Day 90

This is Day 90! I've managed to blog our learning logs for half the entire school year. I am proud of this. I am going to continue to blog about homeschooling but I've decided to move the operations mostly over to my other blog In a Spacious Place, at least for now. It's not an easy decision -- I've been going back and forth about the pros and cons -- but the deciding factor is that I think I need to streamline operations a bit. Maintaining several blogs is nice in several ways but the truth is, it takes time I don't really have. So I am going to blog the homeschooling things over there for the foreseeable future. I'm not deleting this blog because I may want it again in future, but I'm going to let it stay inactive for at least a few months. Many Blessings, and I hope this change works out for the best! (I am having second thoughts already, but I made the decision after lots of thought so I think I can live with it)

Today Sean gets the day off because it is his birthday, but he forgot, and went ahead and did most of his work before I remembered (I was talking to Clare on the phone -- she is returning home today from her college and March for Life tour).

Kieron doesn't get the day off but because I was talking to Clare, he hasn't really started yet.

Update:

Kieron did:

• Discovery of New Worlds (read about King Arthur)
• Also read a section from What your 4th Grader Needs to Know -- about Germanic People on the Move, and Dark or Middle?
• Geometry (circles)
• A Math Drill
• We discussed Respect for Life from the Grade 6 Faith and Life. This works better, we both agreed, than reading the text which is a bit dry in our opinion.

Day 89

Kieron

• Math (about vertical angles and perpendicular and parallel)
• Discovery of New Worlds (about the "Dark Ages" and I had him read about Barbarians in the Kingfisher History of the World and study the map)
• Latin review from Latina Christiana
  

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Book of Discovery
• The Family that Overtook Christ
  
• He got the day off math today.

They both did their weekly chores.

Aidan

• Doug and Melissa Letter Box
• HWT letterforms

Talked with Brendan about prolife things.

Work in Progress

Draft of Schola et Studium plan for this week:




Household Plan for this week:



I did the schola one by taking my pile of index cards I made at the beginning of this year, listing various general activities I thought it would be good to do with the kids. Then I just shuffled them and picked out a few to list.

The day by day list for the Schola plan needs work. I am going to go through it this week and see what's missing and fix it up for next week.

So it's a work in progress, still.

Random Planning Notes

This will be one of those posts where I ramble on about planning because I really have trouble knowing what I'm thinking until I write it down : ).
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In the first place, here is a list of verbs I wrote down when I was thinking about Kieron's Year 6 work -- nothing especially new, just to clarify my own thinking:

• Read
• Make
• Draw
• Write
• Copy
• Memorize
• Demonstrate
• Discuss
• Study
• Research
• Work at

There are probably more, but those are the ones that come to mind right now. I think I will check out Evaluating For Excellence which has more specific ideas and possibly more action verbs.
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Aidan needs regular time during the day to work on both academics and therapy goals. In order to be more successful at having this happen, I need to ponder his therapeutic "big picture". I hope to do that this weekend.
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Since Latin has slowed down, I am thinking of moving word and sentence analysis and Logic into a higher place again with the two boys. There is this Daily Grammar resource, for instance. They are simple enough even for Kieron to use.

I am going to start both the boys on simple research paragraphs and then go from there.
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I talked with Kieron yesterday -- he is the first child of mine that I could actually discuss goals with -- the others much preferred either to work solo or to have me hand them something that they could then flex according to their own circumstances. Kieron liked the idea of more read-alouds as part of school so I think we will move that way, particularly since Paddy is now listening at a higher level. I think a literature-based unit approach would be fun for him and the slow winter months are a good time to experiment with this.
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I have been having some success recently with my housekeeping efforts by having a sequential list of basics per day, and then a sidebar list of tasks to get to as I find time. I am wondering if something like that would work with homeschooling. My "problem" is that I am fairly OK about getting to the concrete simple things like daily math, but as soon as I try to add any kind of complexity or do something that isn't "daily", it slips off my radar. When I have the housekeeping things laid out on a sheet it gives my subconscious something to ponder.

So that's another thing to work on this weekend.
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Finally, I wanted to consolidate my Spacious Place priorities into a more active form so I can look at them occasionally:

• Faith
• Literature
• Nature
• Conversation
• Enculturation
• Experiences
  
• Work
• Play

I think I will try to write out my weeks in review using this as a guide.
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So there are my half-formed plans.

The action list will then be:

• Look at Evaluating for Excellence
• Choose some books to read and study with Kieron.
• Ponder the therapy big picture for Aidan and put his specific therapy homework into that picture so I have a list of things to do.
• Plan simple research paragraph procedure for the two boys.
• Find the earlier version of my school priority checklist and figure out how to revise it.
• Try writing next weekly review using the categories listed above.
• Dig through this blog for my old plans and decide what to keep and what to change.
  

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Week in Review – Week 17

Almost halfway through the school year! Ah, that is nice. January is often a hard row to hoe as far as homeschooling goes.

I think I will try this one chronologically like Ragamuffin Rosie did with hers. I liked the way it let her dwell on the big(ger) picture and that is what I really want out of the weekly reports anyway, since I already have a sort of accountability system built in with my daily logs.

This week was relatively quiet as weeks go. That is, we didn't have an enormous number of outside commitments. Still, it was hard for me to get mobilized towards the kids' intellectual pursuits. I am thriving right now, but they are stagnating. Past time to turn things around.

Monday: The occupational therapist didn't arrive so it was a quiet at home day. I cleaned quite a bit and wrote about economics.

Tuesday: Aidan's speech therapist couldn't come up to this area so we are scheduled to see her today. Another quiet day, almost sluggish on the academic front though I made progress in home upkeep.

Wednesday: Aidan had a GI clinic in the afternoon, but we managed to get the minimums done in the morning. His liver enzymes are up and that has been a cause of mild concern, but the operative word was "mild" on their part, which was reassuring. Aidan spoke up very well at the meeting though he still has the habit of saying "yes" to everything they ask. "Do you eat yogurt?" "YES" even though the sight of it makes him gag.

Thursday: no academics since we were travelling on the train. We left at 8 am and didn't get home till 6 pm.

Friday: everyone has colds. We have speech therapy and homeschool stations this afternoon. I am all thrown off by this. One is tolerable, two appointments in a row is too much for me. And I am not feeling good.

Now for the list of things that aren't going very well:

• The stagnation mentioned above. Today it got just a bit better since I actually interacted with Kieron about history. But in general, I have been helping them with math and that's about it for intellectual interaction for the day.
  
• Related to the first – I'm "next-paging" too much and not planning.
  
• Too much screen time. Way too much. I really hate that. That ought to be top on the priority list next week – cutting it down, even if I have to spend the day playing referee with cranky kids.
  
• Have to help Brendan get moving on his vocational decisions.
  
• I haven't been eating well, or exercising, or even getting outside for a bit of fresh air (it is very icy and cold outside). Same with the kids, generally speaking.
  
• Various character issues cropping up and the most bothersome ones are my own – mostly due to dislike of being interrupted/called away from things I want to do (or even things I SHOULD do but aren't of first importance right at that moment).
  

On the bright side:

• The house looks so much nicer. I didn't spend ALL that much time but it made a big difference in the superficial appearance.
  
• I have been learning a lot. I wish I could just study all day.
  
• Clare and Liam get to hang out together this weekend and do good cultural things -- this is valuable life experience.
  
• Aidan stays healthy.
  

Actually, there are a lot more bright things than negative but all I have to do with the bright things is acknowledge them and feel grateful (relatively easy) while the bad things are things I have to conquer, suppress, redirect, cope with (HARDER).

I hope/intend/plan that by next week:

• I'll have some history/literature/science/religion plans in place for the children.
  
• I'll be doing better with the food and exercise situation in this house (not just me but the children).
  
• I will be devoting more time and energy towards their actual instruction (reading to them, talking to them etc).
  

So there you go.

Day 88

Yesterday we didn't have academics; instead, the boys took care of Patrick while Kevin and I and Aidan escorted Clare by train to the midway point of her trip to visit the college where her brother is going. She is going to attend classes and then go to the March for Life in San Francisco with the college group. Liam is going too.

So Aidan had a memorable day. As for today:

Kieron

• Math (finding out angles and constructing them with a protractor)
• Discovery of New Worlds (I read to him about Alaric and the Visigoths and we discussed it.
• Usborne Ancient Worlds (he read about the post-Constantine Roman Empire and we found out who the nameless young Emporer was who was more worried about his chicken named Rome than the fate of the city which he had abandoned).

Sean

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Book of Discovery
• Plutarch
• Now he is doing the Algebra Summary and Review. Sigh -- and struggling. I am having him do it on his own which is apparently going to be too much of a challenge. My weakness is to over-help to the point of enabling, and I have to watch this, apparently. We may have to stay right here at the midpoint while he consolidates, which ruins all my beautiful plans for this year -- hitting the midterm right at the midpoint of the year was going to be a first!)

Paddy and Aidan have a cold and so do I, which makes me really really wish I didn't have to take them to Aidan's speech therapy and then to homeschool group.

About once a month I get discouraged with how badly everything is going... I really wish I could plan it to come in installments so I could cope with one trouble spot at a time instead of it hitting me like a ton of bricks. The closest I can come is to write down ALL the issues as they fall on me from a great height and then process through them slowly for the next month finding solutions or ways to cope. But then, that doesn't completely help because part of it is perspective. Oh well -- it's the best thing I have found so far so I'm off to write lists and then get the little ones ready to go.

I am hoping to get a chance to write a Week in Review to help me get a bit more back in tune with how the homeschooling is going.

Day 86

Sean did his normal Greek, Vocabulary, Algebra , and readings.

• This brings him up to the summary and review before the end of chapter 8 in Algebra, which is just before the midterm. So we are right on schedule there since we are just about halfway through the school year.
  
• In Greek he just finished chapter 23 (page 110)
  
• In Vocabulary he just finished lesson 80 (pretty close to right on schedule there).
  
• In the Book of Discovery he is on chapter XVII on Marco Polo.
  
• In Plutarch's Lives he is on page 55, which is starting Part II of Camillus.
  

We have been tanking on Latin as you know if you follow these day to day details.

I will update my chart sometime so there is an easy visual of where we are compared to where we ought to be.

Kieron has been sick the past couple of days so we moved ahead to the chapter on Geometry (easy stuff) and then we also do a bit of review every day. Today it was long division.

He is reading Minn of the Mississippi, and Thornton Burgess books, and I asked him to read Faith and Life but I'm not sure if he has yet.

 

Aidan and Paddy both did a reading lesson from 100 Easy Lessons. A big milestone in Paddy's life – moving him out to sleep with his brothers next week. Today we set up a bed out there. He is taking it pretty well.

 

I feel like I am starting to head the right way again. Even though we didn't actually DO anything more than the past couple of weeks I feel the momentum shifting. I shift gears like a big tank, I am afraid. I have just had to acknowledge that there is a lag between my forming of a resolve and it actually happening. By acknowledging that I can plan for it and hopefully be able to turn the momentum faster when I NEED to (like when Aidan gets sick and suddenly the future includes a stay in a different city – hasn't happened for a while but easily could with all his different issues).

 

 

Day 86

Yes, definitely I need to get around to planning. I remember this happening last January, too.

Sean continues to coast through his skeletal routine of Greek, Vocabulary, a couple of readings and then Algebra, where he spends the bulk of his mental effort. It only takes a couple of hours and because his mother hasn't arranged literature readings for him he isn't really reading much in his "off" times except for Redwall books and the like.

Kieron is basically just doing math and reading.

Sigh... and I am bored by their schoolbooks. That's why I need to focus some energy on planning. It really takes an effort of will sometimes.

I am thinking about doing something like this with him.

The little ones have been circulating happily through their educational toys -- letter box, pattern blocks, bead patterns, -- and it's all very well as background but it is not helping them progress.

Fortunately, my self-education efforts recently have inspired Clare and she is on a scholarly reading tear. She is reading Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm.

Day 85

Sean:

• Greek
• Vocabulary
• Algebra
• Plutarch's Lives
• Book of Discovery
• Weekly Jobs
  

Kieron

• Math Test
• Freddy the Pig series
• plus, he did a lot of work shovelling the porch and helping me take down the Christmas tree.
  
• Weekly Jobs
  

Aidan

• Letter Box
• HWT Letterforms
• writing X's and Y's and numbers -- he is absolutely fascinated with Algebra.
  

Paddy

• Horizons Math book

What I need to do is

• get going on planning their reading and follow-up work
  
• plan a Latin review.
  

Sixteen Precepts for Advancing Knowledge

These are Thomas Aquinas's Sixteen Precepts for Advancing Knowledge which are the basis of Sertilllanges' book The Intellectual Life -- via Catholic Bible Student.

"My Very Dear Brother,
Since you have asked me how you ought to study in order to amass the treasures of knowledge, listen to the advice which I am going to give you.
As a mere stripling,

1. Advance up the streams, and do not all at once plunge into the deep: such is my caution, and your lesson. I bid you to

2. Be chary of speech,

3. Slower still in frequenting places of talk:

4. Embrace purity of conscience,

5. Pray unceasingly,

6. Love to keep to your cell if you wish to be admitted into the mystic wine-cellar.

7. Show yourself genial to all:

8. Pay no heed to other folk's affairs:

9. Be not over-familiar with any person, because over-much familiarity breeds contempt, and gives occasion to distraction from study.

10. On no account mix yourself up with the sayings and the doings of persons in the outside world.

11. Most of all, avoid all useless visits, but try rather to walk constantly in the footsteps of good and holy men.

12. Never mind from whom the lesson drops, but

13. Commit to memory whatever useful advice may be uttered.

14. Give an account to yourself of your every word and action:

15. See that you understand what you hear, and never leave a doubt unsolved:

16. Lay up all you can in the storehouse of memory, as he does who wants to fill a vase. 'Seek not the things which are beyond thee'.

Following these ways, you will your whole life long put forth and bear both branches and fruit in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth. If you take these words to heart, you will attain your desire."

-Sixteen Precepts for Acquiring the Treasure of Knowledge by St. Thomas Aquinas

Liam got all A's again. He is presently in the second semester of his junior year at Thomas Aquinas College.

This is a bit of bragging, I suppose, and I do apologize, but it fits into the "homeschooling successes" category and I'm tucking it into this small blog so it won't seem so much like, well, bragging.

I am proud of him. You know, I am not really about grades per se. But I know they do something towards reassuring and convincing various acquaintances that we didn't totally mess the kid up.

They might still worry that a great books, liberal-arts degree isn't very useful but then what is this "use" criterion anyway?

Now this is what some great men are very slow to allow; they insist that Education should be confined to some particular and narrow end, and should issue in some definite work, which can be weighed and measured. They argue as if every thing, as well as every person, had its price; and that where there has been a great outlay, they have a right to expect a return in kind. This they call making Education and Instruction "useful," and "Utility" becomes their watchword. With a fundamental principle of this nature, they very naturally go on to ask, what there is to show for the expense of a University; what is the real worth in the market of the article called "a Liberal Education," on the supposition that it does not teach us definitely how to advance our manufactures, or to improve our lands, or to better our civil economy; or again, if it does not at once make this man a lawyer, that an engineer, and that a surgeon; or at least if it does not lead to discoveries in chemistry, astronomy, geology, magnetism, and science of every kind.

Newman, Idea of a University.

So there you go. Newman goes on to add that a liberal education is useful as a byproduct of its value, because someone trained in the liberal arts is fitted to do well in almost any technical or academic branch (sometimes after post-graduate education or training, of course -- it's hard to get by without at least a master's nowadays, I understand).

I am glad he is doing well and the grades as well as his own conversation indicate to me he is thriving in this environment. I am glad he is a kind older brother and a devout Christian and a diligent worker, who also likes to write stories like his mother and design computer games like his father. I'm glad he talks about what he read in his classes and ponders it in his own time, and doesn't just do the work to get the grades. I think the Catholic Great Books education encourages the student in a lifelong habit of learning, so I am glad he is pursuing this course, though if he had chosen otherwise we would have supported him so long as the choice was an honorable one.

So there you go -- end of small bragging session.

Day 84 -- formal and informal

Oops -- I forgot to update.

Sean did the basic minimum today -- Greek, Vocabulary, Algebra and some readings.

(When I said something about the minimum he said indignantly, "Minimum???" He did have to spend over an hour on the Algebra).

We also had an impromptu literary discussion -- the teens and I. Sean can be very sharp. He did a compare and contrast of the movie and book versions of Scarlet Pimpernel. I recommend a book along with a movie version as a good way to develop high school literary analysis in an effective and informal way. But then we are movie people here -- I personally am not, but almost everyone else is.

The rest of the morning I spent baking cookies for the homeschool party this afternoon, and catching up on economics readings.

Then we went to the party and now I am baking a cake for Kieron's #12.

The kids are watching Music Man.

Clare and I talked about St Anselm all the way home. You know you are a geeky classical Catholic family when a mom and teenager both admit they spend time awake at night thinking about his proof of the existence of God "that-than-which-no-greater-can-be-thought" and wishing, wishing we could make that movement of the mind which would allow us to completely grasp the argument.

Clare is starting a bookshelf to write about her readings. She was inspired by this.... isn't Literary Retreat a beautiful phrase?

The little ones spelled words from a Doug and Melissa word box -- it is funny to hear your five year old say, "Mom, can we do some more of that spelling that teaches you how to read words?"

I was trying to think of a haiku encomium for my 19 year old this morning since every single morning I wake up and come down to find a full wood box and that is very wonderful, especially as he actually volunteered to take over the job for good.

Day 83

Today Sean did basics..... Greek, Vocabulary, Algebra.

Kieron did the next section of math on subtracting decimals.

So, not exactly a stellar day. They did well on the things they did do.

If these minimum basics get done, I usually feel like at least we're not slipping behind.

Oh, and they also did their twice-weekly housekeeping chores.

Kieron gets the day off tomorrow since it is his birthday, and we have our belated homeschool holiday party tomorrow too.

I am trying to get things organized since this is probably part of the sluggishness I feel -- that everything got put aside for the vacation and hasn't been picked up yet.

Day 82

We did not have any formal academics yesterday because we had to take Clare down to the orthodontist at 8 and it was afternoon before we got back.

I have to say I think the reason I could do so much during the holidays while still taking it easy boils down to: No Trips into Town.

It's not just the sheer time it takes and the energy. In addition, my vestibular system stays out of whack for the rest of the day. So since I knew Clare values watching movies with me occasionally, I spent the afternoon watching The Scarlet Pimpernel with the kids, feeling horribly queasy not because of the movie, which was OK especially Ian McKellan as Chauvelin, but because of the trip. Then I played card games with the younger ones, and made dinner, and read to Paddy and that was about it.

Today, though, Sean did his usual basics -- finished Screwtape Letters and read Earth Science as well as Algebra, Greek, and Vocabulary.

Kieron did math (adding decimals -- I had him practice 5's and 2's ahead of time to help with motor memory in his reversals, and it did seem to help -- he executed the rest without an error). He finished book 2 of Hey Andrew and read his religion book and the next Shakespeare story in Lamb's.

Paddy and Aidan were having relationship difficulties today, mostly Aidan's fault. I kept them apart for a while and then brought out several of their Christmas toys (I am keeping them in the closet and rotating them for variety) and that seemed to ease things. The older kids gravely commented on the psychology of their conflict. I think Sean's opinion was quite just -- that Aidan remembers Paddy's "barbarian" days and still operates from fear and resentment from those times, while Paddy has gone beyond that developmentally and has forgotten the whole thing and so is very hurt and crushed when Aidan scolds him for no reason, which sadly he does.

Ah, siblings!

What I reaaally want to do is work on my story. I can feel it pulling me now. But there is THIS:


I am not sure if you can see it -- it is my household management sheet. I'm trying to make them up weekly, but this is only an approximation. I am trying to figure out what is helpful and what is redundant or unnecessary.

Day 81

Today we started up again. Oh, it has been a while! Our usual custom is to start off sloowly... it makes the transition so much easier. As it turned out, Sean and Clare started up, but I had given Kieron the day off because yesterday was a busy and full day for him (drive through piles of snow for an hour, go to a long though beautiful mass down in town, drop Liam off at Amtrak, then go to Grandma's house and play games there with me).

So Sean did the normal things -- Greek, Vocabulary, a few readings (it looked like Screwtape Letters and Earth Science and one more), and then Algebra. We didn't do Latin.

I took a few of the kids with me on the local library--post office-- market run. It was fun driving through our snowy little town. Now that the vacationers are gone and the rush has died down and the snow is still blanketing everything, there is a feeling of camaderie. We have been here for 11 years this month but because of everything that happened with Aidan and because of our homeschooling (so not being involved in the school-community which is the main one around here for our generation) it has taken us a long time to feel like part of the picture. I still don't feel that way all the time (one of my resolutions/hopes/wishes this year is to find a bit more of a place in the civic environment) but today I felt like an oldtimer -- we saw our neighbor at the post office and a guy from our church at the library and then at the market the clerk talked to us like we were old acquaintances, which is in fact the case, but I noticed it particularly today!

Is this ever wandering far from normal "scholae" et "studia"? My story is going well -- the one I was working on while LIam was home in order to have our story society meetings -- and so the rest of the day I spent writing. Or thinking about what I was going to write. I remember this is why I had to give it up before -- I can get obsessive. But I was glad to get a lot written today because then I will have something to send to Liam next week. We miss him -- the counter seems empty without his laptop, which returned with him to campus; and the fireplace chair seems empty without him sitting there usually being harassed by Aidan.


I did enjoy this vacation. I read six encyclicals -- Spe Salvi, Fides et Ratio, Libertas, Humani Generis, Providentissimus Deus, and Pascendi Dominici Gregis. Sure, only one of them was long -- Fides et Ratio is a 60 page printout, the rest are about 20 pages. But I also read through Genesis, and read the first 100 or so paragraphs from the Catechism. I wrote 25,000 words of my story. And I still had time to do some baking, talk to friends on the phone, talk to the children and to Kevin, watch North and South and a bunch of Shyamalan movies with Clare and the other older ones, play family games (some of them quite extended), shovel lots of snow off the deck, keep the fire going, keep up on the laundry, read loads of Tintins to Paddy, etc.

This makes me wonder what it is that takes up so much of the day in "Ordinary Time". I am still wondering. I do not have an answer for that. The only thing I can think is that our various medical appointments in town are temporal Bermuda Triangles. Homeschooling doesn't really take THAT much time in a day, but I suppose it does wipe me out because during the regular year I generally spend the rest of the day recovering from the morning.

Occupational Therapy

Aidan's OT came today. She wanted to try out the idea of wrapping up Aidan's right hand so he would have more occasion to use his "hemi" left hand. He was happy about it and did well. At first he kept slipping his hand out by habit from the ACE bandage, but I suggested tucking the right hand into his shirt and then wrapping it up. This seemed to help him to keep it out of action. He did several games:

• Loading beanie babies into the back of his car. That was too easy to be a challenge.
  
• Putting bead necklaces into a container. This was not a challenge either.
  
• Putting monkeys into their barrel. Pretty easy.
  
• Picking up butterscotch chips to eat them. This was a bit too difficult because he doesn't have a proper pincer grip so he had to chase them around a lot.
  
• Turning over cards – we used the SET cards and the OT advanced the difficulty level by having him count them and then put them into piles according to quantity. This was too much motor processing requirements and he had consistent difficulties, not with turning the cards over but with putting them in the correct piles. I'll have to try this again at a different time to see if it was the combination that caused the problem or he really didn't understanding categorizing with numbers.
  
• Taking the pieces of his peg puzzle out and putting them back. This was right at his level.
  
• Putting golf tees into a pegboard – too hard. Taking them out was just about right.
  
• Stocking the pantry with cans. He liked this a lot.
  

For follow-up, we are supposed to do this for a little while every day. He functions pretty well using his leftie as a helper so my motivation for doing this would be to help his motor processing and crossing-over skills which help with reading and all kinds of things like that.

Aidan has been thriving recently in spite of elevated liver enzymes showing in his lab results. I have figured out a loose system for rotating his multi-piece developmental toys out, two or three at a time. Yesterday he played for a long time with the beads in a box. There are pattern templates that Paddy uses and can duplicate without a problem, but Aidan just likes to categorize the beads by color. Then he found a transportation sound-making puzzle I had hidden in the closet and has played with that a lot since, though two of the pieces are already on walkabout. He also plays a lot with the SET card game and with the transportation felts I got for him, and almost every day he brings out the playdough so he can "cook". Basically my goal is to have a couple of toys accessible where he can choose between them, and one extra one "out" at a time. I also like him to have access to "tools" like the cookware and the camera, though not unlimited access. Anyway, this system is keeping me from becoming overwhelmed with tiny pieces all over everything and it helps me train him to put things back before he gets out something new.

He thought it was funny that I had to "chase" him to put on his sweat pants and sang, "They chase me here, they chase me there, those Frenchies chase me everywhere!" He loves having Liam home and to be truthful, having Paddy busy with the computer more than usual since we aren't limiting the screen time the way we usually do.