J Tested for His Yellow Belt, and Other News

I took J to test for his yellow belt this morning in Judo, and he passed. I think he'll get a yellow basic belt, which means it will have a white stripe on it. He'll have to test to get the white stripe off, and then he can start testing for his black stripes. That will be awhile. I told him I was proud of him, and he seemed to think it was quite funny that he got his yellow belt at 4 and that I had to wait until I was 31.

L lost his top tooth, so now he can't taunt me with it. He lost it at breakfast Thursday morning. He says another top one is loose and Z claims he's got another loose tooth on the bottom. They've tried to show me but I won't look.

J started reading Bob books this week. He's on the first set, so it's mostly 3 letter words, but he's motivated. Last night he was trying to sound out words from his Thomas the Tank Engine anthology. We stopped at the store after his test this morning and I let him pick out a "reading buddy". He picked a stuffed bear with a firefighter outfit. This bear (who J named "Buddy") will be able to sit in J's lap while he's reading aloud to me. Once he reads a book aloud to Daddy, then he can have "Buddy" for good. I still have to decide on his goal book.

I'm in the midst of planning our summer and fall curriculum. I think we'll finish our Spring semester at the end of May. We'll continue with math, handwriting, reading, and latin, and we'll also do a geography unit study using Galloping the Globe. I think we'll do this in June, then just the aforementioned basics in July, and start our new year in August. We'll take off time as needed, but we really do a lot better with a routine to keep us out of trouble. Just a reminder, no one needs to tell the boys about the "summer vacation" that is built into the public school calendars.