Thursday and Friday: conferences

This week we had conferences for Isaac and Joshua.

Joshua's was last night.  It was the first conference we've ever had for him, so I was interested in how it would go.  In the end, about as expected.  He's surpassing all the 'necessary' requirements in regards to letters and numbers, but still has quite a bit of learning to do with them.  His pencil grip needs to get stronger, although that assessment was from the beginning of the year and I can already tell that it's better.  He loves all the science things.  He interacts well with the other students, although sometimes stands on the sidelines when not required to do something.

Isaac's was today.  Again, no issues.  He's getting his work done on time this year, so that's an improvement over last year.  He is often the last person to finish, but he finishes.  His teacher loves his sense of humor.  He got all the points on the last math test and it was a hard one.  He is implementing the concepts that they're talking about in writing, even though it isn't his favorite subject.  We talked a bit about the social side of things.  There's still not one really good friend, but we also don't see anything alarming.  He sometimes plays with people at recess.  He interacts well during group work and people talk with him/he talks with people.

In other news, Joshua was in my office for a while today.  Oh, he made such the drawing!  It has people and chains, dinosaur prints, prints with lots of toes (some up to 15!), a ghost, and a mummy.

well, I had a few pictures for today but they're not uploading.  Maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday: scary

Today I brought Ben's car in to get the winter tires on.  The trip - drop off Isaac, drop off Joshua, get to the place - was one of the scariest drives I've had.  The car didn't have all season tires on, it had summer tires on.  Summer tires don't work well at all in the (partial) snow.   They don't stop.  They don't turn.  They barely go straight. I told Ben I am never doing that again.  If the snow surprises us next year he can drive to the shop and I'll follow him and switch cars there.

I made it though!  I was only about ten minutes late, but late enough that all the people had started on a car so I needed to wait a bit longer than expected.  After the winter tires were back on driving went so, so much better.

The snowman keeps bending over more and more in our front yard.  I've made lots of snowmen that have done this, but usually there is a heat source on one side that barely melts the snow before it bends and refreezes.  I'm not really sure why this snowman is bowing so low.

Tuesday: snow day

Isaac had a snow day today!  I knew it was supposed to snow a lot and he only had half a day, so I was wondering if he'd get one.

It really was a good call; the roads were terrible.

We let Joshua have a snow day too and Ben stayed home with them.

Weekend: cottage

This past weekend we went up to Dad and Pat's cottage.  Nathan and his family were there too, and we had a great time.

It had snowed out, so we ended up spending quite some time outside in the morning.  The kids threw snowballs, 

did some swinging,

cracked as much ice as they could find (carefully),

sledded,

and helped with the fire to burn some sticks.

Oh, they also investigated snow melting on the fire.  The well-packed snow balls melted much slower than I was expecting.

Isaac is really into a book series and spent some time reading.  I was rather surprised, because this is usually not his activity of choice.

The kids watched Lady and the Tramp.

There were also a few Lego sets that came out.  Isaac and Jameson got theirs done pretty quickly, but Evelyn and Joshua worked steadily on theirs both days.

More matching people!

Dad played Azul with Isaac.  Isaac explained most of the rules and did a pretty good job.

Joshua finished his spider lair and so the younger kids played with that for a bit.

It's been a while since I've seen Nathan's family, so it was especially nice to be able to spend some time with them.

Friday: firewalls and schedules

Joshua made a firewall...

He also told me his schedule.  He repeats this on a fairly regular basis.  (It starts on a Tuesday.)

Thursday: stuffed

On the way to the car this morning, Joshua said, "I have a song stuffed in my head."  I can't remember which one was 'stuck' in his head, but it caused Isaac to start singing a bunch of other others.  Joshua kept laughing and saying, "Isaac, you're getting another song stuffed in my head."

Wednesday: snow!

While today wasn't our first snow, it was the first snow that stuck around.  It actually snow/rained throughout the morning, although it never accumulated any more.

We also decorated some cookies.  Isaac really wanted to make one for his teacher, but you can't make just one.

I put 'Boo' on one of the cookies for Joshua.  He was telling Ben about it later, and everytime he talked about it he said, "The cookie with BOO!" and it was pretty cute.