More BMXcapades!

While the boys were off at their mom's, I decided to build another ramp for them. This one has a little curve to it, so it gives a bit of lift when they ride off it. In the BMX lingo, it's called a "kicker." We (by we, I mean I) took it across the street to the Divinity School to set up a two jump trail.

Cassius did get a little frustrated with his jumps off the kicker, but he's into it, and his persistent personality means he'll keep trying. My next goal is to have them create a whole circuit around the school, and then I can just have them cross the street and spend hours at a time being little racer daredevils.

How It Started/How It's Going

 We now moved from scooters to skateboards to bikes. I don't know where their interests will end, but it's getting expensive. Both boys want to do BMX tracks now, although when I suggest actually going to one, they get nervous and say they don't actually want to go.

But they are willing to work on jumps in front of the house just like I used to do when I was their age!

Skater Dudes Around the City

 Maceo and Cassius have gone pretty far in on skateboarding thanks to gifts of skateboards from Mamy and Maurice. We've now visited five (5) different skateboard parks in the DC area, and we've ranked them, too.

1) Walker Mills out in District Heights, MD. A really big skatepark with "street" elements like curbs to jump off and hand railings to slide along. It also has swimming pool-type bowls à la the 70s California skateboard culture. The best of both worlds.

2) Shaw Skatepark. This is the biggest skatepark in DC and it's not far from our house. This is mostly street type stuff--lots of ramps and benches/platforms to jump on and off.

3) The Langdon Skate bowl--This is a pile of old tires sprayed with cement to form what looks like a big empty swimming pool. It's nearly always deserted, and the boys like it. I like it because it's DIY and because it's close to home.

4) Here's a new contender--the RFK skatepark down at RFK Stadium in Capitol Hill. We went there yesterday. Here you can see Cassius, surrounded by activity, work tirelessly on a trick. His personality is pretty well suited for skateboarding!

5) Melrose Skatepark in Hyattsville--This one is also quite close to our house, but it's rather small and sometimes rather crowded. When it's empty, though, it's great! This is the first one we ever went to, so it has some sentimental value, too.

City Boys and Summer Bucket Lists

 It's not technically summer anymore, as you can tell from the last post about back to school. But at the beginning of the summer, the boys and I made a list of things we wanted to do over the vacation. Maceo had an interesting one that only a city boy would think of--he wanted to ride one of the electric scooters that are all over all metropolitan areas nowadays. So, I made an account, and yesterday we found a scooter in Brookland to try where no one was around.

At first, Maceo had a little trouble with controlling the throttle, so I had him, and then Cassius, stand on the scooter with me while I rode it a little to give them a taste of how it worked. Then, they zipped around on the sidewalk for a little while, super pleased with themselves. 

This morning, one of the first things Maceo asked me was, "Can we do electric scooter again today?" I've created a monster.

Peas in a Pod

 The boys' school is fully distance learning until the middle of November. (Mine is fully distance until at least the end of September, and then hoo boy, I hope I don't have to go back). Luckily, a good friend in the neighborhood invited us to be a part of a pod of families so that the boys a) would be able to have interactions with other kids every day, b) would have some peer pressure to actually do their school work, and c) would be out of the house 4 days a week so I can get some work done teaching my classes without having to oversee them taking their classes. We're a few days in and it's been great! They started on Monday at the Kings' house:

Here's 2020's version of the first day of school. Notice Cassius is
wearing an Alternative School shirt from around 1977.

Kelly was kind enough to send out pictures of the children doing their work at her house. 

2nd graders in their Zoom meetings.

Mr Casual takes part in class.

On Tuesday, I hosted. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out ok. There was only one episode of violence and Cassius felt very badly about it afterwards, the kids were great, I've decided perhaps daughters are better, and we all survived! 

Lesson learned: separate the young scholars in the future.

Mid-morning playing/burning off steam.

The "studious" 4th grade boys.

They look studious, but I learned that they join their meetings 
and then immediately start reading Big Nate comics on their iPads.

I'm pretty sure that's Big Nate on the screen
and not school work.

The boys will be rotating from house to house. It's just the beginning, but with tweaking and adjusting, it seems like it could work pretty well, and perhaps we'll make it to Christmas Vacation intact! 

Maceo on Laughing Gas

I'm just going to put this right here for your viewing pleasure:

Another Swim Meet

Maceo tried out a new stroke in this week's meet--the back stroke.

Look at that arm extension!

The exciting season is coming to an end with the divisional meet this weekend. Only the top two swimmers in an event are counted in the competition, but everyone gets to participate. However, as it stands now, Maceo is the second fastest in his age group in the breast stroke and the freestyle! So, I think he'll be one of the swimmers who counts along with his friend Wesley whom he's known since he was 4 months old or so.

Look at that form!

Look at that speed!

I made a little chart so Maceo could see his improvements in numbers--his freestyle time in the 50 meters has gone from 47.08 to 44.66 and his breaststroke from 34.68 to 29.88! It's pretty exciting and he likes being on the team so much that he said he'd like to do swim team this fall.

Sadly, Cassius does not like competing on a team even though he really likes swimming and swim team practice and he's gotten so much better in such a short time! He can even do a butterfly, and it's super cute because when he was showing his form to me yesterday at the pool, yes, he was really moving, but also his swim suit was a little big so with each dolphin kick, his half naked little bottom was poking up out of the water.