Our Absolute Last Day of CC

What a week this was.  Everything is coming to an end so quickly.  On Monday, Henry had his last Latin tutoring session.  They had a pizza party and played games - some Latin, some not.  Aidan, the tutor, is a very gifted teacher, and Henry enjoyed his tutoring afternoons a lot.  Aidan is in Josiah's class, and is a Latin whiz.  Caroline got to go as well and she hung out with Aidan's younger sisters and another friend.  Their mulch friend, Bob, got lost in our car (eek!) so they had to go the day without him.  

In preparation for blue book exams, Henry was allowed to start his cartography exam at home.  The 45-50 minutes allotted in class is never enough for this strand, so they were on the honor system.  Henry drew it all from memory - every continent, every country, every capital (spelling doesn't count!).  He left Oceania and Antarctica to do during class.  For blue books, they also read their last papers on the book, The Bronze Bow.  When CC day came, Henry said his class was quite emotional.  Both he and another student are leaving next year so it was sad tears all around.  Henry has been part of CC for 9 years now (and one year in the nursery), so this was a big goodbye.  

Not to scale.  ;)

Henry's class also took a picture with the kids in the same order as their first day of class. Henry and another girl grew the most.

Meanwhile, Josiah's CC day was chock full of presentations.  He delivered his science research paper abstract.  He studied sound engineering, in particular the process of remastering old songs.  This interest grew when the Beatles released their newly remastered song, Now and Then.  Josiah also read his final literature paper with absolute delight.  The last paper was a comparison essay with the movie Return of the Jedi.  Typically the students compare two characters or two themes, etc.  Josiah wanted to make this paper a fun one, so he compared a man named Eric Booker with Jabba the Hutt.  Eric Booker is a YouTube star, better known as Badlands Chugs, because he chugs 2 liters of soda/juice/liquid at a time.  He holds records for the most amounts of liquids consumed.  For his paper, Josiah mentioned that while Chugs and Jabba differed in their attitudes and their professions, they both liked to consume mass amounts of liquids.  His class was cracking up, as was Josiah, when he tried to read it.  It was a fun way to finish.

Josiah's friend Bobby is not returning to CC next year either, so his mom came at lunch and had the kids sign pictures for both Josiah and Bobby as a memory.  She took some good class pictures as well.  

One friend gifted Josiah and Bobby parting gifts.  They were very much gag gifts.  He got Josiah cotton candy because of an incident a few years back where Josiah was a bit energetic after consuming cotton candy.  He got him a can of nacho cheese sauce, as well as fruit salad in the form of gummies.   It was all very funny.  The three of them have been together since kindergarten.

Caroline's day was spent at the End of Year Party for Foundations and Essentials.  In the morning, they had their award ceremony.  Then they had water balloons and water guns, but Caroline chose to stay dry.  She did enjoy her favorite hot dogs from the pot luck, though.  Our friend brings them every year. 

 

The next day, Caroline had her very last Awana.  It was the Awana Store night and Caroline spent only half of her points.  She said she didn't need to get any cheap stuff that she's just going to throw away at home.  Very practical that girl. 

This week is tying up all the loose ends before our weeks of camps and VBS and mission trips begin.  That and packing.  We finally got started on the packing.  

Fossey & Prom

Caroline got to spend her Monday afternoon at a friend's house while Henry was in Latin tutoring.  The four girls each have a piece of mulch that they have named and they keep their respective mulch pieces at their respective homes.  The one piece, Bob, is the main one taken on all their adventures.  He rides on the skateboard with them and plays games outside.  One of the girls' younger sister lost Bob for a day and she was bawling that the others would be mad.  They wouldn't have been, mainly because there is a playground full of Bobs at the CC playground where his friends were found.  

Caroline had a good start to her week.  She earned another stripe on her belt.  She's slowly creeping up to Professor Mike's height.  

For the first half of the week, Caroline practiced her Faces of History presentation a lot. She has worked on memorizing it bit-by-bit over the past three weeks.  The night before CC, she said she was really nervous.  She was nervous she would forget the last little story about her favorite gorilla, Digit.  But she had done all the preparation she could.  She had spoken the presentation to us countless times a day.  FOH came and she was 5th in line to go (out of 20 kids).  She got on stage and proceeded to crush it.  She had instructed me beforehand not to look at her because it would make her smile.  I was only allowed to look at my phone as I was recording her.  At one point, I looked up at her, just a quick glance, and she smiled, so I quickly diverted my eyes back to the phone.  Her performance was better than any of her practices.  It was so awesome to watch her.  She spoke in first person and at the end asked, Who am I?  

One hand went up.  

Chicken nugget?

No.    

In that child's defense, whenever she was asked who she was going to be, Caroline always responded, Chicken nugget.  

One mom got it.  
Dian Fossey.  The Gorillas in the Mist lady.  The best part of Caroline's speech was the end when she said she was killed by an unknown assailant who hit her over the head with a machete.  

It is a relief to have that project completed.  Afterwards, her Essentials class had their traditional ice cream party.  

It was also Caroline's last day of CC.  She was sad before it was even over.  She enjoyed her class and her tutor so much this year.  It was a good group of kids.  Next week is the campus end of year party, so she will see them again soon, but we're entering into all our lasts around here.  It's all bittersweet. 

Josiah presented on his Stock Market Venture project this week.  He did another PowerPoint presentation.  He used the America's Got Talent theme and had the judges give his Nvidia stock the golden buzzer.  He gave a very fun, but informative, presentation.  He came in third place in the competition as well.  The funniest thing was listening to some of his other classmate's presentations.  Two classmates picked some of their stocks based on their stock symbol.  There was BROS (Dutch Bros coffee, which actually did well), DIG, DUG, BOOM, DOG, DRIP, EAT, HOPE, JOE, TY, UPS, YOU, among others.  What those kids learned was their strategy was not the best way to make money in the stock market.  The kids that had the Nvidia stock had the best results.  

Henry's class dissected a sheep's heart this week.  I thought it was very interesting and asked if he was able to see the chambers and the valves.  Yes, yes.  The part they liked best was seeing how deep they could shove their finger in the aorta.  That's fun.  I'm still waiting on pictures.  

Josiah was a huge help to me earlier in the week.  We were helping one of his classmate's understand how to write a comparison essay.  I had the mechanics, but Josiah was the idea man.  I was very appreciative of his help.  When we left, he was rewarded by going suit shopping.  He had prom at the end of this week and was in need of a larger suit.  We tried Kohl's this time and scoured their racks for the smallest sizes possible.  I was shocked by the conservative tie he chose, but the whole ensemble looked very nice.  

Prom was Friday night.  It was a large crowd of homeschool students from all over the area.  Most of Josiah's class was able to attend.  The best part was it was on our side of town.  That made the 11 pm pick up much better!  At the end of the night, Josiah walked down the stairs and his first words were, "I'm exhausted.  Let's go."  He did have a lot of fun.  The boys in his class had all sorts of plans.  One kid bought a bunch of containers of Tic Tacs.  He went around and asked people, Do you want a Tic Tac or double it and give it to the next person?  Most people doubled it, so the number of Tic Tacs grew exponentially.  Another friend had a bunch of Mentos.  He went around and asked, Do you like Men Toes?  Then he would offer them a Mentos.  When Josiah told Henry what the guys were doing, Henry thought it was hilarious.  9th grade boy humor.

 

Our church had their International Festival this weekend.  We went for the first half of it.  The kids felt they were too old for the bouncy things.  That did not leave much for them to do.  They had vendors selling their wares, but we're moving so we're not in the market to buy much right now.  The stage had different acts performing music or dances.  We saw the Scottish bagpipes, the Hawaiian dancers, and the traditional Turkish dancers.  What the kids did want to do was eat.  Josiah went Italian (shocking!) and ordered himself a brick oven pizza.  They actually had a food truck brick oven.  Josiah took the box and went off with his friends, but he said it was very good.  Henry and Caroline went Jamaican and had jerk chicken.  Henry had the wings, and Caroline had the tacos.  It was spicy, but good, and very messy to eat.  Nearly as soon as they were done eating, it started to sprinkle and we headed home.  (It was forecasted to storm.)  

 

This evening, the boys had their last LifeGroups. They both had pool parties, but a cold front moved in last night and it was 68° outside.  Both of the families with the pools said they would heat them, but 68° is still cold to go swimming.  Upon pick-up, Henry blasted the heat in the car.  

Josiah has his big science research paper due this week.  It is supposed to be between 10-15 pages and has specific guidelines for research.  Josiah typed it up over several days last week, printed it out, and handed it to me.  

This is the rough draft, right?  

J - I don't do rough drafts.  I just do final papers.

So, tomorrow is looking to be fun...

Partial Eclipse of the Sun

Josiah started his week off watching the eclipse.  We weren't sure we would be able to see anything because it was incredibly cloudy all morning.  In some parts of the area, the skies cleared well enough to see it.  We did not have the full solar eclipse, but it was pretty close.  A friend of mine took the picture to the left - still visible through the clouds.  Josiah saw it with nearly his whole class.  8 out of 9 kids thought it looked great.

Josiah's class had gotten together to watch Return of the Jedi because they have to do a comparison essay on it.  For their last paper, they had to read a book (Starship Troopers) or watch Return of the Jedi.  I think they made the decision to watch the movie before the question was even finished.  It was at Bobby's house and his mom made very cool Star Wars and eclipse snacks.  She always makes things special and fun!  

 

During the eclipse, Henry was at his Latin tutoring, but they took a break to see it.  Meanwhile, Caroline and I were shopping because she wanted new shorts for the summer.  We were in Target at peak eclipse time, but it didn't matter as much to us because we didn't have the special glasses to view it anyway.  

In the middle of the week, during the middle of the night, the sky rumbled just a few times before it brought forth the biggest, loudest, brightest, and all the '-est's' thunder and lighting I think I have ever seen.  It was so strong the entire house shook.  A lot.  Caroline was climbing off her bed almost immediately and she came in to see if I was awake.  A minute later there was Josiah and then Henry right behind him.  We hung out downstairs watching funny YouTube videos from 3:30 - 5:00 a.m. because the storm was so violent. Benson was happy to have the company because he was not a fan of the thunder either. Whenever I peeked outside, the wind looked like it was hurricane force.  It was incredibly strong.  We were all happy when it finally died down.  And, yes, we all went back to sleep.    

Caroline had an Allergy & Immunology appointment this week.  This appointment was made for her while she was still in the hospital.  This was their first available.  The doctors' wanted her checked out because it was unusual that both her neck abscess (age 4) and her meningitis were caused by the same bacteria - MSSA.  Not to mention that it was a rare bacteria to cause meningitis.  So we talked to the specialist who ordered some allergy and immunology tests.  Her blood tests have been the first to come back and she reacted to only one thing - marsh elder - a weed.  We're waiting to see if anything else comes back, but the doctor emphasized that she needs to stay on top of her sinuses so that infections do not occur.  The immunology results will take longer.  

At CC this week, Henry's class dissected a cow eye.  Each student got their own eye.  The director was walking them through the process and only she held the scalpel because, as she later told me, she didn't know if they were mature enough to handle a real scalpel.  The kids were doing fine with the instruments they were using (medical scissors and a pick), but at the very end, Henry asked if he could use the scalpel to cut just one thing.  She handed it to him thinking he would not be the kid to cut himself.  And then he did.  He nicked the top of his thumb.  He washed it immediately and then ran up to me asking if he had had his tetanus shot.  Yes.  We did give his thumb a few salt baths at home just to make sure it was really clean on the inside.  He's fine.  

 

Caroline did not have CC this week, but she did hang around all morning with other kids who were doing their memory master proofs.  In the afternoon, she was able to play at a friend's house until the boys were finished with their day.  This friend has a skateboard and a trampoline and Caroline is very fond of both.  

This weekend, Henry's friend came over while his parents went to a dinner with their Sunday school class.  We went to a new park (along with half the city because the weather was unbelievably nice).  They played with this unstable contraption.  

Then they did a lot of tag, the floor is lava, the floor is lava tag, and hide and seek.  It was a huge playground, so they had a lot of space to cover.  

Meanwhile, Josiah went to a high school function.  There, they had to make videos of themselves acting out Shakespeare's sayings.  They divided up into teams to make the videos.  Then they came together to watch them and see if the others could guess the saying.  Josiah's group had, breathe one's last, in a pickle, and a few others.

Caroline finished out the weekend by singing with her WAM friends at church this morning.  She is still a strong proponent of not doing the hand motions, but she sang well.  She was quite happy to get the top corner spot of the risers and she stood next to her favorite church friend as well.  

Benson enjoyed a new chew toy this week.  It's supposed to be the tug of war type, but he has zero interest in tug of war.  He just wants to chew instead.  

This is what end of semester math looks like in 5th grade.  Though not quite statements, the sentiment is there.  Clearly the imagination is not firing as hard as it was at the beginning of the year.  I wake up refreshed and excited to start my day of school in the a.m.  

We have another busy two weeks ahead of us as the kids finish out their CC semesters.  Caroline does not like us to count down how many weeks we have left of activities.  She's sad because it'll be the last of that particular thing forever.  

Debate Day

Josiah spent many hours this week preparing for his Team Policy Debate at CC.  They were debating the electoral college and Josiah was assigned to the affirmative team.  It was his team's job to fight against maintaining the status quo.  Their resolution was to abolish the electoral college in favor of the popular vote as the sole decision maker for presidential elections.  This was a tough debate because they had to understand the electoral college first.  When debate time came, Josiah was third to speak and when he finished I put my hands together to start clapping, realized quickly that was NOT what I was supposed to do, and quietly put them by my side again.  But that's how well he spoke - I wanted to clap when he finished.  He and his partner did very, very well and they won their debate by 11 points.  

The day before debate Josiah asked for a haircut.  I asked him what he wanted and he said he wasn't sure.  Perfect answer.  I happily cut the mullet portion off for a sleeker look.  

Josiah had some other good news this week as well.  We went to the orthodontist and he said Josiah only needed to wear his retainer at night from now on.  I asked for how long, only to be told, "Forever!"  Josiah was excited by the news, but has continued to wear the retainer at different points during the day because it feels weird to not wear it.  

Henry earned another stripe on his jiu-jitsu belt this week.  We weren't sure they were given in the adult class because adults do not earn stripes.  They just go from belt to belt after years of training.  That was a happy surprise.  All the more so because Henry likes his Smoothie King.

At CC, Henry and his partner did a skit about the fallacy, Whole to Part.  He's wearing a brain hat because they're doing the body systems in class.  This coming week, they start dissections.  

 

Caroline had a good day at CC herself.  Her class had an almost end of year cookie party.  Her tutor is trying to spread out the end of year celebrations.   

Henry's been working on some year end projects of his own.  His LifeGroup project is about his identity in Christ.  He has to pick out key words (loved, saved, forgiven, called, etc.) and find a verse of Scripture to go with each.  Then he has to display/present it in a creative way.  He's been working on the words with the goal of having the most in his group.  Apparently they can reach certain 'levels' depending on the number of words used.  Henry was going for 75.  That was the ultimate highest level and that's always his aim.  He has one week left to complete it.  He is on word #6.  

Josiah had a LifeGroup project as well, but his group was tasked with creating a video to explain a doctrine.  This was right in Josiah's wheelhouse. They had full creativity on the video part.  Josiah chose repentance and created a CapCut video in the style of MatPat (a YouTuber).  It included animations and Josiah overlayed himself reacting to what he was talking about.  I never have to ask him to keep up with these projects.  If anything, I have to ask him to stop working on them so much that his other school work doesn't get neglected.  He was able to present it this evening.  

Henry got together with his MARCH friends Friday evening.  They completely gave up on the whole movie night and went to a big open park adjacent to the neighborhood.  They ran, they did all the exercise equipment along the path, they had push-up, squat, and pull-up competitions.  They went back to the house and played a ton of basketball.  He had a blast.  The mom who hosts these monthly get-togethers works at a hospital.  She brought us many, many very sturdy hospital boxes.  Yay.  Our box accumulation has gone up exponentially recently.  However, we still only have one lone box packed.  One day.  In the car, we had one very large box that created a little enclosed area at Caroline's seat.  She was a fan and did not like it when I brought the big box inside.  She tried to recreate her little area with a smaller box.  Just like the cereal box barriers of the 80s.  

Benson invited himself into the game of chess Henry and I were playing.  Benson came up and, at first, nosed the pieces, knocking a few down.  Then he came back later and licked a few pieces, completely knocking them around the game board.  Caroline was at the ready to capture it.  I'm sure his next step was to ingest them.  He did make us laugh.  

I had some good news of my own.  Mid-week these beauties were delivered.  

Soft, clean clothes from here on out.  Happy tears to feel soft towels again.  

We have a very busy week ahead.  Josiah is hoping to catch the solar eclipse at a friend's house tomorrow.  There is rain in the forecast, so we'll have to see how it works out.