CC Begins

Monday was our first day back with our CC homeschool group.  Henry had Josiah's tutor from last year, a well-loved Mrs. Walker.  Josiah had a new tutor, and he enjoyed her as well.  They got right back into the swing of it, doing presentations even the first day.  Josiah wanted to speak on Thor and he brought his book about him as well as Thor's Chariot that he made at Lowe's.  He said it went well and I trust that it did.  Henry volunteered to go first in his class for presentations.  We had practiced with him that he'd say his name, how old he was, and a few of his favorite things (his black dog with the orange collar, the color green, ice cream, etc.).  I asked him how it went and he said that he didn't say everything, but he answered a lot of questions "all yeses and one no."  He was asked if he brought his dog everywhere he went, "no."  I asked Mrs. Walker how his presentation went and she said, he did well and he was asked a lot of questions.  :)  

We tried to take a few pictures before heading to CC:

Hey, look, a dog is walking by.

Still walking by, right Henry?

The best we got.  Pre-K, 1st Grade, and 2 yrs old.

They came home to a care package from Grandma & Grandpa with lots of Captain America garb. They even got lego kits in the package.  The boys were quite ecstatic.  I thought it was funny that Caroline took both of their Captain America figurines along with an ice pack and played with them for half an hour or so.  Apparently, one of the Captain America's had a hurt leg.  The other hung around for moral support.

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This has been our official first full week of school now that we have added the CC material, as well as history and science to the mix.  I was unsure how Henry would handle memorizing everything, but he's done quite well.  For CC, at the younger ages, they have a lot of memorization because their brains can do it so easily.  So, there are lots of songs to help memorize history sentences, skip counting, geography, English and Latin facts, science facts, etc.  There is also a timeline song that starts at creation and ends with September 11th (I believe).  Last year, we gave up on the timeline song because Josiah was just very resistant to it.  Since he was in kindergarten and it was our first year of CC, I didn't push it too hard since we do the same one each year.  This year, however, I wanted them to learn it.  We learn a little bit of it each week.

For example, this week we learned:

"Age of Ancient Empires, Creation to circa 450 AD, Creation and the Fall, the Flood and the Tower of Babel, Mesopotamia and Sumer, Egyptians, 3000 BC, Indus River Valley Civilization, Minoans and Mycenaeans."

It is set to a catchy tune and Henry's been singing it a lot.  Whenever Todd asks to review some CC material with Henry, whether it be skip counting the 2's, or his English sentence, Henry always asks to do the timeline.  It sounds much cuter coming from Henry because he still says a "W" sound for his "L's."

Josiah has done well with his work as well, both CC material and his regular school work.  He has even learned the timeline song without issue.  Hopefully, we'll have some healthy competition with the boys to learn the material.  With Josiah, we have to deal with a lot of his furrowed brow "I'm-not-happy-I-can't-do-what-I-want-to-do-every-minute-of-every-day" look, a  lot of complaining, and a lot of not-so-hot attitude.  It's not just with school, though, he blesses us with this not-so-pleasant temperament all day long.  It's been a bit frustrating.  If only we could bring in someone older and wiser to tell us how to help change attitudes!

But next week is a new week and we'll continue to try harder and work on having better attitudes.  It is hard to have to always set the example in that department; I fail miserably with it daily!  Exhausting and impossible without the Lord's help.

We did end the week well.  Josiah had his first Sunday in children's church (which they do a couple of times a month).  He really enjoys church and does quite well there.  He was a little disappointed, though, that his classroom was now upstairs and he no longer got to go on the playground as the little kids do.  It's tough to grow up.

Orientations and Promotions

Monday I thought I would trim up the boys' hair before heading to Todd's back-to-school dinner at HBU.  I had cut their hair days earlier, but kept seeing spots I had missed.  Caroline wanted me to trim her hair first, so I obliged.  Usually I either fake it with her, or just trim a little.  I thought I'd just trim a little this time.  That is until she would not keep still.  Every time I would start to cut, she'd whip her head around to see what I was doing.  So I kept having to even it up.  All-in-all I trimmed off at least an inch in some spots, an inch and a half in others.  After washing it that evening, it didn't look too bad, but it's definitely not "even."

All three kids are missing two top teeth each. 

While at the dinner, Josiah quickly noticed they had games for kids to play all around the room.  The boys first played a game where you had to toss dog toys (the small, squeaky variety) into dog bowls.  The boys played it twice and missed all 4 shots each time.  They were hardly focusing, though, because they had each just polished off a giant piece of cake.  Caroline stepped up to the line and tossed two of her four in the bowl.  Good girl.  :)  After a few more games, they had enough tickets to get a prize.  Caroline picked out a bouncy ball.  Henry picked out a small coloring book (which he thought was an activity book - this kid loves mazes and such).  Josiah picked out a plastic fish, the kind that has a hole in the end that can suck up water and have it squeezed out again.  He named it, "Ducky."  He comes from a long line of talented "namers."  My dad named his pet duck, "Duck," when he was a kid.  My sister had a bear that she slept with every night aptly named, "Bear."  Josiah has a dog that he named, "Josiah." Henry has a penguin named, "Penguin."  So, I guess in some respects, naming his fish, "Ducky," is thinking outside of the box.

Tuesday night  the boys and I went to their CC orientation dinner.  It was at a restaurant in which there was a waitress that seemed to constantly walk around offering fresh hot rolls.  So the boys ate a little chicken and a lot of rolls.  Our CC director was giving away door prizes.  We won two bars of scented soaps and the boys were very excited to win them.  The next day Josiah brought them up for bath time, unwrapped the bar, got his hands just barely soapy, and put them on his smiling, excited face.  And then he quickly learned that this was no Johnson's & Johnson's tearless baby wash as he whimpered that his eyes were burning.

Caroline got her new twin mattress delivered this week.  We were really hoping it meant that she would stay in her bed all night long.  However, she still seems to visit us early each morning.  Even now, it's 10:00 p.m. as I type this, and she is on the couch next to me, almost asleep.  Sundays are rough for her.  She always takes a long, late nap which throws off the normal bedtime.

This was Promotion Sunday at church, the day when Josiah's kindergarten class moved up to the first grade classroom, Henry moved up to pre-K, and Caroline stayed with her 2 year old friends.  Josiah acted a bit nervous about it at home, but once we got to church they had new bags for all the first graders who would be in 'Big Church' with their parents.  It had crayons, a blank notepad, and some coloring/activity pages in it.  Josiah drew people in the orchestra - a trumpeter and a drummer.  He then walked into his classroom after service without any problems.  Henry was not just nervous to go to his new class, he was defiantly opposed to even embarking on the car trip to church.  His new class was literally next door to his old class.  The doors are 6 inches apart from each other.  I hung out with him for a little while until a worker there took him to do a puzzle and I skipped on out.  I had those pangs of sadness and hurt leaving him there when he wanted me to stay.  The guilt.  Then I picked him up after church and he came to the door doing a goofy penguin walk.  Clearly, he had warmed up to the strange, new environment.

Josiah was able to see the drawing show again this week.  I've learned the name of it, Mike's Inspiration Station.  He saw it Wednesday night, and immediately drew the man in the moon picture Thursday morning.

Then Todd mentioned that the show came on again Thursday evening.  Well, of course, Josiah wanted to watch it again.  And he made it very clear to me all day long that he wanted to watch it.  I can remember telling him six hours prior to the five o'clock viewing that he still had a ways to wait.  By 3:00 p.m., he had his paper and marker ready to go.  By 4:00 p.m., he had set up his drawing station in front of the t.v.  By 4:30 p.m., I gave into him and turned the t.v. on so that he wouldn't miss the opening of the show.  This is his face when it finally came on:

This day the man drew Samson pushing down the temple pillars.  He made it look so effortless.  Josiah and Henry copied his every move and this was their result:


We have a big day tomorrow as it is our first day of CC for the new year.    

First Day of School

Caroline has one whole week of potty-training in the bag now.  She's done pretty well, all things considered.  She still cries when she goes #2.  We're hoping that this emotion tied to this behavior does not have staying power, though.  She insisted on going to church today.  I told her she had to try to go potty first.  So we had a stand-off.  The boys all left for church and I sat on the step-stool in the bathroom reading a magazine for 10 minutes waiting for her to decide to "try."  She finally went.  I have realized that with this little one, we cannot give in to her.  She is stubborn and will hold out if she thinks she'll win.  I checked on her after the church service (before Sunday School) and the little old nursery worker lady assured me that she was fine and she kept reminding her.  She told me not to worry.  :)  I wasn't worried about as much as I just didn't want them to have a mess on their hands.  She did well, though.  (And I didn't worry.)

She has got a mind of her own.  Many times this week when I've asked her to do something, she'll reply with a loud, "One Minute!" with some attitude in her tone.  Now, I know I say, "just a minute" or "one minute" to the kids a lot.  But I do not think I say it with the teenage-esque attitude with which she says it.  She is going to keep us busy.

Monday we started school.  The boys were basically begging to start because they desperately wanted to do their Star Wars workbooks.  We do not start our CC group for another week, which made it kind of nice to use these two weeks as a slow start to our year.  We did do more than Star Wars workbooks, too, of course.

First Day of School Excitement

I was trying to only have them do a couple of pages in each book per day, but they are having a hard time putting them away.  Josiah has complained that Henry's books are more fun than his.  Welcome to first grade son.  It's not all coloring and counting light sabers.  Now I do have a book arriving in the mail soon that will give me craft ideas for all of our Ancient History lessons.  Arts and crafts are big in this house, so that should help ease him into his elementary school years.

Josiah has spent much of the week in the homeschool room even in the "off" hours.  He is drawing constantly at his desk.  Wednesday night he watched an art show (for kids) with Todd in which the man taught how to draw a dinosaur and scenery.  Josiah soaked it up and the next morning drew the same dinosaur scene from memory.

He's also taught himself a "shading" technique.  He drew a lot of Snoopy pictures and would use his finger to rub the pencil markings to make it more detailed, as he called it.  His love for art runs deep.  At the library this week I noticed a "How to Draw" section of books and he kept pulling them off the shelves.

We have also had a resurgence of Uncle Wiggily.  The Uncle Wiggily book is part of Henry's pre-K curriculum.  Henry is not a fan due to the long stories, but Josiah is a super fan.  He has dressed up like him and talked in his fake British accent.  I get to talk in my fake British accent as well since I am Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper.  (And, really, everything sounds better in fake British accents.)  I often wondered where Josiah got this fake British accent from.  Where did he learn it?  And then it became crystal clear during Bible time one night this week.  Todd was reading the Bible story to the kids and all of a sudden, while speaking as Samson, (an Israelite, mind you), he broke out his best Scottish brogue.  Ahhhh.

Uncle Wiggily and his picture

Uncle Wiggily drinking hot chocolate and eating a donut.

We have a busy week coming up.  Lots of orientation and back-to-school events (for CC as well as HBU).

Diaper-Free Household

Caroline has been the source of all the little "tidbits of life" that I wrote down this week.  She has gotten very good at recognizing her letter "C" everywhere.  Whenever we read a book and she saw a "C," she'd say, "Me!!" and hug that page of the book.  I quizzed her with the puzzle we have of her name.  She could tell me the names of: C-A-R-O-I-N.  I didn't know she knew all of those!  :)  The poor third child.  I'm sure if it were Josiah, I would most definitely have known that and it would already be written in his baby book.  She also has taken to writing her name.  This is an example of her name:

She will repeatedly say, "I wrote my name." until it is acknowledged with praise and admiration.  

She still feels that she is the second (and bossier) mother to the boys.  Upon walking down the stairs the other morning, Henry was walking behind us.  We could hear him actually hopping down the stairs.  She stopped, turned around and said quite loudly, "Don't jump down stairs Ren-ry! You fall hurt you-self."  This girl is the law enforcement arm of the house.  She knows the rules.  Of course, she also bends them for herself.  When I try to remind her of a rule, she'll pull out the coy smile, "Aren't I cute? How can you possibly discipline such a cute little girl?"  She has also started giving us really goofy faces a la Henry.  I have yet to get a picture of them, but they are pretty cute.

And the other thing I have noticed with her all week long, is that she has been working on a future goal of entering the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.  Whenever I give her food, she requests a cup of water to go with it.  She will dip whatever food I give her into the water before eating it.  It started with her (fake)Cheerios of all things, but has moved into most all foods given.  This is not the neatest method of eating either.

Despite most of the house not feeling great, we bit the bullet and started potty-training Caroline this weekend.  I dread potty-training.  The boys both did really well with it, but after the first three days of "getting it" I spend the next six months always on edge that I need to have her near a bathroom, constantly on guard that she doesn't have an accident, wondering if she'll make it through the night dry.  The end result is absolutely wonderful, but the process is not that much fun.  Of course, that being said, she did great the first day.  The method we use has her go through the house and she throws away any diapers we might have.  This was fairly easy since all the diapers were in one location.  Then she tossed the bag outside.  (I never really throw them away for good until I'm sure it's taken.)  Then we use the phrase, "Tell me when you need to go potty." all day long.  This is supposed to serve as a constant reminder to her since toddlers have short attention spans.  Plus, it is a lot less frustrating to simply say this statement as a reminder than to constantly ask, "Do you have to go potty?" (which requires an answer).  It worked like a charm with Henry (and we were unaware of this method with Josiah).

She "got it" pretty quickly going #1.  She really only had one true accident and it was in the evening after not taking a nap for the day.  We did try to do nap time.  It turned into a 2 hour marathon of her laying in bed for 5 minutes, then jumping up saying, "I have to go potty." Followed by 5 seconds of sitting on her potty (sans action), washing her hands, back to bed for another 5 minutes, back up.  Needless to say, the nap didn't happen.

What!?! Potty Training?!! I didn't sign up for this.

Going #2 seemed to scare her a little.  She kept saying her bum hurt, so in the afternoon I gave her a small amount of Miralax to make sure it'd be easy for her.  Well, a few hours later, it was easy for her.  It easily went in her underwear, on the floor, on my pants, my bare toes, and all over her potty.  She really freaked out at seeing it.  I kind of freaked out, too.  Did I mention I'm not a big fan of potty-training?  Last night I was really praying that today would go better in that department.  (So far no action, if that already isn't too much information.)

Her schedule is totally off, though.  Last night she fell asleep near her normal bedtime, but then greeted us at 1:00 a.m. with wet underwear.  Not a big deal for her first night.  I thought we could clean up the mess and get right back to bed.  She had other plans.  She was up literally every 5 minutes to "go potty."  She had action only one of those times in the two and a half HOURS that she constantly got up.  It was a rough night.

At least we got this ball rolling.  She loves her Hello Kitty underwear, too.  That and her "Frosty" underwear, which is really Olaf from Frozen, but she's never seen it.  So, hopefully this whole potty-training thing will stick!

And these guys have been troopers through it, too.  They've gotten a lot less attention from us and a lot more computer time, so they're probably happier in some ways.  This is Wolverine and Cyclops (if it wasn't obvious).  Although earlier they were Batman and Robin so the clothing matches those characters more.

They got some artwork in as well. I always love it when Josiah draws Marvin the Martian because this is the furrowed brow face he gives us all the time. He is a pro at making this face.  Even the fists out in front come with his face.  It usually comes with a "Grrrr" sound as well.

Henry Had A Good Week

On Monday we went back to the library to get Henry's trophy for completing the requirements for their summer reading program.  Upon exiting the car, Henry mentioned to me that Josiah would now have two trophies.  I told him that, no, Josiah already got his trophy and he wouldn't be getting anything that day.  Henry said, "No, I'm giving my trophy to Josiah."  He is such the younger brother.  He has always been very generous with Josiah, quick to share and deferring to Josiah's requests and interests (for the most part).  Inside, Henry stood at the desk and spoke to the librarian himself.  When she asked him if he knew what he was getting, he smiled and said, "A trophy."  When she handed it to him, he was beaming.  And I noticed that he did not hand it over to Josiah.  :)

The best part was after all of this, we checked-out books, exited the library, and Henry proceded to scream and yell at Josiah the entire drive home because Josiah was reading a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle book and would not give it to Henry to read when he was finished.  It was a full blown tantrum as best he could in his carseat - kicking feet, screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs.  It did not seem to influence Josiah at all into handing the book over any quicker.  Which, of course, is probably for the better to not give into the tantrum.  So, he's a generous younger brother who still acts like the 4-year old that he is.  :)

The next day the boys went back to Half-Priced Books and redeemed their $5 gift certificates for reading 300 minutes (each) in July.  These summer reading programs have been the best.  They both were on the prowl for Bugs Bunny books.  Every few months the Looney Tunes make a comeback in our house and this was the week they came back.  The Bugs Bunny books prompted a lot of artwork for the remainder of the week as well as lots of "whole" carrots eaten.  The boys love the carrots at the grocery store that still have the stems attached.  So we endured little Bugs Bunny voices since it meant that they ate a bunch of carrots.

Josiah's drawings:


Henry's creations - a Ninjago Ninja and a Ninja Turtle:



Artwork seemed to be prolific this week.  I think in part it had to do with the Classical Conversations Practicum we attended.  I went and learned more about the CC homeschool program we participate in, while the kids went to "camp."  Caroline technically went to the "nursery camp" which consisted of just playing, but she loved her "class" as she called it.  After the first day she kept saying, "I go my class?"  Henry went to "Play Camp" and had a lot of fun.  He went in willingly, without hesitation, and even said he did not want to go to Josiah's class, but his own.  It helped that his class had two CC kids that he knew from our campus.  Josiah was enrolled in the "GeoDraw Camp" in which he drew art and learned about the world (countries, north/south/east/west, islands, oceans, continents, etc.).

Josiah traced this!

He traced this, too, even the fancy compass rose.

 One of the best parts was on the second day at lunch Josiah told me he made a friend, Zachary.  When he initially told me, I wasn't sure if HE made a friend and Zachary was unaware of this friendship or if it was mutual.  (Last year at CC Josiah always said one boy in the class was his best friend, yet he barely spoke two words to him.) But then on Day 3, I met Zachary and it looked like they really were friendly with each other.  Unfortunately this boy is not a part of our campus and it is unlikely we will see him again since I never saw his mother.

We have been praying that the kids all make good, strong, solid friendships here.  Upon picking Henry up from church today, he told me that he had made a friend that day.
"What's your friend's name?" I asked.
Henry said, "I don't know, but it isn't Zachary.  If it was Zachary then there would be three Zacharys."
"Was it the boy you were playing with when I came to pick you up?"
"No," he said. "It was the boy I was playing with on the floor." (which was the boy he was playing with when we came to pick him up)
It was quite the conversation.  I'm hoping next week to get a peek of this "not-Zachary" kid.

We love to pick Henry up from his Sunday School class at church.  He seemingly always gets a good report.  Today they told us that they loved having him back and they really missed him when we were gone.  It always brings up loving feelings towards him which helps because he has been somewhat difficult lately at home.  He just moves at his own (quite slow) pace, which can be incredibly frustrating for me who wants quick and efficient transitions from house to car, from car to store/church/etc.  Even getting dressed, getting teeth brushed, using the facilities.  These can all take really long times.  And yet, he has such a sweet spirit. He is always teaching Caroline new things.  He is constantly teaching her to say big words.  He breaks them down into syllables for her.  "Caw-wo-wine, say, 'Captain America. Cap. Tain. A. Mer. I. Ca.' "  He teaches her all the important words.  He helps her with the hidden picture puzzles in the Highlights magazines.  At dinner tonight, he saved a Whopper candy for Josiah.  He tried to give it to him, but we wouldn't let him since Josiah had not eaten much dinner (and was frequently saying how bad it smelled and how awful it was).  Then he goes next to Josiah and says, "Just eat some more chicken and you can have it."  He's a very good encourager which we are grateful for in this house.  

Henry is the boy whom I discipline, but then after the discipline is over I turn to Todd and mouth, "He is so cute!"  He's got our hearts this little guy.

I couldn't leave these out.  Josiah did some amazing Ninja Turtle (with skateboard) drawings this week, as well.