The new school year began on Monday. We now have an excited 4th grader:
a "this-is-my-prison-sentence" 2nd Grader:
and an enthusiastic Kindergartener:
Caroline impressed me with her creativity skills. For her first math lesson, she was assigned the task to create something with the pattern blocks and then tell me about it. Of all the kids I've ever seen use pattern blocks (and it is more than just our 3), I've never seen one build up. The first day she built four trees. The second day she built a Christmas tree with two swans at the bottom. We have an engineering genius on our hands!
Henry's week did not begin quite as I had expected. The first two days of school all subjects went perfectly fine, except math. This is how it went, "I hate borrowing. Why did the person invent borrowing?" over and over and over again. Apparently borrowing from the tens column was not his favorite. It got to the point of ridiculousness, so for the remaining days I gave him old worksheets from 1st grade just to get him back in the swing of things. He completed those with no issues at all. There was no borrowing involved.
Caroline impressed me with her creativity skills. For her first math lesson, she was assigned the task to create something with the pattern blocks and then tell me about it. Of all the kids I've ever seen use pattern blocks (and it is more than just our 3), I've never seen one build up. The first day she built four trees. The second day she built a Christmas tree with two swans at the bottom. We have an engineering genius on our hands!
In addition to starting school, we also had our CC orientation at the new church campus. It was so nice to see everyone again and get excited for CC to begin. All the kids met their tutors and all are happy. Caroline was especially happy that her class was all girls. CC doesn't begin for another week and a half, but we are ready! The moms were also given an orientation in Essentials (Essentials of the English Language) that Josiah will begin this year. It is a grammar and writing curriculum for 4th thru 6th graders. The orientation was entitled "Essentials Without Tears." Hopefully Josiah's love of creating stories will diminish the number of tears we experience. He has already spoken to the Essentials director about the end-of-year project. Each child has to write a report on someone from the time frame studied. They dress up as the person and read their report to the entire CC group and we have to guess who they are. This happens at the very last CC meeting of the year. Josiah has been planning his report since last May. The idea of dressing up and having people guess is incredibly exciting to him.
After the CC orientation the kids had a dentist's appointment. Josiah went back with his hygienist. When she came to talk to me after cleaning his teeth, she said, "It is like talking to a 30-year old man. He is so polite." As goofy as that child can be, he can also be incredibly mature. Then she took Henry back, and after cleaning his teeth, she came back to me and said, "When I handed Henry the mirror to show him how to use the little toothbrush properly, he held the mirror and said, 'that is one good looking guy.'" And that is Henry. Todd and I always say he has a little frat boy inside. Caroline is usually very chatty at the dentist's office. So when the hygienist gave her the 2-minute brushing timer, I asked her if she could stay quiet for the full 2 minutes. It took a few tries, but she made it.
We also had a lot of pool time this week. One day we went to a CC friend's pool and 3 other CC families were there as well. This neighborhood pool was like a resort. I took no pictures, but this was from their neighborhood's website. It was beautiful.
Caroline spent the first 15 minutes throwing a major tantrum because she was around 47" tall and she had to be 48" to ride the water slides. I didn't budge on the 47" bit because I didn't feel like she could swim from the slide to the side of the pool. She kept screaming, "I can do it. I'm old enough. I can swim." And I kept saying, They didn't ask you if you can do it, they don't have an age requirement, and you are not 48". It was BAD. But she finally got over it and found the pool to be incredibly fun. It had an area with frogs and lily pads--you would jump from pad to pad and try not to slide back into the water. She did this nearly the entire 3 hours we were there. The boys spent their entire time on the slides. It was so nice that they could swim to the side of the pool. It offers them (and me) more freedom at pools now.
Another day we had friends come to our neighborhood pool. Caroline had cried the night before because our pool wasn't as fancy as the other one. It was the last day the pool was open on weekdays. With schools starting here next week, the pool will only be opened on weekends now. I had thought all pools were open until Labor Day and was really looking forward to having quiet swims during the week while the schools were in session. That was not to be. The kids swam until they were exhausted.
Henry did show me his freestyle and backstroke:
This weekend we got some paint for the boys room. I tried to match the paint already on their walls to keep it fairly neutral. They were allowed to pick out a can of spray paint to paint their bookcases. That was their individualized pop of color. Henry picked out Pumpkin Orange. Josiah picked out Gloss Banner Red. It'll be like Virginia Tech in their bedroom. Now I'm waiting for a bit less humidity to start painting. The humidity's been intense lately. We have another African dust cloud headed our way, so maybe that'll help. Despite not liking the dry weather these dust clouds bring, the good thing is that they seem to prevent hurricanes from forming.
To close out the weekend, we spent this evening at a Skeeter's baseball game. Tonight they had a football giveaway so Henry really wanted to go to this game. Sunday nights are also kids nights so we got there early. The kids got in line and had the players sign their pictures/program. Josiah had drawn two pictures of their mascot, Swatson, and he had the players sign those.
We decided to explore more of the stadium. They had a splash pad area and an amazing playground with the coolest equipment.
When we made it to our seats, we sat down and Caroline said, "I'm hungry."
1st inning: hot dogs
2nd inning: french fries
3rd inning: ice cream
4th inning: took another walk around the stadium
5th inning: bedtime
There was a little baseball in there, too.
And one last picture. Henry and Caroline were playing with a stick in our tree. The stick is thicker than it looks in the picture. It seemed to hold them, no problem.
This coming week is filled with a lot less "fun" and a bit more work. I'm sure our students will be overjoyed.
After the CC orientation the kids had a dentist's appointment. Josiah went back with his hygienist. When she came to talk to me after cleaning his teeth, she said, "It is like talking to a 30-year old man. He is so polite." As goofy as that child can be, he can also be incredibly mature. Then she took Henry back, and after cleaning his teeth, she came back to me and said, "When I handed Henry the mirror to show him how to use the little toothbrush properly, he held the mirror and said, 'that is one good looking guy.'" And that is Henry. Todd and I always say he has a little frat boy inside. Caroline is usually very chatty at the dentist's office. So when the hygienist gave her the 2-minute brushing timer, I asked her if she could stay quiet for the full 2 minutes. It took a few tries, but she made it.
We also had a lot of pool time this week. One day we went to a CC friend's pool and 3 other CC families were there as well. This neighborhood pool was like a resort. I took no pictures, but this was from their neighborhood's website. It was beautiful.
Another day we had friends come to our neighborhood pool. Caroline had cried the night before because our pool wasn't as fancy as the other one. It was the last day the pool was open on weekdays. With schools starting here next week, the pool will only be opened on weekends now. I had thought all pools were open until Labor Day and was really looking forward to having quiet swims during the week while the schools were in session. That was not to be. The kids swam until they were exhausted.
This weekend we got some paint for the boys room. I tried to match the paint already on their walls to keep it fairly neutral. They were allowed to pick out a can of spray paint to paint their bookcases. That was their individualized pop of color. Henry picked out Pumpkin Orange. Josiah picked out Gloss Banner Red. It'll be like Virginia Tech in their bedroom. Now I'm waiting for a bit less humidity to start painting. The humidity's been intense lately. We have another African dust cloud headed our way, so maybe that'll help. Despite not liking the dry weather these dust clouds bring, the good thing is that they seem to prevent hurricanes from forming.
To close out the weekend, we spent this evening at a Skeeter's baseball game. Tonight they had a football giveaway so Henry really wanted to go to this game. Sunday nights are also kids nights so we got there early. The kids got in line and had the players sign their pictures/program. Josiah had drawn two pictures of their mascot, Swatson, and he had the players sign those.
When we made it to our seats, we sat down and Caroline said, "I'm hungry."
1st inning: hot dogs
2nd inning: french fries
3rd inning: ice cream
4th inning: took another walk around the stadium
5th inning: bedtime
There was a little baseball in there, too.
And one last picture. Henry and Caroline were playing with a stick in our tree. The stick is thicker than it looks in the picture. It seemed to hold them, no problem.
This coming week is filled with a lot less "fun" and a bit more work. I'm sure our students will be overjoyed.
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