dangerous heat; an experiment in homeschooling

I am still not feeling well today; I went home halfway through my shift at work last night. I do not know if it is my allergies being out of control, or the horrible heat and humidity getting my asthma going. When you step outside to let out the dog or put some mail in the mailbox, the heat and humidity make you gasp and wheeze in pain; at work the hallways are air conditioned, but when the elevator opens you are blasted with a wave of painful heat. I am drinking as much water as I can stand to (I even broke down and drank a huge glass of nasty Ann Arbor tap water last night - oh the horror!) but it doesn't seem to be quite enough.

We started the experiment of home schooling Steven yesterday morning, and continued it this morning. It is only for this week, and we do not have an appropriate math book, so we are not doing math this week (we will obviously add it if we do this for real). But for social studies, we are doing the American Civil War, for literature The Iliad, and for science astronomy. We are trying to integrate other things into the curriculum - for example for The Iliad we included a map study of the area where the war took place, and discussed why the war might have happened (such as Troy commanding trade routes). For the Civil War I have him reading a novel Gods and Generals as well as a factual book on the war. If we end up doing this for real, we will add classic movies on what we are studying, as well as well done tv factual specials and mini series (such as Cosmos and Ken Burn's Civil War) and add art and music appreciation. We will go to plays and concerts and maybe even an opera or a ballet and plenty of field trips to area museums and botanical gardens and the like. I have warned Steven we will work him harder than he has ever been worked in school in his life. To see what we are doing:

http://journals.aol.com/stevenfrommilan/my-home-schooling-record/

I am actually letting him take a nap right now. He has done all of his reading (the civil war book, Gods and Generals, The Iliad, and astronomy; and he has answered the questions on the Civil War, though he still has to answer the questions on the other readings). The heat is draining him and making his asthma act up, as well. So I sent him off for a nap in the air conditioned bedroom.

Bill is anemotional wreck this week. He is driving us (and himself) up the wall. I think is stress and fear of the unknown, with him going off to college in two weeks. Hopefully he will settle down quickly once he gets there.