We are in the last three weeks of school before winter break. I have been telling the kids to finish well. One child is following said advice, while two have their minds focused on Christmas. Henry made me laugh when I corrected his math work earlier this week. He's been doing a lot of clock/time word problems in which the person has to arrive at a certain place at a specific time. What time do they need to leave their house to be there on time? His answers were always short, just the time, nothing more. However, when it came to the problem about what time they needed to arrive at the airport, Henry wrote the correct answer, 8:45 a.m., but then he thought, what if there was traffic? So he amended his answer to add that you would need to leave by 8:00 a.m. to get there on time. If traffic. That's my child.
Caroline aced her math test on Tuesday. She loves math tests. I asked her why she complains about her regular math lessons but looks forward to (and does so well on) her tests. She said she liked the pressure of a test. (She gave herself a few stickers on the back of the test.)
Because of the cold, Todd covered up our spigots outside. The one in the backyard was covered with a towel and trash bag. A few hours later, we let Benson out and when he saw the trash bag he went crazy barking at the side of the house. I got a flashlight thinking there was an animal there. Nope, just a trash bag. That first night, he slowly inched toward it to make sure it was safe. Then he left it alone for a few days until today. Today he decided he would start messing with it and tore up the trash bag. So, we tightened up what was left of the bag and put zip ties and rubber bands around it. As with most things we do, he saw this as a challenge. He attacked. After picking up pieces of trash bag all over the grass, Todd put cayenne pepper on the remaining bag. A lot of cayenne pepper fell on the grass while he was doing it. We stepped away to see what Benson would do. He inched forward, sniffed, and then licked the grass. A lot. He liked it. Todd remarked, "Great. We have a Cajun dog." There was, however, a lot of lip licking on his part when he came inside.
The kids were excited to open their Lego Advent calendar this week. We drew straws for who would go first and Caroline won. Josiah 2nd, Henry 3rd. Thank goodness there are 24 doors to open so every one gets an even number. We currently live in a house where fairness is incredibly important.
The kids also painted their Christmas ornaments that they got last year. They all spent a lot of time on them and painted them in layers. Henry finished first and said he gave his stocking a shadow. Caroline did the snow man and Josiah did the Christmas tree.
I also commissioned Josiah to draw me Max from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was when the Grinch and Max were just taking off down the hill on their sleigh. Max couldn't stay in front of the fast moving sleigh, so he wound up behind it and when the Grinch turned around he saw Max riding on the back of the sleigh. I love the expression on the dog and Josiah got it spot-on.
At dinner tonight, Henry wanted to play a game. We would go around the table and name things that had to do with Christmas. It could be anything and we had to keep going until we couldn't think of anything else. We had gone through many rounds when I thought of saying Santa's reindeer for my next eight turns. I happily said, Dasher, and Josiah, who was next, hijacked my idea and said, Dancer. Henry and Todd followed with Prancer and Comet. Then it was Caroline's turn and she didn't know the reindeer names. Henry, trying to help her out, called out, Nixon! Close.
This is our last week of CC for the semester. The boys are looking forward to it because their Essentials class has a tradition to have a cupcake party for week 12. Caroline's looking forward to it because last year they had extra cupcakes and her class got to partake. She's hoping for a repeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment