Caroline the Gymnast

It was Spring Break for the public schools this week.  That meant we had neighbor kids who knocked on our door ready to play a wee bit before we were done with school.  We are not going to take our spring break until April because we are studying for Memory Master for the next couple of weeks.  The boys are both going to go for it this year.  Henry is nearly ready and Josiah is on his way to being ready.  This is when they have to memorize every thing they learned from all 7 subjects for all 24 weeks of our Classical Conversations curriculum.  Henry has only one or two weeks of history left to memorize, but he has everything else completed.  Josiah has a ways to go, but he will get there.  I really want him to try because I think he'll be upset if his younger brother makes it a second year in a row and he doesn't.  He's very capable and he's come so far in his memorization since last year.  Last year, the timeline song was his nemesis - he couldn't make it through the whole thing (actually he couldn't get past week 1 without a mistake).  Currently, he's got the whole song with 10-12 errors throughout (which is good considering the song has 161 date facts).  We have a week and a half before the first Parent Proof is due, which is where either Todd or I quiz them on everything.  The following week they will have a Tutor Proof that has to be perfect - no prompts, no helps, nothing.  The week after that is the Director Proof in which she asks 25% of the material and that is usually passed with no problem.  So that is going to be a big focus of ours for the next few weeks.  Although we're still doing most of our school work as well because when I only did our regular history book three days this past week, Josiah complained because that's his favorite.  I was trying not to crowd our days (or their brains) too much!  Josiah is also working on a year end paper in his Essentials writing class for CC.  They had to choose anyone from Ancient History.  Greek and Roman gods counted, and Josiah chose Poseidon.  It's a regular paper - three topics, intro, conclusion, bibliography.  Then he has to present the paper as Poseidon in front of his class and they have to guess who he is.  (Write it in third person, present it in first person.) The next four weeks are going to be busy!  I'm sort of tired just thinking about it and I don't even have to do all the memorizing.  (Although I do let the boys "proof" me just for fun and to see if I can get through it all.  They covet their time as exam proctor.)

Since all of our activities were cancelled for Spring Break, our evenings were free which was wonderful.  We spent several of them walking/jogging around the new paths in our neighborhood.  They put sidewalks around a big retention pond and it's been good to get out and walk.  The evenings have been in the 60s here so it's been beautiful weather.  When we jog we say we're in training for our annual Fun Run 1K which is coming up next month.  My goal is always not to embarrass myself.  For the kids, it's good for them to learn to pace themselves.

The boys had a good week when Todd granted them permission to play Minecraft.  They love it which was no surprise.  The best is when they want to "show" us what they built in their village, but their "showing" involves a lot of playing.  Are you showing me or are you just building a whole new building?  Todd even started his own village to see how he manages in the Minecraft Survival mode.  I do a lot of smiling and nodding.  Uh huh.  I see.  Yeah.  That's cool.  Wow.  Good job.  And that's just with Todd's world. (Just kidding...)

Mid-week, we had a field trip with our CC group.  One of the moms had contacted the Bach Society and found they did 45-minute (free!) presentations for school groups.  We met at the library and they brought a harpsichord player, a violinist, a singer, and a speaker.  This is what these four men did for a living and they were pretty amazing.  The singer was a bass and sang in German, Bach's native tongue.  Josiah and I were incredibly interested in the whole thing.  Henry and Caroline were slightly less interested.  However, after the concert we went to Blaze Pizza because it was Pi Day and all pizzas were $3.14.  They showed some interest in the pizza.  We had never been to this particular pizza place and it was a bit like Subway the way they constructed your pizza with you standing there choosing all the sauces, cheeses, and toppings.  Their shtick was that they fired them in the oven for 180 seconds, so they were a bit thin and crispy, but really tasty.


Caroline had a bit of an emotional night one evening this week.  It was bedtime and she was just bawling that she really likes to play with her doll, Ja'Neesa, the most and she feels so sad for the people who bought her other toys (like every other toy she owns) because she doesn't play with them, but she likes Ja'Neesa so much.  So we talked about it and how she may go back to playing with other toys after a while and it was okay to play with her doll, plus so many people bought the clothes and accessories for Ja'Neesa and she plays with all of those.  She decided to rotate sleeping with a different stuffed animal each night to make them all feel loved.
The emotions didn't stop there, though.  The next day we were in the car and she was upset with Josiah.  She pleaded with him, We used to love each other and play and we got along.  Now we just fight.  I want us to love each other and to not fight.  I want us to play nicely again.  It was pretty mature of her to recognize how things had changed between them.  Josiah has a little of the pre-teen attitude going on and he isn't always the kindest with his words.  Being homeschooled, the kids really do play together (nicely) every day, although the enormous amounts of together time also means they usually fight every day, too.  The day after that exchange, all three kids were in the car and Caroline wrote out, "I no [know] we love each other." 

She also wrote "I love you Josiah.  I love you Henry."  So sweet.  Thankfully, Henry responded in kind at the bottom.

We also have officially determined that Caroline loves gymnastics.  This Saturday she had her free trial class and when it was over she didn't want to come off of the mats. She wanted to stay for the next class.  When I told her we had to go in the office to sign her up, she asked if she could do it every day.  Let's start with one day.  She really loved it.  It was such a huge gym with literally dozens and dozens of kids that I didn't feel comfortable taking a picture.  Then the minute we got home she ran to the neighbor's house, so I never did get a picture of her in her leotard.  Needless to say, she loved it.  They stretched, did the splits, jumped on trampolines, did cartwheels and somersaults, jumped over the balance beam, and lots more.  It is a neat gym with all the equipment you would think of with gymnastics - lots of balance beams, foam pits, vaults, uneven bars, as well as rings and pommel-horses for the boys.  My inner child would have loved to try it all out.

This afternoon we went to a Bon Voyage party for Henry's after-class teacher at CC.  She and her husband are headed to SE Asia to help with human trafficking.  She requested no gifts because obviously they can only bring so much with them, but the whole drive to church this morning and on the drive to the party, Henry made her origami animals/objects.  He handed her a grocery bag full of them when we got to the party and she was so kind and went through the whole bag with him naming everything he made.  She has been one of Henry's favorite people.  There are just some people/teachers that you're drawn to and admire and she was that to Henry.  We are so sad to see her go and will miss her a lot, but are grateful there are people that do the hard work she's going to do.

We're back to our regular schedule this week.  I'll miss all the activity-free evenings, although Caroline has requested that we have Game Night on all the days we don't have activities.  She thinks Game Night is the best.