School Is Back in Session

Monday morning.  Day 1 of school for the year.  By subject number two, child number two said he wasn't going to do it.  Really?  That's not how it works in school.  For whatever reason he just didn't want to get on board with the start of school.  He did end up finishing his work that day, albeit begrudgingly.  We had a loooong chat about the importance of school and how he should enjoy learning.  If he doesn't enjoy learning here, then he can go to a regular school, because it is important to develop a love of learning.  He opted to stay home and he was fine the rest of the week.  The public school kids went back Wednesday, so now that the school buses are a regular there is less resentment that we started a full two days before they did.  In their first day of school pictures, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  It's always interesting to see how that changes.  Josiah picked an artist (that's been consistent for a while now).  Henry picked police officer, and Caroline picked gymnastics teacher.  I also took the pictures after we finished all our work - more smiles that way.

We are repeating a science book that we did three years ago, so we redid a science experiment.  It is the one that covers Galileo's discovery that the speed at which an object falls is the same regardless of the weight of the object.  So, Caroline held up a ping pong ball and a golf ball at the same height and we watched them fall and land together.  The first time we did it, my phone didn't have slow motion video.  Now it does which made the experiment much cooler to experience.

Right before impact.

Caroline is becoming a perfectionist with her math.  She had a math test this week and she missed one question.  One.  The clock said 4:45 and she wrote 5:45.  She went into her room and cried for half an hour.  She did so well!  Clocks are hard and 45 minutes after an hour is the hardest! Besides that, she has said that she really likes first grade.
Meanwhile, Henry has transitioned to military time.  We ordered both Henry and Caroline new clocks for their rooms.  Henry's came with the option of setting it in military time, which he thought was really cool.  Now in his schoolwork, when he has to tell the time on clocks, he writes it in military time.

Mid-week, the kids were invited over to a friend's house.  This is Bobby, Josiah's most favorite friend, and they just moved literally down the street from our neighborhood.  All three kids stayed for three hours (without me).  When I went to pick them up, they got to play for another hour while Bobby's mom and I chatted.  When we finally got in the car, Henry asked that next time we talk longer so they can play longer.  All three of them basically want to move in with Bobby.  They have continuously asked to go back to play.  Every day.  All week long.  I asked Caroline what she did (as there was no one near her age) and Bobby's mom gave her a lot of Mickey Mouse goldfish and she got to watch Garfield.  Snacks and Netflix.  She was a happy girl. 

We had a repeat of Caroline's favorite things this weekend.  The boys headed off to another Skeeter's game while the girls stayed home.  Caroline really wanted me to take her to Sweet Tomatoes, but that would be an several hour happening which I wasn't too keen on doing.  So her second choice of food was pizza and breadsticks.  We brought some home and watched a movie on Netflix while we ate.  She was a happy camper.  After the movie, she wanted to play dolls.  My first task was to brush and braid Rapunzel's hair.  So, Caroline played dolls, while I spent twenty plus minutes brushing out tangles and braiding hair.  I'm a big advocate of keeping all doll hair braided at all times.
While we were having our girl's night, the boys were enjoying Star Wars night with the Skeeter's.  They got a Darth Swatson bobble head (we only do the baseball games for the give-aways).  Todd said that when they put the opposing team players up on the screen, they were dressed as Sith.  The Skeeter's were dressed as Rebels.  They had a good time, but it wasn't a very exciting game. 

I had a meeting/teacher training at church Friday night, so Todd took the kids out to Smashburger.  It ended up being a big night for both boys.  Josiah lost his very last tooth at the restaurant.  (The dentist threatened to pull it if he didn't get it out.  Incentive.)  Henry learned that when you turn off the car, the radio doesn't stop playing songs.  Todd said the radio was playing, Paint It Black when they arrived at the restaurant.  When they got in the car to go home, another song was playing and Henry asked about Paint It Black.  Todd explained how the radio keeps playing and never stops.  It was a light bulb moment for Henry.  Oh, so that's why the radio is always playing a different song when we get in the car.  Yep.

Well, Henry was told the three rules of Big Church and he got to test them out today.  1-Sit up. 2-Bring your Bible.  3-Draw.  Henry brought his Bible.  Check.  I think there should have been an explanation on what sorts of things to draw.  While he did draw, he drew Spiderman.  Check?  And he didn't sit up so well because he was hunched over his notebook.  Drawing Spiderman.  So, we'll keep working on the paying attention part.  Ironically, I had already planned on next week's character trait: Attentiveness.  My reasoning was because we start CC this week and I want to make sure the kids give each of their tutors proper attention.  Now, it'll have a broader meaning than just school, so that's even better.