Friday Wrap Up ~ The Week of Doctors

Tom Sawyer ~ Doctor appointments have once again taken over my world. We saw the orthopedist early in the week. He felt that Tom Sawyer needed an MRI to determine the extent of his injury. The MRI revealed that he had dislocated his patellar and now has patellar instability which is a fancy way of saying... he really messed up his knee. After the MRI, we returned to the doctor to see what was next and were told that Tom Sawyer will need physical therapy twice a week for a few months. He also got fitted for a J-Brace which is being made for him to wear for some period of time. He will be allowed to dance in Alice and Wonderland (provided the choreographer adapts the dance to his needs). He cannot jump, skip, hop, lift another person, run or be thrown (in dance) for a very long time. Consequently, Tom Sawyer is out of the Special Olympics competition for sure. He is disappointed and feeling blue. I would even say he is dazed by the whole situation. He has spent much of the week asleep.

My Irises are blooming in the front yard.

Homeschooling Decision ~ All of these trials mean that school has been scaled back. Ever since Goldilocks left, we have been completing only three good days of school each week. This crisis has meant so many hours of my being on the phone or in meetings instead of having time to educate my kiddos. This means that we are almost done with week 34. We were supposed to be done next week, but our state requires 36 weeks, so we have at least two weeks more to go. Next year, I will go to a 40 week school year because of our kids' special needs. The need to do a bit of remedial or reteaching is even more obvious now that Goldilocks is out of the home. I thought the kids were struggling because of their own learning challenges. I now see that a big part of their struggle with learning was due to their being stressed out by the never ending chaos their sister was providing. They seem to be retaining their learning more easily now (not that they don't still have learning challenges). I now realize that if I reteach a few things they may get them quickly this time around.

Homemade donuts make everything better.

We will continue school until mid-June. I am sure we will complete 37 to 38 weeks by then. We will then take a four to six week break and resume school by the end of July. I plan to go back to a "5 week on, 1 week off" schedule next year. That was our favorite schedule for years. It works well for a family with tons of appointments. I can usually tell a doctor that we are available every six weeks and fit many appointments into our breaks. It also allows me to catch up on housework, projects and lesson plans every five weeks.

Star Wars Day ~ Sunday was supposed to be a run away from home day. However, that was impossible with Tom Sawyer's injury. We made the best of it by celebrating Star Wars Day. We watched Star Wars The New Hope and read some great Star Wars books. The kids made an origami Yoda and a friend dropped off a small Star Wars Lego set for Tom Sawyer.

Education Day at the Baseball Field ~ We went to the Education day at our local baseball field. It was fun and HOT! We only stayed through the 5th inning because Tom Sawyer's leg was hurting so much. But it is one of our end of school year traditions and we were glad to be out and about for awhile.

Little Red Riding Hood made a baseball bracelet for the occasion.

I am joining ~

Blessings, Dawn