October--(mostly) minus the swine flu...

When the kids weren't miserable, this was our entire month, the whole thing. Not wildly impressive. It was not a month of great discoveries or amazing projects or super-clever realizations, but we survived and that was enough.

Langston and Legos


My sister sent up a keyboard that kept Sterling busy when he was bored with being sick but felt too crappy to really do anything about it (crappy germs + boredom = whiny child. The keyboard was awesome.).


By October 22, Sterling was better and it was Langston's birthday so we took off to the pumpkin patch for our first (and apparently last) day back out in public.
This was one of the shorter slides...

Adria posing by the porta-potties. Which were not actually called the "Sweet Shack". That was the snack shop on the other side of the potties. Appetizing.

After the pumpkin patch, we went home to a late birthday dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs and cake...

And Langston was exhausted. Completely worn out. I thought it was because he had such a full, wonderful birthday, but nooooo. The next day, he got hit with the flu.



We kept busy. Largely due to the aforementioned combination of crappy germs + boredom. I tried to head off the boredom before it started. Because a bored, whiny 10-year-old? Yeah.

We had pumpkins and paint,and pipe cleaners and glue and feathers.

The kids cleaned out the pumpkin and I carved my first jack-o-lantern. Yes, there were more intricate, impressive jack-o-lanterns pretty much everywhere, but ours was classic, dammitall, and the children were appropriately impressed.

And it was fun.

Everyone was officially healthy enough (per doctor's clearance; I was not trying to infect the rest of the world) to go Trick or Treating. Adria was a flapper (she made her costume; there was also a boa that didn't make it into this pic), Langston was Charlie Brown (I made his costume, all by myself), and Sterling was a Professional Dancer (not that kind).

Swine Flu, Round 3--the unschooling way

Because I really don't have much else to write about besides swine flu. Because that's all that's been happening here. My Facebook status updates have been miserably redundant.

But we still learned stuff, without even trying! like the incubation period for H1N1. And how long it can live on hard surfaces.

We learned that no two doctors will agree on any one thing (that's been super-fun).

We learned that benadryl is not good for pneumonia, even when an ER doc says it is.

We learned that prednisone can make a child very hyper, especially when used in combination with albuterol, which doesn't work well when said child needs to sleep. And breath.

We learned that there are a lot of ridiculous assertions on both ends of the swine flu discussion spectrum. I do not, for example, believe that anyone is trying to insert a microchip under our skin with the vaccination and that those of us without the microchip will be rounded up at government check points and placed in camps. I do believe that some of the panic is justified and don't appreciate people calling the virus "over-rated". When my oldest child, who rarely gets sick, who hasn't been sick in five years, ends up with pneumonia, then yes, it is panic-worthy. Or at least worry-worthy. On the other hand, I don't believe that the vaccine is the end-all, be-all, all-safe cure. It probably works on a large part of the population; it doesn't work on others. That's the nature of a vaccine. Can't do it here anyway, so my opinion doesn't really count. The point is that there is a balance somewhere between absolute government-induced panic and extreme paranoia. And the extreme paranoia really pisses me off because I've had three very sick children; it ends up being very, and in some ways dangerously, dismissive of the reality of this virus.

I'm sure there are other fun little things we've picked up on in the last month, but I do actually have some pics from October to post, because there were a few days when no one was sick...so I'm going to work on a post that has nothing to do with the flu.

Swine Flu, Round 2

I had this post floating around in my head and was just waiting to get the time to sit down and write it out...and it was about homeschooling, not the flu. And it came with pictures and everything.

And then Langston got sick. Yes, I spelled that right. Langston. The one who's only been sick once in ten years (because as of yesterday, it's now been ten years. Which was part of my original post.). He got up and complained about a sore throat. No big deal. We spent yesterday at the pumpkin patch (also part of that original post) and it's fall and lots of people of sore throats. A little while later, he asked for hot tea. Highly unusual request, but, hey. He's ten now. He's older, more mature, and taller. He told me that yesterday.

I fixed him tea. Before he drank it, I felt his forehead, just kind of a cursory touch, something a mom is supposed to do...and damned if it wasn't hot.

So I took his temp. And it shot up to 102. Shocked the hell out of me.

The child is sick.

I have wine.

I'm sorry!!!!

Really! The damned swine flu snuck in and took over our collective life for the last two weeks. I was happily ignoring it. We all were. And then Sterling's temp started rising. And kept going. And, suddenly, there we were. A damned statistic.

He ended up with H1N1, then bronchitis, then pneumonia. I don't have any cute pics because nothing about this was cute.

Parkday--basketball, broken kites, and...bullies? Really?

Not generally what we expect at our parkdays. Wasn't even sure if I should label it "bullying". But then what else do you call it when a couple larger kids tell the smaller ones that they can't play in a certain area and then threaten them with a pick ax? I'm pretty sure that's bullying.

Most of the homeschool families I know allow their kids a little more autonomy. They step back and let the kids work things out for themselves. Which, normally, is a pretty healthy approach. So when Langston asked Adria to help them with a couple older kids at the creek in the park, I encouraged her to go.

I didn't realize that the older kids had threatened to go after the younger ones with a pick ax they were using to accelerate the erosion on the banks of the creek.

I also didn't realize that the older kids' mom was watching, and was apparently A-OK with her larger kids physically threatening the smaller kids, but not so OK with Adria trying to help the younger kids work it out. She told Adria to butt out. To let the children work things out. Adria pointed out that she was a child herself. The mom told Adria that she was acting like an adult and her interference was therefore unwelcome. Adria said, "Thank you, Judge Judy." and came back to the playground to get me.

By the time I got down there, the mom was once again uninvolved and the kids were still having their, uh, discussion about terratorial rights. With an occasional fist or threatened pick ax attack thrown in. So, we moved the younger guys further downstream, to a slightly less desirable location where they proceded to get soaked and muddy and happy.

And I wonder if bullying is somehow defined differently outside of public school.

The lighter side of the day, after the other family left:

The teams strategize. Based on the pic, whose strategy won? Yeah. The girls.

The boys, however, kicked butt at the water fountain. Awesome teamwork.

<----trying to fly a kite

it didn't work---->

what they did with the remains of the kite ----->

In the end, it was a good day. With a strange little moment thrown in. I'm going to assume, for now, that the other mom and her kids were having a bad day. A really bad day. Like the gerbil died and the car needs $792 worth of work and the dog ate the roast sort of bad day, that leaves everyone grumpy and looking for someone else to blame. 'Cause, y'know--you see those signs in the first picture? The ones that say "Police Business"? That's because the park is located right next to the police station, and I think the police might have issues with how that pick ax was used. Just sayin'...

Autonomy is a great thing. So is parenting. They aren't mutually exclusive.

It's called "unschooling"...

Not "unparenting".

Adria's movie preview

Starring Sterling...

Welcome to A New Year...

Week 1: We started the school year like many others across the country, by preparing to listen to the President's speech...


Adria's tin foil hat didn't provide quite as much cerebral protection as the boys' hats, but it was cuter.


While waiting for the President, Sterling added a few last minute touches.

Then, the children ate. Adria prepared fish sticks, corn and jello. Langston enjoyed the jello. Adria, not so much. Even though it was her idea.

Sterling had a sunbutter sandwich on rice bread and cucumbers.

The kids fishing.

Tangled line.

Untangled line. Wet kid.

Week two: First at Breezy Point--big holes, bottle caps, and shark's teeth.

And today, back to the woods and the river:

The boys, heading off to explore a different section of the woods.

the heron

Sterling and a friend...

In between all this, they have actually done some things that most people would identify as work. Like math. On paper. And Sterling's learning to read. (those bottle caps? Yup. Part of our curriculum.)