Monday, Trishy and James spent the morning at Raw Learning. James took a science class, and Trishy played with her friends. When I came to pick them up, Trishy was swinging, spinning around on a tire swing, and playing with some colorful sand. (Trishy: Social and Emotional Development, Sensory Development: Vestibular & Tactile)

Sarah and I worked on our movie unit Monday and Tuesday mornings. She wasn’t that enthusiastic about it, but I am determined to keep her busy. We talked about World War I and the Roaring 20s a bit. We read about The Birth of a Nation, which led to a conversation about Reconstruction, racism, and the KKK. We also got glimpses of a few 1920’s movies including Buster Keaton clips and Disney’s first coup, Steamboat Willie

We also talked about Postmodernism (Sarah: Film Studies) We did some math, focusing on fractions concepts. (Sarah: Math: Fractions)

Monday afternoon, James went to his good friend’s birthday party. We hung out at Aengus’s house for a while. The kids played in the leaves and zoomed around in ride-on toys. I was happy to see James zooming Trishy around. I guess James pays attention to his sister when it involves an opportunity for hyperactivity. (Trishy: Sensory Development: Vestibular)

Last night, we had a Night from Hell, which I won’t talk about. Life is kind’ve a tightrope walk from one crisis to the next — I mentioned that, didn’t I?

James came home from his sleepover at noon, sleep deprived and happy. The climax of Aengus’s birthday party had been a trip to the midnight release party for a new video game. Today, when James got home, he found his dad had bought HIM a copy of the game. Needless to say, he went ape shit. Actually James is naturally ape shit anyway, but we went to the next level. He’s been doing lots of gaming, of course, with his dad and with friends. (James: Cooperative Problem Solving; Strategic Thinking)

Trishy went on a field trip to Polyface Farm. According to her, this was the highlight: “A chicken pecked me in the BUTT while we were looking at the pigs!!!” Life is good. (Trishy: Social Studies: Farming; Science: Farm Animals)

I’ve been trying to catch up by evaluating 30 student papers in 24 hours, keep up with two books tours, and everything else; John has been handling some of the kid-chauffeuring duties while dealing with various tradesmen involved in the installation of our new heating and cooling system.

The stress seems to be getting to me, plus I suspect I have PMS — I bought a 3/4 pound bag of dark chocolate M & Ms while I was picking up Sarah’s meds at Kroger. When I got home, the bag was ripped open, and half of them were gone.