knowledge ~ The kids spent the better part of the week finishing their Festival of Knowledge projects. I love having them do a project like this every year. They learn and use so many skills.

Skills they used  this week ~

• typing
• research
• creating sentences
• layout of a topic on their boards
• sewing
• painting
• working with clay
• reading
• making an outline
• writing complete paragraphs
• public speaking
• being graceful while receiving public recognition and criticism

Unfortunately, there was a very small turn out at the Festival this year. I think it was the smallest turn out in the last 10 years. Consequently, all of the participants earned ribbons and certificates. Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Sawyer did a great job with their interviews.

Early Easter Fun With Friends ~ We invited another family over to decorate eggs and do a backyard Easter egg hunt. The kids dyed 3 dozen eggs. They came out with especially rich colors this year. We will be eating loads of deviled eggs this week. They also hunted for 100 coin and pom-pom filled eggs in the back yard. What a fun event!

In the World of Workbooks ~ While kids were waiting for me to get to them and their projects, they did workbook pages. We finished several workbooks this week.

• Goldilocks finished a 2nd grade drill math workbook and an Explode the Code workbook.
• Little Red Riding Hood finished an Explode the Code workbook and moved to the next one. She also finished a 300+ Dot to Dot workbook and a Crossword Puzzle workbook.
• Tom Sawyer finished a following directions workbook and a multiplication drill math book.

Testing ~
Goldilocks finished the lowest level of the 5th grade Hewitt Pass Test. She took the test with my mother. I look forward to seeing her test results. Little Red Riding Hood got her test results back in the mail this week. She did very well with an NPR (National Percentile Rank) of 98% in Reading, 59% in Language and 93% in Math. We are so proud of her. Tom Sawyer did really well on the test as well.  His NPR was 78% Reading, 66% Language and 45% Math. I am surprised that he came in a bit low in math. However, he did really well overall.

All the Rest ~ We are enjoying a calm weekend. Goldilocks is spending the entire weekend with her attachment respite care provider. This is such a huge blessing to our family. I was so tired of being "ON DUTY" every minute and keeping constant line of sight. About an hour after dropping her off yesterday, my body just relaxed and I almost fell asleep over dinner! I am just that emotionally tired right now. Her siblings are being very vocal about how they are loving the calm and quiet. They also appreciate this all important respite. I pray that we can get more rest for our family in the coming months and get Goldilocks back on the path to success.

Blessings, Dawn