Today, Alex came in from outside, where he had been playing with his sister in the wooded area by our house.  He was alone.  I asked him where Megan was, and he became upset, thinking she had already come home.  He told me that the boy he had been playing with had seen Megan with "a man" that looked like her "dad".

When I established that she was not in the wooded area any longer, I did the thing we all fear most.  I called the police.  I had to give the very nice dispatch lady her description.  I hadn't panicked too much, until I had to do that.  That is when it got very scary.  I called Dan at work and put 911 after the number.  He barely hung up the phone to dash out the door in response to my choked explanation.  I started banging on neighbor's doors to elicit search help.  Time crawled to a painful itch on the back of my neck.  Poor Alex was also panicky.  He felt responsible.  Normally, Megan wears a cellphone on her pants loop.  Yesterday, she realized she had left it at her best friend's house.  They were supposed to have dropped it off last night, but they never did.  I let her go out without it because Alex was supposed to keep an eye on her.  I didn't realize until today how many different directions a lost child could disappear to in this neighborhood.  We have two churches at the end of our street, one close and one sort of far.  The far one has construction workers.  The close one has meetings off and on most of the day with people in cars going in and out.  The woods adjoins to the backyards of a newer, larger neighborhood.  Those aren't even the places that are "streets".

Just as our neighbors started running down the street, Alex called out.  He had found her.  (Praise God!)  She was at one of the houses getting a bandaid.  She had seen this woman out walking her dog, and asked her for a bandaid.  The woman had kindly taken her home, not thinking that we would be frantically looking for her since she then stayed in the house to play with the woman's granddaughter.  Of course, the woman felt awful.  We were all so relieved.  That is only the second time I have seen my husband that angry in 9 years.  Alex came home and had a meltdown.  I felt like throwing up.  The dispatch lady was very happy that she was okay.  The neighbors were all relieved and Megan went to each of them and apologized for not telling Alex or myself where she was going before she left.

After we were all home, it took hours for us to feel normal again.  I had a strange feeling that maybe I was still outside passed out in the street, and this was just a coma dream.  I thought maybe I had "snapped" and she was still missing but that my brain couldn't take it and had fabricated it all.  We went out to dinner to be around normal sounds and sights and to help us de-stress from the whole experience.

My heart goes out to those whose stories turned out differently.  Those whose descriptions hang on a wall in stores and on mail flyers.  God be with them and have mercy.

We spent a few hours this afternoon googling different things from Alex's Scholastic Book of World Records (2005).  We saw the richest man, the most poison mushroom, the biggest flower, the sleepiest animal, etc.  While doing this, we stumbled across a neat eagle cam that is live streaming video and audio.  Alex was enthralled.  He was able to teach me how to put it as a permanent open picture on my desktop.  How cool is that?  He is learning computer skills by leaps and bounds.

I got my date in the mail today for my last board review of the year.  I had Megan copy a sentence about Yellowstone Park and then find the three states on our atlas.  I had Alex go to a website and answer a few questions, as well as find the states.  For certain days in March, I am going to have them do a relevant "school" thing.  Today was the founding of Yellowstone, tomorrow is Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Megan and I are going to attempt to write a Dr. Seuss Book.

Yesterday, Megan and I played a word association game for an hour.  She loved it!  It was fun to see what words she thought of and what words she rhymed, etc.  Alex finished his last required reading book for Battle of the Books.  We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon and then the competition is next Tuesday.  I am hopeful the kids can at least compete and finish it out, but I am preparing myself for the worst.  There are three Aspie's on the team, one writing disabled kid, and another child who has some genetic thing that I have no knowledge about.  Five kids, all with their own needs and issues, hence my worry.

Today is the second day in a row that the kids have gone outside to play in the afternoon together.  It is nice to see them getting fresh air and (hopefully) getting along.

We just bought three new games and tried them out this morning.

1.  The Way Things Work.  Based on the successful book series, this board game teaches basic physics principles and scientific trivia by using three different levels of play geared toward all ages.  The third level, or PhD level, involves doing actual science experiments.  The level one game was fun for both kids...Alex is anticipating the higher levels now that we now the basic concept of the game.

2.  Pounce.  This is an ingenious game to develop hand-eye coordination, number recogition, and fast addition/subtraction skills.  There are plastic, brightly-colored mice with long string tails that are "pounced" upon by a big plastic cat head.  The goal is to pull on the tail of your mouse before the cat pounces if you see the number called out prior to the roll of the dice by the cat.  The kids were in a fit of giggles by the end of it.

3.  Tip-Over.  This is a solitaire puzzle game that involves using the cards given to set up the puzzle with different height pieces.  The goal is to tip over the pieces with your little red dude until you reach the red box at the end.  The kids both played this for a few hours.  It is great for developing critical thinking and strategy.  Alex did very well, and even Megan was able to get to card 5 of the beginner level.

All three games were a great way to spend our unschool morning.  After we played games, the kids and I sat down and read "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic", chapter 2.  It was about the tattletales.  They both enjoy this series immensely, which is fun for me since I remember reading it when I was younger.

Last night, we watched "White Fang" based on the Jack London book.  Both kids thought they would hate it, but were enthralled by the midpoint.  I will say there are several scenes during which I had Megan cover her eyes and ears...the illegal dog fight scenes in particular.  I could see nightmares stemming from that.  The end had all of us smiling and goosebumpy!