Collage Friday - Chicken Pox!
Friday, September 7, 2012 at 5:00AM 
Sometimes things do NOT go as planned.
This week definitely did not turn out the way I thought it would. It all started Sunday evening with my son having a fever of 104. He was miserable and I was worried.
By Tuesday morning I took him to the doctor and the diagnosis was tonsilitis. He was put on antibiotics and I thought all would be well. That, however, was not the end.
When we got home from the doctor (yes, when we got HOME, not while we were there) I noticed a couple of strange bumps on his face. By the next morning his face was broken out in Chicken Pox. {sigh}
Looking at the first collage, I see a silly boy after the doctor's visit... his sister had put the sticker on his forehead and then taken his picture to make him laugh. I can see the first chicken pox spot on his nose...
A very small percentage of children who are vaccinated (as Grant was last week) actually develop Chicken Pox, just a much more mild case. Thankfully Grant's case is mild and he spent most of the week tired and crabby. (It could have been much worse.)
This meant missing two baseball practices and, more importantly, his first day of co-op. I am teaching a LEGO class this semester. Grant has been my chief planner and tester. He had to miss the first day, but my sweet 11 year old teaching assistant made sure to send him home a present (a LEGO set!) to cheer him up!
I'm thankful he is starting to feel better, and I am also thankful my dear husband could work from home on co-op day to take care of Grant so I could take Anna and also teach the class.
We have over 200 children in our co-op this year!! Grant is taking an art class and my LEGO class. Anna is taking Georgia History and assisting with a 2 year old class. It's going to be a great 10 weeks!
Since we spent a lot of the week at home because of sickness, we played a lot of games. The games that always seem to get pulled out are:
- Pick and Draw - This card game teaches you how to draw cartoon faces step by step. It is SO MUCH FUN! I played several rounds with the kids this week, and then I would notice them playing it by themselves whenever they had extra time. We named our characters this time around - the one in the top left of the collage is "Jean Claude Spaghetti".
- UNO - an oldie but goodie
- Say Anything - such fun! I reviewed this last year for The Old Schoolhouse and we've loved it ever since.
There was a lot of time spent putting the finishing touches on the LEGO class I'm teaching at co-op. The laminator was put to good use making a LEGO Bingo game. The kids had SO MUCH FUN with this game -- best thing is that it was a free printable! Hands down this wins our Favorite Resource This Week! I picked up some prizes from the Dollar Spot at Target and this will be the way we spend the last 15 minutes of each class.
All of the LEGO ideas I've found are on my LEGO pinboard if you want to follow! Did you happen to see all of the Lego Landmarks my son created at the end of last week?
A lot of time was also spent with hands on math - telling math stories with stuffed animals and learning with tangrams.
And, before I forget:
I created a free Gershwin unit study for you - did you download it yet?
Other goings-on this week:
- Lots of reading aloud. We are finishing the Martin Luther: The Great Reformer by Christian Liberty Press. This is top-notch! My husband started reading Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? aloud in the evenings, and we are also enjoying Bud, Not Buddy. We also finished In The Heart of The Rockies - an audio book by Henty.
- Anna has been speeding through the Lady Grace Mysteries, which are set in the Renaissance, so perfect for our current history studies.
- I'm preparing to launch into our science for the year - a study of Galileo and other scientists of this time period - I'm using Galileo for Kids to help plan our activities.
- Anna began reading and completing the activity sheets in Grammar Land - she told me this made reviewing grammar fun!
- Please stop by the blog on Monday as I'll have a wonderful giveaway for you (hint: it has something to do with history and books!)
I feel as though this Collage Friday's post is a bit disjointed, and that is probably because the week has been completely disjointed, too! Some weeks are just like that, and I'd like to think we're teaching our children how to live and learn in the most discombobulated of circumstances! Sometimes there are sick children, laundry piled everywhere, and cereal for dinner.
As I wrap up this post, could I ask you to please pray for a family in our co op? They have lost their father, just 41 years old, to his battle with cancer. A mother and two young children are left behind.
Each day we have is a precious gift from above - so it's really not about the academic accomplishments or the clean house, is it?
How was your week? Please grab a button or text link back to this post, sign the linky, and then visit someone else on the list. The goal is to document our homeschool weeks with collages of photos, and then to encourage and gain ideas from others who participate. I am so blessed by each and every one of you who link.
Reader Comments (28)
Glad to hear you had a good start to your co-op year, ours started on Thursday as well. We had cereal for dinner last night and no sick kids - just lots of driving around. Two of the boys started soccer so we will have a busy fall. Glad that your son is feeling better. I will remember the co-op family in my prayers. Have a great weekend!
Quick thoughts: our week was very disjointed too!!, chicken pox stinks but all my kids have had it at Christmas as I did as a child, I think we have the same laminator - by best resource!!, really sad about your fellow hs family losing their dad and will pray for peace and comfort
Oh sakes! Poor guy - what a trooper (and Mama too!) Yes, some weeks are definitely like that... laundry and cereal for supper. Yet you are still sharing great resources and encouraging fellow homeschoolers. I hope this weekend finds everyone better.
You have had a crazy week! Two of my kids have had chicken pox too.
You got so much done, fun and learning too, even with sickness! That is awesome!
Thanks for sharing so many links and resources this week. I hope you have a healthy weekend and a great upcoming week!
I sure hope Grant feels better soon. Oh what a sad thing that the family lost their dad to Cancer - will pray for them 8( Looks like some fun games over at your place! Enjoy the weekend!
Peace and love
Seems our year too has begun with unexpected turns. Relieved to hear your son's case is a mild one! Thanks for adding the game list - I'm always on the prowl for new games to fill our house! Blessings.
Here's hoping your little guy gets better soon and things are back to normal.
so sorry to hear about the chicken pox! thanks so much for sharing all the great ideas! I want that say anything game!!!
Praying for your friends, Mary!
Glad to hear Grant is on the mend! We have a bit of a hectic first week back, with my middle guy developing an unexplained fever just in time for the first day of school. *sigh* Thankful it was mild and seems to have worked itself out of his system already.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Chicken pox! Poor guy. My youngest has not been immunized and I would like him to get them, but they are miserable. Games are our favorite way to pass sick days too. We love Pick and Draw - I'll have to look in to "say anything". I have not heard of it. I am going to follow your lego board!
Sorry to hear about Grant getting chicken pox :( Homeschooling is awesome though since he didn't miss school ;-)
We all have colds and have been low-key/flexible with school this week. Thankfully my kids are not in school or they would have missed the first and second days!
Three of my four kiddos got the chicken pox from the vaccine. Hopefully it will be quick for you as it was for our kids. I think the worst case was about 30 pox. We had an unplanned week here as well. I love all the educational fun you managed to include in your week. What a HUGE co-op. What a blessing.
Blessings, Dawn
I used to teach first grade and one year we had an outbreak of CP in the school. About half the class was vaccinated. Every single child got CP except the one who had previoulsy had it when he was younger. The ones who were vaccinated all had mild cases, some only like 10 pox, but they all did.
Know what's weird? I've never had chicken pox, I've never had the vaccine, but I'm immune. I worked at a medical office where they required workers to have the vaccine if they'd never had the virus, but they tested me and it showed me to be immune. I have no idea how that happened. Hope your little guy is feeling all better now!
I'm glad it didn't get too bad! My son gave me the chicken pox when I was 35 yo.
Thanks so much for all the wonderful lego ideas. I am also starting to prepare to teach a lego class to 3rd-6th graders for our co-op in January. All your pins have been very helpful.
Blessings
Diane
I am SO GLAD to hear your son is on the mend!!!
(And THANK YOU for the wonderful fee Gershwin study- I really need to do more with music in our homeschool lessons...)
A Lego class sounds like lots of fun! We have the same set of classes every year at our co-op (much smaller -- only about 20 families!). There are some aspects of the predictability that are nice, but I love to hear about the fun classes other people plan for their co-ops.
I'm sorry that Grant has been feeling so yucky, but glad that he is on the mend! I had a full-blown case of chicken pox as a child. You know, even though your week had its stresses and bad points, it sounds like lots of wonderful things happened :)
So many good resources in this post!! Thanks for linking up at Favorite Resources.
I'm not going to link up because I didn't manage to make an actual collage, but here's my link should anyone care to read it. I whine a lot in it. :-)
http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2012/09/08/muddling-through/
I'm sorry that Grant has been sick, Mary. It sounds like y'all have made the most of it, though. I'm going to look into the games you mention. I bet my younger dd would LOVE the drawing game.
I could not get my collage to post for some reason, so technically it's not a Collage Friday. Hopefully I'll get it figured out later.
oh no on the chicken pox!! Glad it was just a small case. We had a couple of small cases here too. I have never had chicken pox and hope I never will!!
We love Say Anything at our house too!
Co-op sounds fun - thanks for the printable link. Praying for your co-op family.
Poor Grant!!
Bud Not Buddy is on our reading list this year. Looks like a fun week in spite of the Chicken Pox!
I have SO had to learn flexibility these first weeks of school years! Last year I sprained my ankle on day 2 and we were off for the rest of September while I recovered. This year my eldest got the flu on day 2! Sheesh! So we just rolled with it and since I had planned an easier week anyway, we were able to catch up no problem ;0)
We LOVE That lego bingo game! We've used it for a birthday party and I forgot about it, I should pull it out again!
Poor Kiddo. I love the Lego bingo I pinned it thanks. I really want to get that pick draw game it looks like so much fun.