Updates on school and health

• We finally picked out and purchased a curriculum for school: Galloping the Globe. It's pretty close to exactly the type of thing I was looking for. We'll be doing a basic overview of geography and reading about various countries around the world.
  
  All the other options I'd been looking at seemed to be either below the kids' academic levels, or a bit too old in the maturity of themes, etc. for them. This one should be perfect--it's geared toward K-4th grade, and we can use any books we want on the topics.
  
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  For each country we'll learn a bit about the country, culture and people, read some books set in or written by people who live there, touch on some major historical figures, learn about and pray for the needs there, and learn about the area's animals and any interesting features of the environment, geology, etc. We'll also read missionary biographies.
  
  I think GtG will be a lot of fun. It's a very flexible program and will be easy to tweak or add to as we go along.
  
  The books look like a lot of fun. Children Just Like Me, a colorful book that shows children from around the world with information about their homes, language, religion, dress, etc. is one of my favorites. There are lots of projects to choose from, from doing crafts to cooking meals or planning celebrations that relate to each country. I did purchase a few core books to use with the curriculum, but we'll be using the library a lot.
  
  The kids will also be involved in AWANA and in Friday School (a homeschool co-op where they will take classes on--you guessed it--Fridays).
  
  We'll continue doing Singapore math, and will supplement with some classic books for read-alouds. I plan to let the kids pick out books at their reading level to practice reading, and we'll do some sort of phonics practice as well. I picked up some Sonlight Teacher's manuals second-hand, and I'll be able to use those as a resource for ideas. We're using the Sonlight-recommended Egermeier Bible Story Book for some extra Bible reading.



• Right now we're still finishing up the three-week Egypt study from Tapestry of Grace. We've enjoyed that a lot. Currently, our tentative plan is to do a year or two of Galloping the Globe, then a year of something else (perhaps Cantering the Country, the US History version of GtG), and then move into curriculum desiged for a wider range of grade levels, such as WinterPromise and/or ToG.



• We saw our naturopath this week. She was fascinated with the printouts I brought in about various forms of sugar intolerance.
  
  She said, "Wow! I wonder how many people who have been diagnosed with Candida really have this instead of or along with the yeast issue? Especially the ones that never get to the point where they can tolerate fruit."
  
  She said that it seems likely that Candida overgrowth could be secondary to a difficulty digesting sugars, and thought the sugar intolerance angle was especially interesting given that she's had several patients diagnosed with Candida who didn't improve with treatment until they began taking enzymes to assist with digestion, and then improved dramatically.
  
  She's going to research the various forms of sugar intolerance and find out all she can. The best part is that she's going to try to find some enzymes that would help Baby E and the rest of us digest sugars, starches and other foods better. The next step would be to try to support the health of the pancreas and other organs that produce digestive enzymes.
  
  I did find information this week suggesting that sugar malabsorption issues can be caused by a number of other conditions besides the three forms of sugar intolerance I've been looking into. Information on them is much less readily-available, but it seems one factor can be an under-production of enzymes rather than a complete lack of them. This would seem a possibility, given the mildness of most of Baby E's symptoms and the dose-related nature of them. Also, it seems that anything that affects the health of the digestive system--allergies, illness, etc--can affect the body's ability to break down and process sugars and other elements of foods.



• To further throw a loop in things, DH decided to trial Baby E on apple juice this weekend. (I said it was fine with me as long as he was willing to deal with her if she became miserable, since I wasn't feeling up to dealing with it.) She had a very small amount ~1 oz at first and several ounces later. So far she seems fine. That certainly brings into question any possibility of fructose intolerance. Apple juice is very high in fructose, but low in sucrose. In fact, it fits the standard for a "low sucrose" food--less than 2g sucrose per 100g.
  
  Also, it's extremely crazy-making, since each time we've trialed her on applesauce she didn't do well with it. It did seem to accumulate over several doses, though. We thought she was tolerating it well at first and then she deteriorated over a day or two. So at this point I'm not sure whether to keep giving her apple juice over the next few days, or just assume she can handle small amounts occasionally but not give it to her too much or too often.
  
  Now it's got me wondering if she just has an extra-sensitive digestive tract. Maybe there's not going to be any real underlying thing we can figure out to tweak and control her symptoms. Baby E is doing so much better now than she was a year ago that it almost seems pointless to keep worrying about the much milder symptoms she has now. Her issues are certainly no worse than M&M's now.
  
  At what point do we just quit trying to figure it out and accept that we just have kids who get a lot of stomachaches and mild diarrhea? But I don't want to just watch the kids feeling unwell so much of the time and not keep trying to figure it out. I hate not knowing what's causing their discomfort and not knowing how to fix or avoid it.



• I'm still not feeling any better, myself. My energy levels are very low and I'm in a lot of discomfort. I don't seem to have any specific illness, just "the usual" flare-ups--allergy symptoms, GI symptoms, general pain, severe fatigue, weight loss, etc. It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes, but I keep reminding myself that God has always sustained me, and we've had so many answered prayers that have brought us this far.
  
  A lot of things are sliding, but we're managing. Each day, it seems, I'm given the strength to do exactly what I have to do, if no more. I'm thankful for that.