Hearing From Poseidon

Tuesday both boys had their Director Proofs.  I always thought that this proof would be the easiest since they were quizzed on only 25% of the material.  They both passed.  (Whoo Hoo!!)  Yet, when I looked over their proof sheets to see what they were asked, this proof seemed like it would have been harder.  They're asked six weeks total worth of the timeline song starting at random spots in the song.  (two weeks here, two weeks there).  Nothing is in order and there isn't any flow as when you go over every week.  They did it, though, and said it wasn't hard, but that's because they're hardcore at this point.  Todd took them out to Smashburger for dinner that evening.

They even got a celebratory milkshake.

When we go to Smashburger we often try to steal one another's fries by saying, "Hey!  Look!  There's Tom Brady!"  If I were trying to steal Todd's fries it would be, "Look!  Gisele!"  Henry attempted this with Todd by saying, "Hey, is that a character from Death in Paradise?"  [Todd's TV show]

Now that the Proofs are over and they've received their medals (of which Josiah wore for several days straight), Henry has moved on to memorizing songs from the radio.  He asked to have the lyrics of two songs printed out.  He memorized the first song in two days time and now he's working on the second.  The first song is Survivor by Zach Williams.  The refrain has a line that says, "I'm a survivor."  It is at that particular line that Caroline joins in at full volume with emotion.  I'm a survivor.  It's a good song, even if we hear it sung 50x a day.

Josiah dressed as Poseidon for his Faces of History report this year.  When we went shopping for his wig, we discovered that there were few shops that carry them at this time of year, so we were forced to pay "off-season" prices.  I told him he better decide who he's going to report on next year during the Halloween season so we can gather all needed accessories while they're cheap!  Next year is the Middle Ages, so he's thought about da Vinci or Robin Hood.

When it came time for him to speak, Josiah gave an amazing auditory performance.  He spoke through the microphone really well - we could totally understand everything he said, he had a ton of expression in his voice, he was very much into it.  Unfortunately the visual was a paper in front of his face the entire time.  He put it down only at the end to ask the question, "Who am I?" and call upon someone to answer it.  (They wised up and the next speaker put their papers on a music stand.)

I was very impressed with Josiah's Poseidon paper.  He had to have three sources and he had to do a Key Word Outline for each source on three different topics - Offspring, Trident, & Sea.  He had done these outlines several weeks ago and then we put everything on hold to work on Memory Master.  We had to get right back into it this week and I asked him to read his outlines to see if he remembered what they all meant.  He remembered every detail.  It was unbelievable.  Since we were short on time, I had him dictate the paragraphs to me while I typed it up.  This kid is a really good story-teller.  I looked back at him at one point and asked him if he was reading from the book, but he didn't even have the book - Henry was reading it.  He spoke his outlines into really nice paragraphs, which was a beautiful thing since we only had three days to write it, edit it, and practice the performance.  He's definitely got writing and story-telling in his blood.  He idolizes the author Nathan Hale who writes historical graphic novels and Josiah has written several additional ones about historical events that Hale hasn't done yet.  He even has the personality of an author - he never throws anything away and he leaves his things everywhere.  Picture a cluttered writer's nook...

He wore swim goggles for a touch of humor.

It was due to this clutter, that branches out into all rooms of our house, that I spoke with a mom at CC this week about how she gets her (five) children to pick up after themselves.  She said that she calls it Contributions.  Everyone needs to contribute to the household to make it run smoothly.  Before school begins each day, the kids have to do their contributions and in the evenings they have more contributions.  It sounded like an excellent idea.  Whenever we get going in the semester with school and activities, chores seem to fall by the wayside.  Now that CC is over and activities are starting to end, it's the perfect time to get this going again.  So, we spoke to the kids about Contributions at dinner one night.  They seriously couldn't have been more thrilled.  Then before school the next day, the kids did their Contributions.  Later, while we were doing school, Caroline looked at me dead seriously and asked if I did any Contributions for the house.  I looked at her, inhaled slowly, and affirmed, "Yes. Yes, I do."  Then I listed just a few. 

There have been many conversations lately about how to make our family a happier, better family.  Josiah spoke to us last week about kids' rights and treating each other with respect.  Then Henry has branched off of that and has requested many private conversations with Todd and I this week.  We told him that the majority of our frustrations as parents could be appeased if they would just pick up their stuff (ideally without us having to remind them).  So, we've all worked on it.  After a day of better behavior (by all), Henry requested another private conversation.  At one point he said, "You guys are better than regular parents."
Todd, slightly surprised by the statement, happily replied, "Oh, thanks."
Henry, finishing his sentence, "Sometimes."
Oh... Thanks....

One highlight of Josiah's week was that his Essentials' class had an ice cream party after their Faces of History presentation.  We all brought toppings and the kids were instructed to put their toppings in the bowl and then try to dump their cup of ice cream on top.  Josiah filled his bowl up with so many toppings he didn't even have room left for the ice cream.

A little more sugar to top your sugar?

Caroline went to another birthday party again this afternoon.  For the love of God, I hope birthday parties are over at this point.  I have counted, to the best of my ability, and came up with fifteen birthday parties this school year.  At times it has felt like double that.  The party today had a game where you pull out the tissues from a tissue box as quickly as possible. Caroline gave a valiant effort, but came in second.

 

Caroline helped us make dinner last night.  As she was stirring our cauliflower rice she asked if she was a baker.  I told her she was a chef and she was proud of what she made.

This week we are off.  We are not doing school.  They kids don't even want to do any of their activities, but we'll see about that.  I don't want to do anything special. I want to just BE.  Be in the house, be present with the kids and play games, do puzzles, watch movies and take walks.  Relax and recharge.  We are all looking forward to it.