First Day of School

It takes a long time for kids to leave the nest in our culture, and today Adam took a big step in that direction.  He went to kindergarten.  He’s been anticipating this day all summer, with a tiny bit of nervousness and alot of excitement.  He’s been asking to wear his school clothes and keeping his new backpack on top of his new desk in his room.  This morning he was up early and ready to go practically before I was. 

He might have been a bit overwhelmed by it all.  Full-day kindergarten is quite a jump from preschool three mornings a week, after all.  But he seemed to handle it well, and towards dinner time he opened up all about school.  Here are some quotes from him describing our day:

“Mom – I need a water bottle!  You forgot to give me a water bottle!”

“It was really long”

“I don’t remember. It was long”

“It’s not gym. It’s PE.”

“Tomorrow I won’t be nervous at all!”

“We drew pictures of ourselves. All the girls drew themselves with nail polish. I drew mine with a lightening bolt.”

The adventure begins!  Here are some images of our new student showing off his new duds and backpack.

Fishing!

I finally got out and took the boys fishing last Monday night, for Family Home Evening.  (The boys protested vehemently that this wasn’t a real Family Home Evening – where’s the song? Where’s the lesson? Most importantly, WHERE’S THE TREAT?)  Taking the boys fishing was something I haven’t done enough this summer.  I have lots of excuses, but in the end it isn’t really hard to pack up the kids, drive somewhere and get a line in the water.  We ended up at Eklutna Tailrace, which was mercifully uncrowded and provided lots of room for the boys to practice their casting.  And trust me, they need plenty of room.  After much contemplation, Mary followed my suggestion of removing the hook from Seth’s lure.  It only took a few casts to before we realized this was a wise move.

 

 

Adam eventually used his recent progress in swimming lessons to persuade me to let him take off his PFD.  Plus, he said, it was getting in the way of his cast.

 

Eventually the boys wanted to drop their lines from the bridge over the tailrace.  It was clear of people and overhead trees and worked out great.  Look closely, and you will notice that Seth is indeed wearing his Superman outfit, cape and all, under his raincoat.

 

Adam got Seth to trade rods for a while, and fished with his for about 15 minutes.  He was having a blast, but on the way back to our van, he looked at the lure and noticed that there was no hook.  He didn’t say much, but the look on his face said “What. The. Heck.” once he realized he was casting without a way of actually catching something other than weeds.

 

We didn’t come home with any fish, but since catching fish wasn’t the main reason we went out, we still came home happy. 

Cheating and Revenge

Family Home Evening

Monday, August 1, 2011

The lesson was about showing compassion to other people. This is something we can never hear too much about at our house. I started out with Jesus feeding the people with loaves and fishes, because they were hungry and he had compassion on them. We read it in the scriptures and then Adam spouted it back to us in kid speak, about how it was a MIRACLE because he fed all those people with a little bit of food. So far so good.

Then I described some current day situations where a little compassion might be needed and asked the family how they would respond. One story was about a boy who graded another child’s math test and was surprised that she missed so many because he thought it was easy. Then he saw that she was upset and teary about it. Adam had a good idea about what to do in that situation. He thought that if he were the boy he would tell her to try again, then try again, and try again. My heart warmed at this answer and I jumped on it, saying something along the lines of “That’s right, because the more we practice the better we get at something, great idea!” But Adam wasn’t finished yet, “or she could just copy his paper,” he concluded. I managed to keep my composure and tried to steer that one in the right direction, “But if she copied then she wouldn’t really learn how to do it, so trying again was a good idea.” Sigh...kindergarten, here we come!

The next situation was about a boy with disabilities who moved into a new area and his classmates at church made fun of him. I asked Adam and Seth how they would feel if they were this little boy. Adam didn’t have any ideas this time, but Seth certainly did, “I would be angry ... and then find a sword!” I confess I lost it at this point, and dissolved into laughter. Seth wasn’t offended, he seemed to enjoy the effect he had on me. Good thing they don’t keep any swords in the nursery.

The picture of innocence (and safety) July 20, 2011