Monday we had our Christmas party with our CC homeschool group. It was at our director's house and she had a swing set as well as a giant trampoline in her back yard. My kids were in heaven with the trampoline. Josiah stayed on it for nearly the entire two and a half hours we were there. Henry's buddy, Abby, was there, so he played with her a lot. They were on the trampoline together for quite a while before moving indoors to play. At one point, Henry was standing in the living room, not moving. I noticed a baby doll under a blanket at his feet. I looked at him quizzically and he offered, "She told me to stay here [with the baby]." Caroline kept announcing that "all my friends are here." All the kids from her nursery class were there. She didn't necessarily play with them, but she did enjoy them being in the same vicinity.
Tuesday we went to the Post Office to mail Christmas packages. I knew the line would be long, so seeing it go all the way to the entry doors was not a shock. They have a bench by the door that our kids have liked playing on during previous trips there. This time there were other kids on the bench, but that did not deter our kids from walking over. The conversation started off with the typical, "How old are you?" The other two kids were ages 3 & 5. The next question came from the 5-year old girl, "Do you like Star Wars?" Then the flood gates opened and all five of them were just chatting away, standing next to each other to compare heights, dancing around. It was great to have them entertained during the long wait. After a while I made my kids come back in line with me when I had moved up in line and was too far away from the bench. The other kids (with an older sibling now) kept walking back and forth talking to my kids. It was all friendly. Then on the last walk-by the girl said, "You want to play zombie march?....You walk like a zombie and then they punch you." Well, actually, no that doesn't sound too fun, thanks. I did feel sorry for their mother because she finally got up to the window and then obviously did not have the correct thing to mail her package, as she walked away with a form in her hand along with her unmailed package and went to make phone calls on the bench. All while holding her fourth (very young) child the entire time. My guess was she was not a very happy camper.
We have been studying a lot about Ancient Greece recently. I'm learning more about it now than ever before. I really disliked this subject (mythology, mostly) in school, so I learned only what I needed to know for a test and promptly forgot it all. No need to crowd a head with all that useless information. :) Of course Josiah likes it, as he pretty much likes every history subject we have studied. This week we learned about the first Olympic Games and decided to have our own competitions. We started off by making olive wreath crowns for the victor. I think the boys glimpsed into their future as they both wrote "1st" on their wreaths. I wrote "2nd" on mine.
Josiah had a hopping race, javelin throw [Henry excitedly entered this event of stick throwing, only to be shut out by Josiah who surprised us by being a very (consistently) good javelin stick thrower. Henry went back to his chair.],
long jump,
In hindsight, I should have done the Olympic Games with Caroline. We did it during her naptime, but I think it would have helped Henry if he had someone out there whom he could beat in every competition. Plus, she wouldn't have cared.
Early Friday morning we went back to our CC director's house to help watch her kids while she went out for an appointment. When I told her we could do this, I completely forgot she had dogs. She always kept them locked up whenever the whole CC group was over and I never heard them. Well, she had a very small dog and a very, very large 7-month-old dog that weighs more than their 8-year-old son. The boys did fine with the small dog, but were quite frightened by the big dog. (It was scary for them; the dog's face came right up to their faces and he was a playful puppy, albeit a giant one.) Caroline was deathly afraid of both the small dog and the giant dog. She kept saying, "I don't like dogs. I don't like dogs." At one point the big dog, Maverick, was out in the backyard, when the 8-year-old son comes running downstairs saying something like the dog is halfway out. We go out and the dog has knocked out a piece of the fence and was halfway in and halfway out of the yard. Fortunately, because it was so big, it got stuck. So, we (carefully) got the dog back in the yard and swiftly put her back upstairs. I could not even imagine if that dog had gotten out and I would have had to figure out how to chase after it while watching 6 kids. Later in the morning, the 8-year-old boy got out his very real rifle to show some older boys who had come over (more CC kids). He wanted to shoot it. I asked him to put it away. So we avoided a runaway dog and a loaded gun all in the short time I was there. I will probably not volunteer to babysit over there for a while. Ever since that day, though, Josiah has talked about how he is friends with the gun-toting kid as well as another boy who was there.
Henry went to his Sunday school class very well today since he knew he was going to get a hard puzzle. We asked him about it this evening and he talked about doing the puzzles and how it was hard, but he did it. He even helped out another little boy with his puzzle and now calls him friend. That is a big deal because he said he didn't like going to that class because all the kids already had friends and there weren't any more kids with whom he could be friends. It would be awesome for him to have a friend and bond over puzzles.
Henry has also surprised me this week with some early reading skills. When I would read him his school books or library books, he would listen to the words and then try to pick out one or two as I was reading. He would point to a word and say, "Does this say, 'July'?" Yes! "Does this say, 'puppy'?" Yes! He's always been correct in his guesses. I have a feeling he'll start reading earlier than Josiah, if only because he wants to do everything that Josiah does.
Caroline drew a picture and she wanted to hang it on the wall. So, she got out our painter's tape and put a little on the back of it. Unfortunately, she didn't wrap the tape to make it double-sided. She just taped it straight on. We helped her fix it and wanted a picture of her with it. She begrudgingly complied on the condition that she got to take a picture of her artwork herself afterwards.
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| taped-up back |
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| mugshot |
We are all happy for Todd to have two weeks off for Christmas break. We have grand plans to get this house in order. It is our goal to use our days wisely!
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