Week 9 - Balancing Fun and School

Our schedule cleared unexpectedly today and we were able to have a little bit of a breather this week. I intended for Amber to spend the day working hard on lessons, but she is still in a downward spiral so I gave her most of the day off.  It's been rough lately. Amber even used the wheelchair this week and last week when she needed to walk distances because her heart rate won't stay down when standing. Her joints are beginning their winter level of pain and she's now scheduled start later this year with the pain management clinic at Children's that specializes in EDS.

A new game: LEGO Worlds. LEGO Minifigures Online officially ended today, but LEGO Worlds is in early release on Steam. Amber is using her free time today to play her new game and chat with a friend because there is no in-game chat, yet.

Amber has begun making her own choices about activities and field trips because she realistically can't attend everything her friends do. She appears to be preferring church youth group activities to the homeschool group when there is a direct conflict or when she knows her energy will be limited. It could be the youth group just had a run of good luck in the choice of activities, or it could be the timing of our church youth group activities fits her schedule better. I do know the youth group isn't as cliquish as the homeschool group's teens, but Amber has quite a few friends in the homeschool group that she enjoys being with. Having said that, we just signed up this morning for a homeschool group field trip.

School this week centered around co-op speech and health class homework, along with learning time management skills (do you see where this is heading). The co-op homework should have been finished over the weekend and not left to take up the precious available time this week. The teacher was rather disappointed too, since I'm the teacher for those two classes and knew she was slow to do her work, but it was all on time in the end. Still she made poor choices over the weekend and left us with very limited time for other lessons this week given all of the medical appointments. It was a learning experience for her and an exercise in patience for me.

The church high school youth group joined the escape room craze. They made it out with 6 minutes to spare too!

Amber did read the background for and begin her new literature book, Around the World in 80 Days. We will go through the book as set out in Teaching the Classics. Although we aren't going to be working on any projects, if you're looking for fun projects for this book check out Claire's posts on their time spent reading the classic. The only project-like assignment Amber will will be have is tracking Fogg's progress on a map as a bit of geography in literature.  I did have a momentary panic on this one when I couldn't remember where the book was located. Silly me. Amber is using my very old copy of the book and it was right where it should be, behind the glass doors of the "special books" bookcase. Hopefully, she heeds my warning to "not hurt my book".

We had time for a few other subjects here and there, but it very much was a crazy busy week with a sickly student. Additionally, Amber has been studying hard for her confirmation questioning, which is in just over a week in front of whomever wishes to come to church during the Sunday school hour. There are no Sunday school classes that week either because of the public questioning. Gulp. Thankfully, this is the last step before her confirmation on Reformation Sunday.

The silly cat managed to get herself all tucked in like this. The girl was being equally as silly while waiting for lunch after the orthodontist (she outgrew her retainers... I didn't know that was a possibility)

Amber is also working this weekend on memorizing her audition part for the co-op drama class auditions next week. Originally, she wanted to just be back stage, but various friends appear to have convinced her to try out for a part again. Amber truly loves being in the small plays (she is not fond of musicals though), but she worries she will get too sick to perform. Last year our co-op did not have a play, but instead offered an improv drama class. Amber had a small part since she was a late addition to the Hobbit play several years ago, but she ended up being Susan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Both times she did great and we managed her condition. However, I have left the decision up to Amber if she works backstage or tries out for a speaking part.

Our weather is changing into Autumn finally, which means if Amber's body cooperates we can get out a little bit more and work on some outdoors botany labs. We also have a rather lengthy list of Autumn activities we've been waiting to enjoy. Our scheduled appointments are much fewer next week, so we may begin to work on that list.

Happy Weekend!

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