Challenges from Atticus

I helped the twins with their spelling words this morning: bumpy, puppy, funny, penny, sandy, bunny, sleepy, chilly, my, night, or, because, behavior, group, plead.  Adrienne got them all correct except for behavior and plead.  I told her the correct way to spell them and she corrected her work.

Atticus had problems with because so I helped him out by spelling it for him.  When we went back over the work he had spelled it becaus.  When I told him that he had spelled it incorrectly he started crying and complaining that I had told him to spell it that way.  He also missed behavior, group and plead spelling them behavor, graep and pled.  He kept saying that his mother told him that group had an "e" in it and that it wasn't his fault.

So he wanted to practice the words again so we did it again.  Once again he misspelled because (becaus), behavior (behavoior) and group (gruap) and when I corrected them he just broke down crying and went upstairs.

He wants to be so confident and he thinks he already knows everything and when someone calls him on it he just can't handle it.

Ahh the challenges of being a parent.  Hopefully this will be one of the largest challenges with him......

RIGHT!!!!

Snow Skiing for the kids

I took our three ankle-biters snowskiing on Monday.  We took them out of school when the slopes are not so crowded.  We went to Appalachian Ski Mountain outside of Blowing Rock, NC.

My brother brought his two kids with him and his doctor also came with his youngest daughter.

Well, Mondays are "Home School" days so there were a boatload of kids there and we had to sign the kids up for a group lesson- I hope it did them well.

It took forever to get the skies rented and fitted and to handle all the gloves, hats, helmets, boots and skis and the locker and the payment, etc.. We arrived at the lodge about 9:15 and didn't hit the slopes until after 10:15.

Atticus learned pretty quickly but he refused to turn.  He kept pointing his skis straight downhill and just bombed down the slope in a straight line.  This is fine for the bunny slope as he came to a slow stop at the bottom.  But he wanted to go to the steeper slopes where he did the same technique.

Of course this is absolutely dangerous and on the steeper slopes he fell.  When he got to the top of the lift and went to the slope and I was behind Atticus watching him.  As he pointed his skis straight downhill and started picking up speed to about 20 mpg, I started yelling "TURN, TURN, TURN" and of course he did not.  About half way down the slope, he just fell down in a cloud of snow with skis flying everywhere.  He started crying and screaming at me that him not turning was my fault.

After I got his up and his skis on and promising me that he would turn going down the mountain.  He stood up, I pointed his skis to the side of the side of the slope on a line that was not as steep.  Immediately after he began to go, he pointed his skis straight downhill and took off like a rocket.  Fortunately the bottom of the slope was flat enough and long enough that he slowed down without falling or hitting anyone.

I took him to the top of the bunny slope again and worked with him to try to initiate turns.  He watched his cousin Lucas do nice S turns and eventually did some himself.  So we went back to the top of the intermediate slope and he did the same thing- point the skis straight downhill.

Adrienne took to skiing pretty well.  She spent the entire time on the two bunny slopes and skiied a lot by herslef without me or her uncle around.  I got pulled in three different directions and thank goodness she didn't mind being by herself some.  I was surprised that she skiied pretty much all day with only one break for lunch.

London did well just like her brother.  She went down the intermediate slopes too but did turn.  Although she did fall and cry and got really frustrated trying to get her skis on and kept saying that she couldn't do it.  She eventually got her attitude adjusted and got her skis on and kept on going.

All three of the kids skied from about 10:30 to 6:15 and they had a great time.  Even with the cousins who they normally complain about being with, they really enjoyed it.  Atticus skied mostly with Lucas.

Overall it was a very successful trip and I have a deep sense of satisfaction that the kids had such a great time.