This was half term holiday for everyone bar Lillie, who is at uni and therefore has no half term, and Thomas, who is working full time from home at the moment. Oh, and me. I have been putting in many, many happy hours planning school for next term. We are about to start learning about the First World War, which I am super excited about as we have never covered it before in our homeschool.
Over the weekends we always have family night on Saturday, and this week it was organised by Thomas. He chose the Mr Bean movie for us all watch. It was surprisingly good: very funny and cleverly written. Sunday’s we always have a family breakfast of home-made waffles, fresh fruit and Greek yogurt:
I took the weekend off because I knew I would be working hard for the remainder of the week.
I was chuffed with all I got done, finishing planning for the whole five weeks. We can not wait to begin World War 1 next week!
I have a few more resources coming through the post, but look at all those wonderful books!! When I plan I write out exactly what I will do each week and collect all the resources and photocopies in one place. This means I am completely prepared at the beginning of each day, and cuts down on frustrating disorganised days:
My youngest turned ten during the week! She is now in double digits…I can’t believe how quickly the years fly by. Her main present was the sewing machine that my late dad bought for me when we lived in Northern Ireland. Bless her heart, she burst into tears! She’s such a sensitive soul and was completely overwhelmed that I gave her something so precious:
We bought her an owl bag to keep it in which matches her needlework box and ironing mat! I am so looking forward to helping her use the machine next week. We’ve not done any sewing since her other machine died a death and could not be brought back to life.
In honour of her birthday, we had a Titanic murder mystery party. I wrote about it here:
Charlotte had another appointment with the neurologist. I now agree with her that she is being shunted from pillar to post without any tangible treatment options. Her EEG showed myoclonic jerks which the neurologist spent an entire thirty minutes telling us they weren’t epileptic fits (which we already knew) and then right at the end referred her to an epilepsy clinic at St George’s hospital! Sigh. It is so frustrating. I asked what treatment options there would be and he replied that it was a psychological problem which she would need to sort out herself. But, a couple of weeks ago she saw a psychiatrist who spent an hour and a half with her and said that she was perfectly mentally healthy and that her poor health did not stem from any psychiatric conditions. However, he thought it was possible she had a sleep disorder which was causing the hallucinations as they only occur at night. This week the neurologist told her that she definitely didn’t have a sleep disorder! We are seeing so many doctors and specialists and we get all sorts of answers but none of them are cohesive. It is very frustrating, and incredibly upsetting for Charlotte. I think we probably need to just try and figure it out ourselves. Going to the doctor’s appointments are becoming too stressful for Charlotte, and causing more problems than it is solving.
With this in mind, I will be making some changes to our lifestyle which hopefully over time will have a cumulative affect and help Charlotte, even just a small amount. One such change is to go for a walk each day together as a family. Every day. Without fail. Charlotte has low vitamin D levels even though she takes vitamin D pills AND a high quality multivitamin each day. So sunshine and fresh air it is:
Thomas has introduced the girls to MineCraft which they play together on different screens. They are LOVING spending time with him, and it’s great watching him seeking them out to play 😍
Tomorrow, Lillie will be writing my Seasons of Joy post about her time at uni so far and her project on fairies.