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).