Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Week 5

I was surprised to see how much we got through this week. That quote from the popular kids movie, "Just keep swimming," came to mind a few times. Since I've had a bad cold this week, it has felt like one of those weeks where I could stay on top of the house, or stay on top of homeschooling, or stay on top of life (appointments, paperwork, starting one of our out-of-the-home classes, and phoning and phoning again people to try to get them to do what they said they'd do but then didn't). Since it would not do to only accomplish one of those parts of my life, I did the best I could with all of them. The results were better than I expected. The house needs a good cleaning, but it isn't scary, just too many incomplete tasks (like I still haven't unpacked from the church retreat that was last weekend). We managed to get through the whole week without buying anything on the road ~ not even a sweet tea! That is a savings. I finally got the receipts for the matinee performances we will be seeing this year. After two attempts to get the folks to email the receipts to me like they said they would do and as was their policy, I finally just went and stood at the box office until they printed them out and handed them to me. I even managed to get all of the scholarship paperwork filled out and dropped off to try to get Dean a scholarship for dance class this year! I also got three forms of medical paperwork filled out and mailed to the proper doctors and insurance providers. Remarkably, all that happened plus homeschooling, too!

What we did schoolwise  this week ~

• We listened to D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths  ~ literature
• Teaching Textbooks every day ~ Anne finished grade 5 today! Dean will finish grade 6 tomorrow. ~ math
• Anne finished reading Designs by Isabelle, an American Girl doll book, and Dean finished Gregor and the Prophecy of Bain. ~ language arts
• Two writing prompts ~ language arts
• Spelling every day ~ language arts
• Watched the first two hours of the DVD series, Our Planet Earth ~ science
• Code.org ~ the kids did several hours on this site ~ computer science
• CNN Student News every day ~ history
• Two hours of swimming ~ physical education
• Kayaking and paddle boarding for two hours ~ physical education
• Sewed a tic-tac-toe game for a young man in the hospital ~ art
• Did a picture study of Antaeus Kater, a Greek red figure bowl from 510 BC ~ art
• Made a pot out of clay ~ art

Anne and Dean loved boating so much! They can't wait to do it again.

Goldilocks Starts High School ... A Short Update ~
Goldilocks is still living out of the home in a mental health placement. She has had many struggles over the last few months. She moved placements in June and is now living in a setting that specializes in teenage girls. Since she ran away in March 2014, she has been attending public school, where she had a rough year. The public school that she attended was ridiculous. They watched her like a hawk, which was good, but then gave her straight A's, even though she insisted she didn't understand anything. She entered eighth grade public school as a strong third grader, but they insisted that she was fairing just as well as all the other students in the school! When I argued it with them, they scoffed at me, saying it was just that she was homeschooled and I didn't know how to teach her. Well, then the end of grade standardized tests were administered and she COMPLETELY failed them. Finally, she got honest grades that showed how lost she was -- just like she had been telling us and what we knew to be true. She will be in a new public school this year in a new district. I hope we see more honest assessments and that it leads to her getting some real help. I have talked the principal's ear off about giving her authentic grades. I don't want to see any more inflated grades!

I walked Goldilocks through her class schedule four times this week. She is very nervous about starting school. Please pray that she is safe and that the school will be more honest about her learning challenges.

Blessings, Dawn