I'm not sure where to start so I think I will start with today and work backwards. Today we returned to homeschooling and had a wonderful day! We covered a lot about ancient man & the stone age. We also worked more on map keys & familiarity with the world map. We reviewed rounding and place values. We also read the first 3 chapters of Alexander Dumas's The Three Musketeers and watched the Disney movie from 1993 for comparison.
The last few days we've been visiting with Grandpa Sweeney and Grandma Danna who came for a visit from Oklahoma. Yesterday we went on a driving tour of the area and talked quite a bit about the area's history. This was great for me since I've joined a historical organization that is setting up a museum that will address the Celtic heritage of this area. (Matter of fact, I have a meeting with them tonight)
Last Thursday we had parent/teacher conferences for Joe and Jessica. Jesssica's went really well. We discussed our concerns about Jessica's apparent "back-slide" in academic abilities and some of her more unique character aspects (such as her manipulation skills - lol). The teacher was unaware that Jessica's writing had worsened or that Jessica has a tendency to try and get out of work by pretending she doesn't understand something. Overall, though, the instructor is happy with Jessica's behavior and seems to genuinely like Jess. Unfortunately, they don't give grades in the cognitively impaired program - so I can't share how she's doing in that regard.
Joey is both doing great & horrible. For the first time, all of his teachers like him and there seems to be no behavioral issues. Joe made all A's and B's except in Math - which he failed. Unfortunately, the math grade is directly linked to the fact that he missed almost a month of school due to his accident. Right now Joe has been moved to a curriculum support class in-leu of his electives until his grades come up. Hopefully, he'll be able to pull his grade up over the next 9 weeks so he doesn't fail for the semester.
Other notes on things that have gone on - We tore up the old carpet and completely redid our livingroom last week. I really like it. Hopefully, I will get some nice pictures of it soon. The entire family pitched in on the project :). We've also have been playing a lot of games together like Yahtzee, Outburst, Cranium, Monopoly, etc. Even our "too cool to hang-out with my parents" teenager has been participating in some of the games. Best of all - TJ's getting a lot of math and practical skills practice with these games! TJ's drama class has been cancelled until sometime in January due to the H1N1 virus and the upcoming holidays. However, he continues to participate in swimming on Thursdays at the local university pool. I'll leave off with some pictures of him swimming (yeah... I know - they're blurry - lol)

Well, the flu has went through Joe, TJ and Trevor (although the last two are still feeling kinda crumby) and now Jessica has it. We're muddling through but now they've shut down Hancock Schools for the remainder of the week due to illness. :(

I've been slow in posting new things but we've been busy. TJ's started going to swimming on Thursdays and spent a lot of time last week with his cousin Caden. Joey had a doctor's appt on the 15th and is now working on learning how to walk without his crutches. Here are some pictures of his x-rays:


Today TJ and I went on our yearly color tour up to Brockway. Here are some pics (PS - Yes I know there's something wrong with the date on my camera - I did take these today):

Okay... I give up. My life is never meant to have a schedule! Yesterday, Joe got sick to his stomach at Physical Therapy and wound up coming home instead of going to school. Which, of course, meant not getting to much homeschooling with TJ, since TJ was more than a little distracted! Today, we got back on track and tried to make up as much work as we can but tomorrow there is an in-service at the public schools so, both Joe and Jess will be home tomorrow too. I'm going to try and get some schooling in with TJ anyways - we'll see.
 
Next week I need to get to the Intermediate School District and the Social Security Office to try and get Jessica set up on disability. Our finances are taking a beating and we really could use the help - plus, as I've said, it would be the best thing in the long run for Jess. I'll have to try and get this done around Joe's P/T and driving various kids back and forth the school... and of course, homeschooling TJ!

On top of everything else, I have some good news but it means yet more chaos. My Dad rented out his house in Oklahoma and has some of my Mom's things that he wants to bring up to me. He's planning, therefore, on coming for a visit - "sometime" in the next 2 weeks! Just like me... my Dad's always been a pour planner! He has no idea when he'll be leaving for here, how long he'll be staying or anything. However, I really don't care because it would just be great to see him - even if it does mean yet more interruptions and confusion!

Well today has went completely wrong! We woke up too late to get both public school children to school on time, so I drove Joe in and kept Jessica home. Which was fine as she's been kinda sick with the same cold/flu we've all had (and of course it lingers with her). However, the temperatures up here are dropping fast so it was important that I get to the cabins and clean out the refrigerators before Trevor and I shut off the water and winterize everything. With that in mind, I loaded up homeschooling supplies, including workbooks for Jessica, and headed out to the cabins figuring we'd get homeschooling done too. All the way to the cabins it rained and the temperature dropped more. When we got there the cabins were cold and damp and Jessica started coughing so hard she turned blue! Scaring me half-to-death. So I put both kids back in the warm van and ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get what absolutely had to be done, done today. Then we made the 40 minute drive back home. By the time we got home, Jessica and I were both running fevers yet again. TJ's doing fine and happy as a clam that the only homeschooling we got done was some reading in the van on the way to the cabins. I haven't told him yet that I plan on having Dad watch Jessica at some point this weekend so TJ and I can make up for today! lol

Joe's back in school and seems to be doing alright. He comes home completely worn out from getting around on his crutches but doesn't appear to have any pain. He was a bit taken a-back when he got to his math class and found they switched from doing multiplication problems with the standard (x) to the dot method common for algebra! Otherwise he seems to be catching up pretty good. He celebrated his birthday on Saturday with a spaghetti dinner and sleep-over. 6 boys all between 13 and 15! It was "joyous chaos" lol.

Jessica is still doing well. I don't think the class she's in is challenging her very much, though. It's like they went from expecting too much out of her to going "oh there's something wrong with her brain so we won't expect her to learn anything". I'm trying to do more with her at home to make up for it. Unfortunately, it's looking like we're going to have to put her into the after-school program so that we can handle the scheduling issues with Joey and TJ. Unfortunately, our efforts with last-minute changes in whether she rides the bus has caused her to be lost once and to have people getting upset with us. I really need to get to press the ISD to hold her IEP soon, if for no other reason than to allow me to meet some of the people working with her and to learn how to navigate the various chains. Right now, her rides to school are being handled by Chassell School District, her lunch program is being handled by Hancock, her education and rides home are through the ISD (if I understand correctly) and the after-school program will be through BHK! Confusing!

TJ and I are finally gettting back on track. I've had to do some interesting school accounting to account for the time we're spending getting TJ caught up from all the time off due to Joe's accident. The program I'm using this year is excellent but it only documents scheduled class times. I have most of TJ's classes set up for 20 to 30 minutes in length. In order to catch up, we've cut out some of the extra courses (art, skill sets, etc) and are concentrating on the reading, writing, math, geography & science. Even though we're spending 2 to 4 times as much time on these subjects, the program still logs him as only doing the 30 min. So it looks like he's doing 2 to 2.5 hours of schooling a day! So we're logging the extra time as "field trips" to get the attendence record straight. Either way, TJ's doing great and has even managed to chatter happily about what he's learning with his father and siblings - something that's made me very proud. :)

As for me, I'm finally feeling better and am getting some of the stress in my life under control. I've started working out at a gym in Houghton and am even attempting to lose some weight. I'm now scheduling time out of every day to just take care of myself and to relax. Despite that, my house is getting little cleaner and I'm accomplishing more in each day than I did before. In general, I'm feeling a little better about myself. I guess distancing myself from unneeded stress/drama and learning to focus on my family has improved my general outlook. Also, near tragedies have a way of putting other things into perspective. 

Here's a picture I swiped from the news piece about Joe for those that haven't seen it:

Joey returned to school today. So has TJ.  However, today was a hodge-podge of catch-up work. This weekend they'll likely both have homework too. Now, I've got to get back on schedule with everything else!

For those that do not know - my oldest son, Joey, was hit by a vehicle when crossing the road on Monday. He is going to make a full recovery but he is still in the hospital due to a closed compound fracture of the right femur that had to be surgically repaired. He'll need some intense physical therapy in the next week or so. Anyhow, all of this has put a serious crimp in the homeschooling which was doing REALLY well. Hopefully we'll get caught back up soon. I will post when we get back on track.

Thanks!

TJ and I spent several hours doing school work at a park in Houghton. We also played frisbie and TJ played on the park equipment some. To spite this, we still got in Math, Spelling, Geography & Reading today. We had to move a few things off until tomorrow.

Jessica seems to have had another good day at school. I think this new class is wonderful for her. Joey also is loving school for the first time. His favorite teacher (so far) is even a male teacher! For those that do not know - Joey has always had issue with male instructors.

I guess my worries for naught because so far this year is shaping up to be a wonderful school year!

This is the second day at school for Jessica, the 1st full day for Joey and the first day for TJ. Things are going real well all around. Everyone seems happy with their schools. TJ and I got through a rather involved first day (only a couple things left to do). Here's some pictures of him making a pinwheel in art.






I'll post more stuff tomorrow. To see details of what we did or TJ's grades - contact me and I'll get you access to the other site (if I haven't already done so).