I would love to post all about our wonderful week, but this one was rough. It had nothing to do with HOD - HOD was wonderful in that we were able to get school finished every day in spite of the challenges that life threw at us. I have a very elderly cat whom I have had for 12 years (he is 14) and he had to be rushed to the ER vet last Sunday. I also have two kittens and one of them ended up having a parasite which was causing him to be sick. Unfortunately, before that parasite was contained, my older cat got it and now we are really fighting to save him.
I have made trips to the vet 5 times since last Sunday. My older cat has gotten 2 subQ fluid treatments and even had to stay at the vet for a few hours on Friday.
Needless to say, we have been creative and had night school a few times this week.
A few highlights this week are that ds7 is really loving
Key to the Treasure as his storytime book for Beyond. He is reading
My Father's Dragon as his first DITHR book and he is about to finish the genre and begin his final project. History was wonderful this week as we are finishing
Stories of the Pilgrims and I loved the Day 5 story about Jesus walking on the water. Ds really got into talking about that with me.
The part of Beyond that has most amazed me is the math plans using Singapore. My ds went from a child that absolutely HATED math to a child who loves math and actually asks to do it first. He is learning so much this year and is really doing well. I couldn't be more pleased!
Ds11 memoriezed the poem
Dust of Snow and he said it was for 3 reasons, "1. It was snowing outside. 2. I like birds and 3. It was the shortest one." *sigh* on #3.
but the other two reasons were pretty good. He is working on decimals in Singapore math and he is really loving it. I actually told a friend about Singapore math and she has now begun using it for her dd (hopefully one day I can convert her all the way over to HOD too!
) For history this week, he very diligently worked on map each day. For DITHR, he worked on the project in the level 6/7/8 book for the humor genre. He had just finished
The Pushcart War and loved it. For his project, he chose to do the Bible Verse option. He asked others about their favorite bible verses and then he wrote them down on notecards and placed them in his prayer box that he made a few lessons ago. He had the BEST time asking people their favorite verses and then using his Bible to look them up. It was like a treasure hunt for him. I believe that he learned a lot from this. He has one last thing to do: the letter in the book was just so precious and he has a special man in our church that he wants to give it to. The letter talks about how ds sees this man as always joyful even though he knows that man has problems in his life too. His name is Mr. Mike and he is one of the most amazing men I know. He is in his 50's and likely will not live to see his 60's. He has MS in a form that will not get better - only worse and worse and worse. He has lost the use of his legs and can not get around at all without help. However, this man always has a smile on his face. He always has a kind word to say to others. He leads the children's ministry in our county, organizes the Christian summer camp, and is just an overall outstanding, God honoring man. We love him dearly and when ds11 and I think of something who shows JOY in the face of trials, we both think instantly of Mr. Mike. I feel God leading me to have ds11 take this letter to Mr. Mike tomorrow. God has a purpose and I pray that it is to lift Mr. Mike's spirits. He is such a precious man!
God be with you all as you plan for the coming week. Hopefully life will slow down here and my older cat will recover from his illness and no one else will get sick. Maybe I will even be able to get some pictures of school for next week!
Thus this week, with no art, went smoothly and fun. He loved making shadows on the wall (day 5) and is enjoying reading the beyond story time and emerging readers. He also liked Alexander the great and was excited with how his name sake told of Jesus coming. (He has heard this many times, but...)