A Week In The Life

Henry has been typing up a story all week long.  Whenever he finishes his school work for the day, he's been going to the computer to continue working on it instead of playing video games.  It's been a nice change.  His story, called 'Caleb's Life,' centers around a boy aptly named Caleb, which is Henry's favorite name.  Caleb's life mirrors Henry's life in many ways - he has two siblings and a dog, he swims a lot, plays outside to get Vitamin D, he likes to watch football and baseball on TV, he eats many elaborately described meals, and he plays board games. Right now the story is more of a day-in-the-life account, but we'll see if he encounters any problems in the future.  He's up to 1400 words.  Henry also has been having fun experimenting out Microsoft Word.  He tries to add pictures and charts (schedules).  He even put Microsoft Word for Dummies on hold at the library.

While Henry typed, Josiah spent a few days writing a Catman comic book.  It was a full length comic book with lots of illustrations and held together by yarn.  Besides comic books, he and I have been muddling our way through Washington Irving's books.  We read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow together and then we started Rip Van Winkle.  The vocabulary and style of writing is a bit out of our league.  We've had to keep a dictionary close by and refer to it often.  I read Sleepy Hollow aloud to Josiah and every few pages, I'd ask, "Do you understand what's going on?"  He caught on to more than I expected, but it was still a tough book.  

Meanwhile, Caroline was rocking math this week.  Tuesday morning, 6:00 a.m., she walked downstairs, walked into the school room, walked back out and asked, "Where's my math test?"  Good morning?  Breakfast?  Can you eat breakfast first?  She crushed it getting a 100%.  She said that her favorite parts of school are math tests and CC review. 

 

We also had a cool morning one day this week.  Below 75° kind of cool.  Josiah went upstairs to get his winter cap and thick gloves.  Caroline also wore a hat, though not quite as thick.  As she read to me that day, she looked like a 12-year old skater girl.  

For CC this week, we had to do it over Zoom.  There was a child on our campus who had a family member test positive for COVID, so we had to take a two week break from meeting.  Fortunately, one of those weeks was already a planned break week, so we only had to do one day over Zoom.  (And the child on our campus has been testing negative.)  We did it family style, so all the kids (and me) were crowded around our iPad and all the tutors took turns teaching different parts.  Besides the "his elbow's in my way/she's not giving me any room/that's my seat/I can't see/etc. etc.," they did well.  

After CC was over, I headed to the polls to vote.  I stood in line for a little over two hours.  The line was so long, that when I first got in it, we were very close to the campaigners handing out pamphlets.  The same people who typically have to stand a certain distance from the voters, but with the lines so long, we ended up next to each other. In the past, my stance has always been to avoid, avoid, avoid the gauntlet of campaigners that try to make conversation.  It didn't work like it was supposed to this time.  Knowing the lines would be long, I had brought a magazine with me and intensely stared at it to avoid all eye contact.  And then there was a fight.  Right next to me.  One campaigner, a man, was telling people about the new ballots and polling machines.  A female campaigner was getting mad at him because she felt he was telling people how to vote.  They started arguing and yelling and really getting mad at each other.  He told her to shut up.  She took out her camera and started taking a video of his illegal influence over the voters.  It was so incredibly uncomfortable.  There was some intense praying for the line to move forward.  After that I had two people behind me that talked the entire time.  I learned a lot about the country of Columbia and the foods eaten there...while I stared at my magazine. 

Awana started back in person this week.  We were all masked up.  The kids had a good time.  Henry really gets into the game time portion.  He got picked to be a shark in Sharks and Minnows and he took out as many kids as he possibly could.  (Basically a group of kids run from one side of a basketball court to the other.  Henry was a shark that had to tag them out as they ran.)  

Yesterday I made plans to get together with another mom that isn't doing CC this year.  We were going to get coffee and just catch up - see how the school year was going for each of us.  Commiserate.  Encourage.  That sort of thing.  I told Todd I'd probably be gone about an hour.  Well.  We ended up having a great conversation and I got home a little over five hours later.  Upon walking in the door, Caroline looked at me, and with much conviction, said, "You better not ask for a quiet time tomorrow."  Todd didn't believe I could talk that much.    

I saw this meme and it may or may not reflect our household...