The Manoloewens: Boys Growing Up

So, some new things happened this weekend. First, the boys were out of school for their Student-Led Conferences (the new form of Parent-teacher Conferences), so I took off Friday to take care of them. We spent about 45 minutes with both boys at the school, going over their work with them and then talking with their teachers. The highlights?

Cassius's Chinese teacher says he's the best Chinese speaker in the class.
Maceo can use Chinese dictionaries (for insight, I couldn't even understand how it was organized)!
Cassius and Maceo are reading above expected levels.
Both of them like to write and read!

We were happy overall with what we heard, and Maceo reflected on ways he can make better choices. So, that was good to hear from him. They both like school a lot, and that's the best thing for me to hear!

Waiting our turn with the teachers; reading Dog Man

There was a Book Fair at the same time as the conferences at school, so each boy was allowed to buy a book. They each chose a book from a graphic novel series called Dog Man. (Here I am adhering to Chekhov's dictum that if you show a gun on the wall in Act I, it has to fire in Act III.)

Here they are reading Dog Man aloud and recording it on Maceo's camera.
Worst. Audio. Book. Ever.

Normally on Fridays, Mom and Maurice pick up the boys at noon at school and take them to Takoma Park. But because I had them all day, we did a playdate at a friend's house, and then came home to host the Takoma Park contingent for dinner! Maurice read over 100 pages of Dog Man aloud for the boys (there's that gun going off!) both before dinner and at bedtime.

On Saturday, some other new stuff happened. Because it was the weekend, we put the new cleaning template into effect and cleaned our rooms. Once again, the boys were happy and good at it, so I feel pretty darn good about this system. It's now up to me to make it a weekly thing and keep it going.

Maceo with the still popular mop.

Cassius being careful and attentive with the big boy vacuum.

After morning clean up, Maceo went to one of his best friend's birthday party. They were supposed to go go-karting, but not all the boys were old enough. Instead, they went skydiving in a wind tunnel! Then, after the party, Maceo stuck around for his first sleepover at someone's house all by himself! Since I didn't hear anything over night, I'm going to assume it all went well.

Cassius had his friend Carter over for some play time. We went on an adventure looking for bones and antlers across the street at the Divinity School.

Entering the wilderness.

After tramping around for a while, I sat down while they whacked a fallen tree with sticks for about 30 minutes. And then climbed. And whacked some more.

I do believe Cassius has set a personal best with this height.

Another new thing? Cassius actually took part in his soccer team's game for the first time! He also scored two goals and got a big hug from his teammate Xavier.