Week 1

 

This week ended with E's third meet, which provided a learning experience (or three). A few weeks ago, E was told that there would be an hour-long warm-up rotation prior to competition, as opposed to a warm-up, compete, warm-up compete, etc format. He was convinced he would not do as well with this format. He worried about getting sick or injured before the meet. He wondered if his coach would be angry if he didn't score as well. He also felt a lot of excitement; he'd just added another bonus to his parallel bars routine. He knew his routines inside and out. He could close his eyes and visualize how his body felt moving through the motions. Yet he worried. In the end, he didn't score as highly as the first two meets. He earned third on rings, 5th, 7th, and maybe 4th. Plus sixth on All Around, which is the total of all scores. So not bad. Solid performance. No gold or silver, but solid. His coach's response? Good work. Solid performance. Not your best, but still good. It's just one meet. It's not any more important than any other meet. Have I said how completely blessed we are to have this man as E's coach?!? Plus he is working on E's mind game. When conditions of a meet are announced, the gymnast says 'Perfect! I'll do well.' No matter what. Early registration? Perfect! Warm up at the start? Perfect! Mind games.

But back to the week itself. New schedule, seeing how things will fit... So far so good. Above are moving pictures from The Tortoise and the Hare. Well, except E's. When he saw my project, he whipped out a car racing picture, lol. s and e made the pictures in the bottom row. Fun stuff.

 

Below is E's form drawing (plus a face!).

Then there's E's notes! First try at note-taking. Not bad. This is the first main lesson book he's had with lines, so I was curious how he'd react. Do you see what he did? He didn't picture the bottom line as a shelf for his words, but rather used the lines above and below as a frame! He centered his letters between lines. Interesting! (The headings are my writing.)

A map of the Fertile Crescent:

e and I read Hairy Hezekiah. Adorable story of a lonely camel.

This week is chugging right along. The biggest challenge is my own will. Get up before kids, stay productive, keep us all on track. I'm failing in so many ways....yet making a bit of progress also. Ups and downs. I'm determined to try this for a whole month!