Probability and a Bruised Knee

On Monday, the Fence Man came back and worked all day on our side fence.  He and his partner took off all the panels of fencing.  Then they took down the posts.  For most of the posts, all they did was bend them back and forth a few times before they snapped off.  They were horribly rotted at the bottom.  I think out of all the posts they replaced, only two had any cement connected to them.  These guys did really good work and they were incredibly thorough.  They even went through all the extra fencing behind our shed, hauled away the rotting wood, and then set the good wood on cement blocks so it wouldn't rot.  We were really appreciative of all their effort and we love our upright fence.  It is very strange to see it upright since it had been leaning for so long.   Benson, too, is happy to have his backyard again.  It was a rough few days for him being stuck inside.  

Henry had his visit with the doctor this week - his 10-year well check.  They, of course, measured his height and weight and Henry discovered he is about ½ inch away from being able to get out of his booster seat.  He is determined to grow that ½ inch as quickly as possible.  He has been asking to be measured on a daily basis.  By the time we head east this summer, it is quite possible that all three kids will be riding on the regular seats.  They are all within an inch of 4'8".  

In jiu-jitsu this week, Henry was paired with a new girl in class.  She showed up in Caroline's class earlier in the week, but it was clear even in the warm-ups that she was vastly ahead of Caroline's class in terms of skill level.  So she stayed for Henry's class.  She was pretty much ahead of their skill level as well.  Typically the coach pairs the kids up by height and then by skill level.  Henry got paired up with her for both evening classes and it has been a bit of a humbling experience.  She is this very slender, young lady, but she methodically submits every opponent seemingly with little effort.  We have had to keep reminding Henry that it is good to work with kids that are better, because he can learn so much from them.  He agrees, but he'd still like to win a few more matches.  Caroline missed her second class of the week because of a bruised knee.  She came downstairs Wednesday morning and said her knee hurt.  When I looked at it, I was shocked.  The whole knee was purple.  It was a massive bruise.  She said she had hit it on her desk chair.  From what height?  She gave no further explanation, but she did her school work on the couch that day with her knee iced and elevated.  It looked a lot better the next day and she was fine by this weekend.  Tough cookie.

In CC this week, Josiah sang With a Little Help From My Friends by the Beatles for his presentation.  His tutor said that it made her happy to hear him sing.  He took that to heart and said he was going to sing a song for the remaining five weeks of CC.  All Beatles tunes.  He's been practicing a lot of different songs, but Hey Jude, Get Back, and You Never Give Me Your Money are the current top contenders.  He practices them all day long.  Non-stop.  Literally.  And when he's not singing the lyrics, he'll hum the tunes.  All day long.   

We've moved on from chemical reactions in the science portion of CC, and these last six weeks all the kids learn probability.  For this introductory week of probability, we flipped coins.  Caroline's class really enjoyed flipping the coins.  In the 108 flips, her class had 58 heads and 50 tails, which was a pretty good result considering there was one kid that wasn't totally sure how to do tally marks and another kid who finds it funny to mess up experiments.  

Also, Caroline's class had a relay race during their Review Time.  They ran to collect Solo cups after each review question, then for the last five minutes each team had to build a cup tower.  The wind was not their friend and they may have not picked the most suitable outdoor building technique.  But they had fun trying.  

Then it was Friday.  The last day of school before spring break.  I told the kids to finish well.  Finish strong.  It was the longest school day ever.  We were still working at 4:20 p.m.  At that point I tiredly begged of them, Just finish.  Please.  Finish.    

On Saturday we watched two kids whose parents had to go to a funeral.  One is Caroline's friend from CC, and she's seven.  But we also had her three year old little sister.  It has been a long time since we had a three year old around.  I forgot how MUCH they do.  After they were dropped off, we went to the playroom and then it was on.  We played Don't Break the Ice, Twister, we lined up Matchbox cars, we played with little figurines, we had a snack, we played chalk outside, we played in Caroline's old Minnie Mouse tent outside, running races and scooter races outside, then Legos, Barbies, Polly Pocket, dollhouse fun, Squiggs, Zoobs, dinner, and back to the playroom.  Three year olds are little Energizer bunnies!  But this kid is so fun and has an incredible sense of humor.  It was a good time.  

This week is spring break!  Yay to a week off of school.