Jeni Blogs Again

Okay, you whiners in Georgia, Toad is gone, and this is for you.

Let's begin where I left off. Gracey was crying, and the boys were thumping. Earlier that night I had heard whispering, but I never investigated. That was a mistake. The next morning Ben confessed that the boys had sneaked his bag of candy upstairs, and they had eaten it all. My punishment was to eat Bradford's chocolate and throw away the rest. They never missed it.

School update. Yes, we have been working on lots of stuff this summer. It's too rainy to do much of anything else, so we read and read and read. We also got Bradford's ladybug land, and right now they are entering the pupa phase of their lives. Very interesting. We also have a moth caterpillar and a Zebra Longwing butterfly chrysalis. The chrysalis is VERY WEIRD. It's got horns and bumps all over it. Maybe I'll take a picture. The boys all have nature journals, and Nathaniel and Benjamin just drew their first pictures of the lady bug larvae and the (then) Zebra Longwing Caterpillar. Tater also threw in a picture of a truck, and Ben drew our dolphin swing. Hmmm. Well, they'll certainly have something to laugh about in ten years.

Every year we have to send proof of progress in schooling to the county. Our choices are 1)standardized test scores 2) psychologist's evaluation 3)certified teacher's evaluation. We chose number 3, but the average cost for this is about $25 per child. This is very frustrating. Mark is an educator; he's responsible for the education of 300 children. My degree is also in education; I taught in elementary and middle school before I had kids. But because neither of us is certified in Florida, we were going to have to pay someone $50 to tell us that Ben reads very well and Bradford has the mind of an engineer (and the social skills, too, but we won't go there). But Mark found a woman who would write up the paperwork without seeing the boys, and at no cost. Praise the Lord. And next year he'll be certified so he'll do his own children officially.

My computer is being weird, so I can't type anymore.