Our First Sick Day

Have you ever experienced a situation where you just said something and boom, the opposite happens? Last Wednesday, as I left for church, I commented to my husband that Pax had been relatively well all summer. Even with allergies and such, he seemed to be staying healthy. No sooner did we come home from children's church when I heard the dreaded sneezing and stuffy nose.

How did this happen when he was perfectly fine all day on Wednesday? Instead of getting upset or wondering where his latest illness came from, I acted fast. I use essential oils and other all natural products to assist in illness before I move forward with a doctor visit. In the past 1.5yrs, Pax has only been to the doctor for a sick visit once. (His first year of life he was at the doctor's office every 6-8wks. with ear infections)

I grabbed the humidifier, the oil diffuser, and my trusty oils and put Pax to bed. By Thursday morning, he was still not feeling well. I could tell because he slept in until 8:45am and this rarely happens. And so we decided to cash in our first homeschool sick day.

Our Thursday was spent blowing noses, watching movies, and sleeping. I didn't think once to push school assignments; I just wanted him to feel better.

By Friday, we were still in the same boat. He didn't want to eat anything and barely drank liquids. But he was happy. Thursday night he received a package of Minecraft Legos in the mail and he perked up instantly to play with them. Truthfully, they were a godsend to me because I was beginning to run out of things to do to keep him from getting antsy and start coughing.

Sunday he seemed to be doing better with the exception of the cough. I decided we should make up some of the school work he missed Thursday and Friday. He was completely fine with doing school on Sunday. I kind of think he missed his routine. (maybe just a little) lol.

Today is Monday and we are still in the same boat. His spirits are better and he is eating somewhat but we are still battling a nasty cold. Thankful for these days at home where he can rest and go at his own pace. Grateful that if we fall behind a bit, he can catch up all through out the day or night.

Getting Better and Better

I am excited to share that each week is getting better and better with school. Pax and I have fallen into a routine that works for us and for the most part, it hasn't been interrupted too much. Today we had a review day on some of the things we learned this week (because this week deemed challenging as far as how much new information was in our curriculum). Our review day didn't last as long as a normal day and Pax was rather upset our school time was over early; happy Mom moment right there!

Here are some of the things we learned about or experienced this week:

We learned a lot about plants this week and one of the science experiments we were supposed to do last week, we did on Monday. (I had to go grocery shopping for food coloring and celery) We learned that plants receive water from the root and the water travels to the leaves. The celery is an excellent way to demonstrate because the food coloring changes the colors of the leaves when they receive water.

We did an introductory lesson on rainforests and part of our art assignment was to draw plant and animal life we would see in the rainforest. We used YouTube to listen to the sounds of the rainforest while coloring with markers. Pax said this was one of his favorites of the week because I colored with him. LOL.

One of our favorite ways to read is on the floor or couch. We like to get comfortable and just take it in. Pax choose to lay on the floor while listening to his Bible story about Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. We also had our oil diffuser running (as you see in the picture above) because we were both feeling a little but congested from the change in weather.

Paxton has really worked hard on writing his numbers. He said writing numbers is much harder than writing letters. I think he is doing a fabulous job myself.

Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy most of the week but we still managed to have some fun at the park and in our yard. We brought out the sidewalk chalk to practice the new letters we were mastering and we spent time at the park burning off energy!

Weekly Accomplishment: number writing (specifically 1-7 and working on 8 and 9)
Working On: The sounds letters make (M,T,R,B,F,A)
New Skill: writing words and recognizing them (This week we learned mat, rat, at, and fat)

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Day, Interrupted

Last week was probably one of the best weeks we've had in homeschooling. Paxton really showed consistency and progress in his handwriting, both with letters and numbers. On more than one occasion, when we had finished our homeschool assignments for the day, he asked me if he could work on extra stuff. You aren't going to see any pictures of assignments this week though, because I think some of our favorite experiences were done outside of the "classroom".

We hit our first "I don't feel like it" day on Thursday. I welcomed it with opened arms because this meant we would be getting the first one out of the way and I would know how to better prepare for the next one. I noticed his attitude was off from the moment he woke up on Thursday morning. He acted grumpy, didn't want to eat breakfast, and kept slouching in his chair when we began activities. He finally fessed up and told me he just didn't feel like doing school at the moment. I had texted my best friend Misty and asked for a quick prayer to get me through the day because we were having a rough morning. She, in her infinite wisdom, suggested we take a much needed break and head outside.

Misty suggested something I should have thought of doing at the first sign of Pax's struggle. I just wanted to stick with our routine and move along. I love looking back at this moment and realizing just how flexible homeschool is supposed to be and to take advantage of our freedom to break the routine when needed.

Here is the result of our break:

I love this picture! He is laughing, the hose created a beautiful rainbow, and his/my stress diminished as soon as we stepped outside.

We did a lot of other fun things last week too! Check them out....

 On Tuesday (which is going to be a weekly thing) we visited the library with our cousin Jude. Pax had fun playing on the computer.

 Pax and Jude exploring the Lincoln logs

One of our science experiments consisted of adding soil and water in a mason jar, shaking it up for a few minutes, and waiting for 24hrs to see how it separates into humus, water, clay, and rock.

Do you see the layers?

We had a piano lesson with Grandma and are learning how to recognize quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes, as well as paino (soft) and forte (loud).

Looking forward to a great week ahead! We are working overtime on some of our assignments to enjoy a few extra play dates this week!