VBS take three

On Saturday afternoon we went to a kick-off event for this week's VBS. It included a large inflatable castle, a sprinkler, hot dogs, watermelon, and a slip and slide. Nadia and Oliver had a lot of fun with the inflatable and slip and slide. Ian went through the inflatable once, and the rest of the time he spent talking to people (primarily about Legos) and eating a hot dog. It still amazes me he likes to go on the Phoenix (a BIG roller coaster) but is scared of things like staircases and slip and slides. Go figure. I thought all three kids would be going to that VBS on Sunday night, but Nadia started complaining of a headache around 6:00pm on Saturday. I took her temperature, and she had a mild fever. I gave her some Tylenol and thought she'd probably be fine on Sunday, but actually she woke us up during the middle of the night. She complained about her stomach but didn't actually throw up. I gave her some Ibuprofen and then she proceeded to sleep until 10:00 am. That is definitely the latest she ever slept in her life. I had gone in to feel her cheeks at 8:00 when I was deciding whether to wake her up or not, and I could tell she still had a fever. Paul stayed home with her, and I took the boys to church. She stayed in her pajamas all day yesterday. She played a game of Life with Paul after her very late breakfast (she won!). Aside from her fever her only other symptom seemed to be that her appetite was very small. She still had a fever in the evening, so I only took the boys to VBS last night. She was asleep in bed before they got home.

This morning she woke up without a fever around 7:00. She has eaten more than she did yesterday, but her appetite is still not back to normal. Otherwise she has seemed to be doing much better today. She wanted to go to VBS tonight instead of Spanish class. I gave her the choice of either missing Spanish tonight or the musical rehearsal on Wednesday night. She picked skipping the musical. We are going to Dutch Wonderland amusement park tomorrow (first time for the kids and I), which means the boys will be attending four out of five nights of this VBS (Mt. Everest curriculum) since we'll be in Lancaster tomorrow. Since Nadia was sick last night and had Spanish class tonight, she'll just be going to VBS on Wednesday and Thursday. They aren't rehearsing the act she's in this Wednesday so I think it will be okay if she misses this rehearsal. Paul and I are going to go out on a date on either Wednesday or Thursday and take advantage of not needing to pay a babysitter for that luxury. I am very grateful that these churches have allowed Oliver to participate even though the minimum age was three years old (since he'll be turning 3 in less than a month). He actually has told me more about what has happened at VBS than Ian has. Oliver's personality is definitely more similar to Nadia (not Ian).

One of the things I've been doing during my extra time is work on planning the next school year. I don't have things planned out as thoroughly as my sister does, but I have things far more planned out than I ever have before with homeschooling. Here's what I've been working on. We've already been reading many of the picture books for the introduction, US, and Canada, and I've also been getting a head start on the chapter books. We're reading Anne of Avonlea right now, and we're listening to The Incredible Journey on cd in the van.

I was going to start Cameron Townsend next, but Paul put in a request for the next book in the Chronicles of Narnia so I will read Prince Caspian before we start reading the biography on Townsend. For quite a while I keep saying I need to start doing more crafts with the kids, and I think this year it's actually going to happen. I also am going to be trying more new recipes than I have been trying lately with making at least one food for each country. I haven't finished picking out all the recipes and crafts yet, but I am making great progress! I will definitely not plan out the other subjects in advance because I find the pace is so variable with spelling, reading, math, etc. Ian has been asking to work on reading so we are currently on lesson five of the second grade reading curriculum. Keep it up, Ian!