Weekly Report... My son, the writer...

This has been an insane week.

On Monday, I was reinstated to my job. Also on Monday, M fell and broke his arm quite badly.

Tuesday, we simply tried to recuperate from Monday.

Wednesday, follow-up doctor's appointment, and surgery consultation, followed by a meeting with the nicest Med-Cal worker ever!

Thursday, I made it back to work finally, cleaned out my desk for the summer, etc.

Friday, M had surgery. We were at the hospital from 8:30 am to almost 4 in the afternoon. Good news though - the surgery went extremely well! M has full feeling and movement in his fingers, and can now stretch out that elbow that was splinted up all week. The doctor told me the metal apparatus will be on for about 6 weeks, just like a cast. Depending on how quickly M heals, he may be able to return to light duty at work as soon as mid-August!!!

Oh, and today, the car broke down. It totally overheated and started leaking coolant everywhere. A friend came and towed me/it home, and will look at fixing it, all for the price of parts and a good dinner, if it can be fixed. Lesson here? Good friends are priceless!

I got so many offers of help, prayers, positive vibes, and more this week. I have to say I feel so blessed and honored!

Now, on to homeschooling stuff...

My Son the Writer
I realized something this week. The Boy has turned into a writer. No, he's not writing essays, or book reports. And yes, I'd like to teach him proper letter format, and so forth. But he writes, on his own, with no nudging. He keeps a journal - definitely some inspiration from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series going on there - he makes lists, writes instructions for his own contraptions, writes dialog for animations, draws his own cartoon strips, he's even started a book... somehow, behind my back, he started to just write.

Every year I have looked at writing curriculum for the "reluctant" writer. Programs that offer to break it down into "bite-sized chunks" or "simple steps". After a week or two, these writing programs would invariably get set aside for one reason or another. They never clicked with The Boy.

I have read, and as of yesterday re-read The Writer's Jungle, which is anything but a writing program. It is more of a guide to freeing up your children to enjoy writing. And it hit me that when we set all those guides aside, and I stopped pushing other than copywork and oral narrations, it did indeed free The Boy up to write.

So what am I doing with all these writing programs I have piled up? Selling them off. We won't be using them.

What Else We Did
We read a little more this week. They are enjoying Smoky House (one of my all-time favorite books!), and The Girl is enjoying the mermaid tales. The Boy has almost finished Son of Neptune.

We watched both the first and second Addams Family movies, and really enjoyed them, though we all have a slight preference for the first one. We watched Thor, and talked about Norse mythology.

There were a few episodes of Mythbusters, and How It's Made.

There were also popsicles, gardening, caring for the chickens, and all those day-to-day things. We didn't make it to any outside activities, due to M's arm, but we'll be back in full swing next week.

In Other News
I am doing very well at maintaining my 40-45 pound weight loss. The problem is, is that I am maintaining... not losing, and I still have 20-25 pounds to go! I decided to re-clean up my diet, which I have gotten a bit lax about recently. You see, I keep thinking somewhere in my head that "oh, I can eat whatever I want now that I've lost so much weight" and "I don't want to be one of those weirdos that is always worrying about what they eat."

I lost a lot of the weight following a low carb diet, with of course exercise thrown in there. But, I've been reading, and researching, and watching documentaries, and I feel a need to shift away from such an animal-product-centered diet. I was a vegetarian for about 6 years, and vegan for two of those, so I know it is something I can do. But at the same time, I enjoy a good steak, or some chicken in a salad, and I love fish. So where am I going with all of this? Here. This means I can add back in some grains and such, which is actually quite a money-saver too compared to the typical low carb diet. And I can try out breakfast treats like these.

Hopefully, if I focus on whole foods, and hop back on that treadmill, the scale will start to slowly move down again!

Anyhow
Hope you all had a good week! As always, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers (in my sidebar) for more families sharing their homeschooling weeks.