A unit study

We have been studying the flu. Chuck, who was vaccinated due to his work in the nursing home, was spared, so he headed off on a continuing education course 4 hours away. The rest of us have been completely down and out for the past 8 days.

There are two strains of Influenza A in our community of about 1000 right now. I'd guess about 80% of the non-immunized population have been sick. Public school attendance has been 30-50% for the past two weeks. Alas, homeschooling has not spared us this time around. Sophie managed to contract the flu at community orchestra 12 days ago.

We spent most of the time watching DVDs as even reading aloud demanded too much of us/me. The big hits have been "All Creatures Great and Small" (12 episodes watched, some of them multiple times) and Leonard Bernstein's wonderful "Young People's Concerts" series (6 episodes watched). We did manage to get through a couple of novels as readalouds. But little else happened.

I spent a lot of time dreaming of an angel who would come and wash the dishes, split some kindling, bring in more firewood, empty the garbage, bake bread (or at least bring us some store-bought) and cook meals. But we managed to get through. By yesterday afternoon we were all feeling human again, and Chuck arrived home last night before the indoor supply of firewood ran out again.

Creativity fell to negligible levels this past week, but today it has resurfaced. Yesterday the kids wrote a silly song together. Erin is working with our new-to-us 4-harness table loom to create interesting weaving patterns. Noah is back at work building his website. Fiona and Erin have been watercolour painting, and the kids are pulling out their instruments again today for the first time in a week.