School Begins Again

Monday morning we started school.  It was not a pleasant start.  There was yelling (by more than one of us).  There was four hours to do one math lesson.  It was frustrating and long and not the start I had hoped for.  But as the week went on, the days got better.  I did have to wait until Friday to make sure we had pleasant faces for our back-to-school pictures...    

This year, Henry's board reflected a new career choice.  He kept K-9 officer from last year, but added lawyer.  This addition is most likely due to the fact that he argues about everything, so in my frustration I tell him he should be a lawyer.  He is always wanting things to be fair.  If we take Josiah out to eat, then we need to take out Henry and Caroline individually as well.  If one child gets to go over their media time by 30 minutes then they all get to.  That sort of fair.  Which in a family of five is never ending.

Josiah changed his career choice for the first time in years.  He would always write "artist" on his board.  Now he wants to be a songwriter and a cartoonist.  

Caroline, (who I cannot believe is in 4th grade), has become more interested in gymnastics again.  

Benson appeared very cooperative in the photos.  He was not.  Henry was holding a Milkbone to get him to sit with us.  Because Henry was holding the bone, Benson would try to sniff behind Henry's back or jump up looking for it.  There was a lot of running around the yard between pictures.  A lot.  We did get a few of just Benson for his first week of school.  

Monday, we started painting Caroline's room.  We went from the top down to cover any drips along the way.  Monday was her sky blue.  Caroline would have done all the painting if I let her, but she allowed me to help with the edges and checking for any missed spots.  She came up with new terms for our painting objects.  Every time she needed the roller, she'd ask for the "wheeler."  The paint used with the regular paint brush was always called "creamy."  On Monday, the boys were frequent visitors, however their persistent checking on our progress was not always appreciated.  They were not allowed to help paint on Monday.  

Tuesday we completed our school work and headed up to paint the land in Caroline's room.  Green on the bottom.  This time she allowed the boys to help.  Under very close supervision, they did paint a small section of one wall.  It was a bit tight to have four painters per wall, especially since we had only one brush and one Wheeler per color, so that was the extent of their help.  

Time was of the essence this week.  It was a tight schedule to complete school at a reasonable time, paint Caroline's room, and then get her ready for swim.  It was her last week of lessons.  She focused on her technique for butterfly and breast strokes while working on longer distances for her freestyle and backstrokes.  At first she said she couldn't multitask with the butterfly.  She could only work on her arms or her legs, but couldn't do both together.  After several days, she got it down.  She did breaststroke really well.  She would definitely beat me in a swimming challenge.  On Saturday we received her results and she passed purple kingfish!  Her coach said she swam the 50 meters of freestyle and backstroke well and that she had a good breaststroke.  That's it for lessons because she completed their highest level.  She can move up to swim league, which is similar to swim team, but non-competitive (think practice, but no meets).  It may take some convincing to get her to do that.  

Working on her butterfly arms

She picked up her summer reading trophy this weekend, too.  

At the end of the week, I spent a few days painting the trim in Caroline's room and doing some touch-ups.  Trim always takes longer than expected.  She is very eager to move back in and get some flower decals up on the walls.  It is going to be a garden in there.  

This weekend Josiah had his first 8th grade party.  His friend threw a back-to-school water balloon party for his Challenge B classmates.  

This evening we went to his class's orientation and while his strands are very interesting, it is going to be a lot of work.  He will continue with Latin, Writing, and Math.  For science, they are learning about astronomy the first semester and chemistry the second.  They are learning debate which is played out in a mock trial for the second semester.  He is also doing Intro to Logic which sounds daunting.  The teacher's manual is really fat!  He starts this week, so we get down and busy tomorrow morning.