Brigham ran in his first cross country meet this morning up in Liberty Hill. It was an invitational with about 10 other teams, with both middle school and high school races. Brigham was nervous. He has been training with his team only 2 weeks, and has been feeling a little down on himself since the other middle school boys are faster than he is. It turns out that the other boys really are just very fast! Last week at a 30-team invitational, the Royals middle school boys team came in 4th. I'm not sure what their team place was today, but there were a few of them up in the first pack of boys to come in. Brigham did just fine, despite his worries. He was right in the middle of the pack and looked good every time I saw him. It sure brought back memories of my cross country days and the utterly debilitating nervousness I was plagued by every single race I ever ran.
I didn't take any pictures. I wasn't sure how accessible the course would be and I didn't bring my camera. It was OK, actually, and next time I definitely will. It was good to see Brigham hanging out with the other boys. Cross country kids are so nice. On the way home I got Brigham a Sonic slush (green apple with nerds is his thing these days) and we talked about the decisions he will need to make next year, mostly regarding homeschooling or going to Westwood. I admit I would really like to keep homeschooling him, but I can see good things about going to school as well. It will be his decision.
Speaking of public schools, Joseph's first two weeks are now under his belt. Well, sort of two weeks, considering both were short weeks. I hope he's learning some things about time management. :-) He's made the bus every morning and I haven't had to bug him about getting up. Hallelujah!!! But there have been a few bugs. First of all, his bus route! His bus has been late every single day, one day it was a half hour late, not coming until class had already started!! And it has been late coming back. On Wednesday I had forgotten to remind him that I'd pick him up from school to go to piano lessons, so after dropping Brigham and Mosey off, I went back home to wait for Joseph who is supposed to get off the bus at 3:58. I waited until 4:25 and he still wasn't home. He missed his lesson, and had only just gotten back by the time Mosey and Brigham and I got home. Joseph tells me that the school has told him that they have too many kids riding the bus, but that they're going to fix things. They better. I would take Joseph, except that at least twice a week I have to take Brigham to cross country well before Joseph leaves for school. And I really don't want to set up a situation where I have to bug him to hurry up so he's not late. Also it has taken a few days for Joseph to figure out how homework works in his various classes. He was sick a week ago Friday and didn't check the websites for homework, and missed at least one assignment on Tuesday. And then he didn't have a geometry workbook and the first 125 pages of his geometry text book are missing! The school has to order more so there's no replacement for him. I went ahead and ordered one on Amazon so we don't have to wait on the school. Wednesday night I went in to say goodnight to him and as we talked a little bit, he let it slip that he was really confused about homework assignments. I had asked him earlier about homework, of course, and he said he didn't have any. Well, we went out to my computer and checked out the different teachers' websites and discovered that he did indeed have homework the next day. He was up until 11:30 finishing it, with me helping him. I told him that couldn't become a habit. But the very next night at 9:45 he came to me very upset and frustrated with a couple of long homework assignments that he hadn't done. That night I was up until 12:15 with him. I told him that over the weekend we would have a conversation about how to organize his time for these classes with all the homework for the week due on Friday.
I don't know. I told him on Wednesday night that if he came to me at 10:00 again with homework he hadn't done, I'd tell him he was out of luck. But it is only the first couple of weeks of school, and this really is a whole new world for him. I've decided I will help him if he asks, but I will require him to come up with a plan for how to get his homework done, and I will not be bugging him or checking up on him to make sure it's done. That has to be his business. I think that sounds fair. I've told his whole life I want to be on his team with school, not his boss.
To his credit, he wrote a really fabulous little essay for language arts that would shock me if it weren't the best one in his class. And he has been happy and helpful (mostly) every day after school. He's been getting along really well with Brigham. So I'm happy.
Homeschool is going pretty well, although we've already lost our history book. It boggles my mind how my kids can lose books. We've torn the house apart. It could NOT have simply winked out of existence. It must be around here somewhere, but for the life of me, I don't know where. Arg.
Rachel and Jonathan came with their kiddos today. I stayed home with them for the afternoon and evening while Rachel and Jonathan went with several of Jonathan's coworkers and HBS classmates who had flown in for the weekend for some pre-UT-BYU football game festivities. Ben went to the game as well, but didn't go down until just before the game started. It was fun to be with Rosalia and Jacob. Rosalia is delightful and Jacob is the most jolly little boy in the world. I want to adopt both of them. We went swimming and read books and ate watermelon and it was just great.
Well, it is late and Ben is trying to sleep, so I will end this now.
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