Our first day, and plans for Kain

Oy. I make plans and God laughs, right?

We tried hard to have our first couple of days last week. But three of the five kids have been ill to various degrees. Kain started it with a low grade temp and a junky cough. He never got above 99 degrees though and it was short-lived. Then Tess had diarrhea with a low temp and mucho crankiness. I spent two days just sitting on the couch holding her, when I wasn't nursing Henry. Though I did occasionally do both at the same time! Now Jack is sick, and he's the worst...103 fever, lots of vomiting. Yesterday he couldn't even keep water down. Today he seems better, so far. We'll see. Any more vomiting or fever and I'll be missing mass tomorrow....

Ok, so, plans for Kain. Kain is slowly rejoining us from the day treatment facility. He was home Wednesday and Friday of last week, and he will do that again this week. They will increase his days at home each week after that until he is home five days a week and then he will be discharged. This is providing all goes well of course. So, since he was especially home with us on Wednesday and Friday to start school, I felt like I should get started as best I could. Our first day is mostly fun stuff anyway. I filled the dining room table back-to-school fun stuff for them to find at breakfast. We played with the new goodies and I met with each child for their first-day-of-school interviews, and we talked about their new year. It was also Jack's name day, so we had his favorite dessert, brownies, at tea time, and his favorite dinner, pizza. He got a book of Old Testament stories, a bag of Goldfish crackers, and a Hershey bar as well.

Friday was a doozy. That was when Jack started vomiting in earnest, and he just wanted me to lay down with him all day. So, we didn't do much. I gave Kain some math to do. Other than that, it was a survival day. The plus side is that with Maria's help with the littles, I did manage to convince Jack to lay on the futon with me in the school room while I wrapped up my planning work, so we are already to go next week,,,providing *I* don't get sick, haha!

Ok, this was supposed to be about plans for Kain. Again, these plans mostly come from the Mother of Divine Grace 4th grade syllabus, with some allowances for Kain-ness.

Religion- Kain will be narrating Bible history stories, Old Testament, as well as doing some oral reports on several Saints that lived during the time period we are studying for history. He will also be studying the Baltimore catechism.

Math- Kain is very behind in math, like to the point of having a learning disability in math. Progress is slow and hard-won. He was working in the Abeka second grade book before he went to TDT last November. I was hoping he would have made enough progress in their classroom to start the 3rd grade book this year, but he has not. The bright side of this is that a "real" teacher, a special ed. one at that, has not had any more luck teaching math to Kain than I have! So, we will pick up the second grade book where we left off, but I will work at a quicker pace until he starts to run into difficulty, and then we will slow down. Hopefully we will be in the 3rd grade book soon. Because of his delay, we will do math every non-weekend day possible, including vacations and catch-up weeks.

Grammar- We use Intermediate Language Lessons for 4th grade...it is a gentle book that introduces grammar through copywork and dictation, as well as incorporating some picture studies. He will also use Handwriting Without Tears for cursive practice.

Spelling- Kain does not struggle at all with reading or spelling, thankfully. He will make a spelling notebook a la Writing Road to Reading.

Poetry- selections in the syllabus from this book will be memorized. There is an American/patriotic theme this year which aligns itself with his history studies.

History- early American history with Pioneers and Patriots and Evangelization of the New World, as well as many biographies and historical fiction books. He will also be using a map skills workbook. We will also be using Jessica's suggestions and this series of books to make a 50 states scrapbook over the next two years.

Science- this is with Abeka's fourth grade science book, a gentle and colorful book that covers a variety of life-science topics. He will be doing a year long project making a birding notebook as well.

Latin- a gentle introduction starting a two year progression through Latin Christiana I.

Art- drawing lessons with me using this book, and picture studies with these cards.

Music- baroque music this year...I have a list for him to listen from. We will also use the last of this workbook series for some basic music theory.

That's it folks! I have some fun extras set aside to pad his workboxes, but that's the core stuff. The baby is fussy and Saturday chores await, so off I go. Hopefully I can get on later to post some pictures.