Homeschool, Swine Flu, and other deSambourg happenings

Yes, it has been WAY TOO LONG since my last post--I have GOT to get better at this. Once I started school, my life went into overdrive, it seems, and I haven't had time for much. Anyway, we started school at the beginning of September after a quick trip to New Orleans to visit family and friends. (2 pics at the top are at the aquarium and St. Louis cathedral). I am homeschooling Emma, Gabe, and Hayden---given the choice of public school or homeschool, Gabe chose homeschool. Mostly because we helped start a new co-op this year that involves families who use the same curriculum as we do and he wanted to be a part of that. (The other 2 pictures are homeschool related: one is apple picking with the co-op and the other is the sukkah we decorated for the Feast of the Tabernacles). Actually, the school year has been quite awesome and we are all enjoying it. We have begun a 4 year history study--this year is Creation to Greeks. There are 14 kids in our CTG class at our co-op and there are around 25 to 30 kids total. We meet on Wednesday afternoons for nature hikes and all day on Friday where we have 2 1/2 hours of classes, 1 hour of enrichment (P.E.; Public Speaking; Health), 1 hour of social time and 30 minutes of worship. Once a month a missionary speaks to our group and once a month we participate in an outreach opportunity. This co-op has truly been a gift from God and we have all grown spiritually from all the amazing opportunities as well as the amazing people we are getting to know.

Grace is now attending a special class 4 days a week for 3 hours in the morning. This class is designed specifically for severe speech impaired children and has only 9 kids in the class. It is taught by 2 speech therapists and all activities revolve around target speech sounds. We have seen great improvement in her speech with the work we continuously do with her, as well as just 1 month of this class.

Gabe and Hayden are both playing soccer since September and doing really well. Emma resumed her art class on Thursdays and has been involved in writing and creating a claymation movie--we are so excited to see it! Dave is as busy as ever--nothing unusual there. I teach 12 piano students now--along with homeschooling and all the other duties of a wife, mother, active church and community member, I keep VERY busy. However, this week has slowed me down since I came down with the H1N1 flu on Tuesday. Gabe followed on Wednesday and as of today (Friday), I am on the mend, but he is still pretty sick. We are praying that everyone else can stay well, but over the next 10 days we will see how many more, if any, fallen soldiers we have. I will try to do better at blogging more often!