Swimming Lessons
We try to do swimming lessons for the boys every Summer because Jonathon and I both feel that it is super important to be competent swimmers. We do group lessons at the Provo Rec because they are inexpensive and convenient. Our boys are all fairly cautious, so swimming has not come easy for any of them. Andrew and Christian have finally started to feel more confident in the water and can generally be left without much supervision, which is nice. During these lessons, they were both put into the same class, level 4. They practiced the major strokes and learned how to dive. Andrew was a natural diver. He was smooth and graceful, and it was so much fun to watch him. Christian really struggled. The first few days he would try, but would always end up going feet first or belly-flopping. I could tell that he was battling his nerves the whole time, and I was proud of him for not giving up.
By the end of lessons, Christian was able to dive in headfirst, which was a huge accomplishment. Andrew's dives were excellent, but his form on the front crawl was just a little off. He has a funny little wiggling motion that he is trying to correct. They were both disappointed that they did not end up passing the class and moving to the next level. There is only one level more, so they have to be excellent swimmers to move on to the advanced level. They just need a little more practice. It didn't really matter to me whether they passed or not because I was so proud of them for working really hard. They both improved tremendously this year.
This was Hyrum's second year in swim lessons. He goes back and forth between being brave and being a complete scaredy-cat. It just depends on how much time has passed since our last swimming trip. He regresses very quickly, so we really need to be more consistent. Last year, he didn't pass his class because he wasn't listening to the teacher well enough. He talks too much, so there isn't time to listen. Haha! He was much more obedient for his teacher this time around, so he was able to pass Preschool level 1. Mostly, I am just happy that he is feeling more comfortable in the water and is enjoying it again.
First Day of School
School seems to start earlier and earlier every year. This year it started in the middle of August. It was a big year for our family with some major milestones. Christian started Jr. High, and Hyrum started Kindergarten. I can hardly believe that I have a kid old enough to be in Jr. High, and my baby is now in school. Where did the time go?
We are new to the whole Jr. High thing, so it has definitely been a learning experience. We attended all of the assemblies and welcome nights before school started so that we could get used to everything. Christian is pretty even keel about everything, so he didn't really seem too concerned. To be honest, I think he was just glad to be leaving his horrible 6th grade year behind and starting fresh.
I was probably more stressed than he was as the first day approached. We put together his new binder, labeled folders for all of his classes, got him a map of the school, took a tour during Back to School Night, and looked up information on his bus stop. On the first day of school, he did great! He found his friends quickly and seemed to enjoy feeling more grown up.
As school has progressed, we have come up against a few problems with him turning in his homework. He does it, but he just doesn't always turn it in, which drives me crazy. For the most part though, he is pretty responsible and does well in his classes. He is rocking his advanced math class and even decided to do Science Olympiad as part of the after-school program. So far, this year is so much better than last year.
Andrew's first day of school was no big deal for him. This was one of those years where he knew where he was going around the school, had tons of friends already, and knew the routine. Andrew loves school and loves to be with his friends, so he was excited about going back. He had a great first day and was so thrilled that all of his best friends are in his class this year. Nine and ten have been great ages for Andrew.
He is entering his fourth year of the Portuguese program and is really excelling. He has two new teachers (one English and one Portuguese). He loves them both so far. Andrew has never really struggled with anything at school. He loves to please his teachers and picks up new things extremely fast. It might not always be the case, but so far, he has been super easy when it comes to school.
Hyrum was so excited to start Kindergarten. Our school does half day Kindergarten, and I signed him up for the morning session when he is most alert and happy. We almost had a disaster on our hands because I missed the deadline to get him transferred into Andrew's school. Since the Portuguese program isn't our boundary school, we had to fill out a form and get a special boundary variance. I didn't know how that all worked for new Kindergarten students, and the deadline was super early (February 15th). It was February 20th when I went to start researching what I needed to do and realized my mistake. Doh! Thankfully, the school district had mercy on me, and he was accepted from the waitlist. It would have been a nightmare to have 3 kids in 3 different schools.
The other boys started a whole week before him, and it was torture for him to not be able to go with them. Each new Kindergartener had to be tested during that week. I was curious how he would do on it. Hyrum is different than my other boys. He struggled a little bit to pick up reading. He just didn't care very much and had plenty of other things on his mind at all times. He is much more social and talks and talks and talks. Luckily, at the end of preschool, reading really clicked for him, and he got much better at sounding words out and putting them together. He did great on the beginning of the year test, and I am sure he will be just fine this year.
Hyrum has done great so far, and he was even picked to be the first Student of the Week for the year. I got to go into his class, read his favorite book, and talk about him. He was sure excited. One of my very favorite things is to watch him get out of the car when I drop him off. Every day he hops out and runs to his classroom with his big backpack bouncing up and down on his back. He's just so cute!
I wasn't sure how I would feel having all the kids in school, but I am happy to say that it has all been a smooth transition. Hyrum was so excited that I just couldn't feel too sad about letting him go. There were no tears shed. I decided that I would use my free time to do some things for me, specifically, I have gone to the gym regularly every day after I drop the kids off at school. I have never had the chance to do that, so it has been a great opportunity. Hyrum is only at school for a few hours, so I'm sure next year will be different when I am alone all day, but so far, it has been good for all of us.
One of the scariest things for me has been letting him go to school with his peanut allergy. For the last several years, it has been easy to monitor what he eats because I buy all the food, and our house is a peanut-free zone. I just don't really have to worry when we are home. School is a whole different ballgame. Before school started, I went in and talked to his teacher and to the school nurse. They were both very understanding and have dealt with these issues in the past. His teacher suggested just bringing in a bag of some of his favorite treats that he could eat whenever someone brought in something that we were unsure about. I loved that idea, and it has worked well. Hyrum carries an epi-pen in his backpack at all times and is super careful about what he will eat. He always asks if it has peanuts before trying it. Sometimes, he is a little too cautious and will not believe us, even if we check. I am grateful he is cautious though, so I don't make him eat anything that he feels uncomfortable about. So far, so good! Next year will be the real test though when he is at school all day for lunch.
Education Week
Living in Provo is so awesome because we are so close to tons of really great events and activities. Last year, I went to Women's Conference. It was good, but I came away wishing that it had involved more teaching and in-depth lessons, instead of just one devotional after another. Someone suggested that if I was interested in that type of thing, I should go to Education Week instead. My friend, Michelle, texted me not long after that and asked if I wanted to go with her. The timing was impeccable, and I knew I just had to go. Jonathon was so awesome and said he would take care of everything at home and with the kids so that I could spend the week on BYU campus going to classes. The kids had already started school, so he still got some work done, but he did all the drop-offs and pick-ups. I was thrilled!
I learned way too much to write here, but I will share a few of the key things I remember and the impressions I got.
Kevin Hinckley: "Parenting Strong-Willed Children" and "20/20 Vision"
These classes were so amazing! I was filled with a desire to be a better parent and with some of the tools I needed to accomplish it. One of my favorite things I learned from Brother Hinckley was that as parents we are in the job of disciplining, not punishing. All too often, we forget that fact. Instead, we need to teach through respect and empathy. We can let our children collaborate with us in determining consequences, and we don't always have to "win." Sometimes, I don't let myself give-in because I think that will make it so my kids won't respect my authority. Brother Hinckley really encouraged us to work with our children to teach them. When we do this, we will raise children who are problem-solvers, rather than kids who are externally motivated. So much good stuff! Resiliency and problem-solving were common themes in several of the classes I went to.
Mark Ogletree: "Teaching Teenagers to Be Strong, Work Hard, and Have Grit"
I really liked the examples given in this class too because I feel like we are dealing with it in our family right now, even though we might not have teenagers yet. He talked about how kids are getting more and more lazy, not wanting to work, and not being able to handle struggles. I particularly liked his ideas on teaching them to work hard. This was never really a problem in my family growing up because there was always so much work to do. Now that I don't live on a farm any more, it seems like we have to really be vigilant in finding opportunities for the kids. He gave five ways we could teach kids to work:
- Be an example
- Work with your kids
- Expect children to work from a young age
- Make work fun
- Help them succeed by making the work age appropriate and rewarding
I also am fascinated by the idea of GRIT. Angela Duckworth wrote a book with this title that examined how kids (and adults) can develop Grit. She said, "Grit is a better indication of success than talent." Love this!
Connie Sokol: "Covenant Women"
This was such a powerful and inspiring topic. She had a lot of great things to say, but my favorite was about fear. She said FEAR could stand for: False Evidence Appearing Real. Instead of succumbing to fear, we need to press forward with faith by deciding what we want and moving towards it. She quoted Og Mandino saying "I want to, I get to, I choose to." What do we want and choose to do? When we get excited about making a change and don't let fear and distractions stop us, we can become our best selves.
Robert Farrell" "Saving Our Young Adults"
Everything this man said was MAGICAL! It was not a class I was originally interested in, but we heard great things from other people about him, so we went. I was touched, moved to action, and inspired. He was speaking about young adults, but I felt like I learned so much from him. He said, "There is nothing about the gospel of Christ that should discourage us!" Instead of shaming or dismissing people (or ourselves) who are struggling, we must fight for them. We must not use the doctrine of Christ to hurt people, but to give them hope to be able to change. He was such an amazing teacher, and I would gladly go to anything he teaches again.
Roger K. Allen "The Art of Parenting"
I learned more practical tips and tricks on parenting from Brother Allen than anyone else. I loved his approach to parenting, and loved that he gave real-world examples about how to handle certain situations. I was so impressed with him that I bought his book and am working on putting these things into practice. If I continue to read and work on things, it gets better, but it is so easy to forget and revert back to my old bad parenting habits.
I loved Education Week and hope to be able to go again often.
Camping in Price
The Summer got away from us this year, and we realized that we hadn't gone camping one time. We decided to remedy that over Labor Day. We called Joe and Kym and asked if they would like to go with us. It worked out, and we decided to camp down at a manmade reservoir by Price. Jonathon rented a canoe from the Ropes Course by our house, and we headed down for the weekend.During this time, Utah was right in the middle of a terrible fire season. Fires had really ravaged our area, and the sky had been filled with thick, heavy smoke for several days. Our lungs were heavy from all the smoke, and we were thrilled to leave it behind for the weekend. One of the fires was right next to the canyon that we needed to go down in order to get to Price. We kept checking the news to make sure that the canyon was still open, and luckily, we made it through just in time. The smoky, orange sky from the fire was surreal. It was very creepy and made me think of the apocalypse or some kind of doomsday scenario.
When we finally emerged from the canyon, the air on the other side was much better. We made it to the campground and started setting up. Having older kids was awesome. They jumped right in to help, and the tent was set up in no time. Since it was getting close to dinner time, we started getting ready for hot dogs and s'mores. After eating, we played frisbee on the lawn for a while, caught some crayfish down by the water, and then got ready for bed.
Joe and Kym had a bit of a rough night with the babies crying, but we all slept great in our tent. Again, there are some advantages to having older kids. The next morning after our pancake breakfast, we took the canoe out to the water and took turns going out in it. Joe also had his kayak that we tried out. It was really a lovely day, and it felt so good to be out in nature. The kids also had tons of fun with their cousins.
The trip around the mountains was long, but we were able to catch snatches of the BYU football game against Wisconsin on the radio. Wisconsin was highly ranked, so it was a huge game for BYU. The last few minutes of the game were super exciting, and we ended up winning! That was pretty great. The rest of the drive went by slowly, but we finally made it home. Even considering the less than ideal trip home, we were still so happy that we went. We had tons of fun, made some great memories, and got out of the bad air for a few days. We definitely need to go camping more often next summer.
That camping trip signaled the official end of our Summer. We had a great one, but I was ready to settle down and get back into a regular routine. Welcome Fall!
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