Friday, August 22, 2008

Prince of Peace Academy, Week 1

The name of our home school is Prince of Peace Academy. We chose it because we really wrestled with educational choices for our children, and once we finally felt sure that God wanted us to home school, we felt such a deep, restful peace.

To start the week we went to the museum. This was our third year celebrating "not back to school day" with a couple other families, and it's always such a fun way to start the school year. The kids played in the children's museum while the mommies visited (and chased toddlers) and then we headed outdoors for a picnic. We had a nice lunch that unfortunately ended with two of the kids having ant bites. Poor Canaan actually got over 20 ant bites. Those things were MEAN. They swelled up right away but he didn't seem too upset about it. By evening they were all calmed down and just little red dots remained. He woke in the night crying, "MAMA! MAMAAA!" and he sounded scared, so of course I ran in and got him. He nursed and went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until about 8:30 which is way late for him. When I got him out of my bed I had QUITE a shock. The bites were VERY swollen, as was the skin all around them. I called the doctor and they said to bring him in. It turns out the poor baby is allergic to ants! No wonder they swelled so badly! We gave him Benadryl all week and put hydrocortizone on the bumps and today, four days later, they are settled down to the point that they look like normal ant bites. Still bumps, still hard, but not scary, crazy big.

So we do school in a chronological fashion, moving through history starting in ancient times right on up through modern times. Having spent four years in this cycle, we are now back at the beginning, in ancients. We studied archaeology this week, which was very interesting. The boys especially liked all the creepy skeletons and body casts (pictures in books, not real ones). For science we looked at lots of cool books and websites about sea creatures - mostly deep sea creatures. Friday is project day and so far today we learned how to draw a frog and we listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and colored pictures about his life. Later we'll do a history and a science project.

My most enthusiastic book-learner this week was Caris. She absolutely loves workbooks and blasts through them at record speed.

So there's a little summary of our week! I'm going to try to do this every week just as a little record of what our weeks are like.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your week!

    and poor baby Canaan:( My brother-in-law is allergic to ants, so I guess i should be on the look out for my boys.

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  2. Poor Canaan!!! My goodness, who would've known?? I love that Caris is loving it so much- what a big fall for her! And I loved the reminder of why you call it Prince of Peace Academy. Soooo cool.

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  3. Sounds like a graet start to your year!! We had a not so great week but overall, the year is going great!! We are doing Ancients too using MOH.

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  4. Sounds like a good start except for ant bites! Poor thing!

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  5. Anonymous6:48 AM

    Awww poor Mr. Baby Buns! "Clark Pest Control, we need you!"
    Other than a rough start at the museum it looks like a wonderful week #1 at Prince of Peace Academy. Grandma's prayers for the best school year ever!
    xoxo
    Mom

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  6. Band of Brothers: I wonder if your boys would be more susceptible to ant allergy! Maybe a good idea to keep some Benadryl around just in case, I guess.

    Megan: Thanks! It's a good idea for ME to remind myself of our school name & why we chose it too!

    Chandra: I'm sorry your first week wasn't the best. Is everything ok? What is MOH?

    Lisa: Thank you! Canaan's ant bites are still hard but MUCH smaller so it looks like he'll mend up fine. :-)

    Mom: Thanks, and I'm so glad you can comment now!

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  7. oh poor baby! sounds like a good week though! i love the name of your "school"

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  8. Sounds like you guys are all ready for a great year! Bummer about Canaan's ant bites, but I'm glad he's feeling better. I really need to keep some benedryl on hand because you never know when you may need it.

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  9. I'm glad you will be updating about your schooling! I love to read about homeschooling moms and what they are doing with their kids, especially since I will be in that boat so soon myself. :)
    I'm so sorry to hear about Cannan and his bug bites! Ow! Poor little guy. At least now you know to be on the lookout for those red ants...

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  10. Raquel - thank you!

    Barbie - it's true, every Mommy should have Benadryl on hand just in case. They make little dissolving strips and also little plastic packs with twist-off lids in individual servings, and it would be so easy to just stick those into a purse or diaper bag. The first time Caris reacted to peanuts I had Benadryl on hand and I can't imagine what could have happened if I hadn't!

    Talia - I had a feeling you would be a homeschooling Mama. :-)

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  11. We carry benadryl in the glove box of the car...pill form...That reminds me, there is only one left in there now.
    Should you ever get down to san diego, the Museum of Man has a very good archealogical display (and monthly HS class too)

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  12. Hi! Thank you for your blog comments! And how cool to find out that you are doing so many of the same things that I want to do!

    I'm don't live in your neck of the woods, but I do visit Lisa often; hopefully I'll get to meet you at some point. Until then I will just enjoy reading your blog. =)

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