Wouldn’t you know it, Tohper is going to school! The timing was pretty good with President’s Day week following his first week at school. Watkins Glen had the whole week off so he got a taste of school before diving right in. God had plans to ease his transition too. After his first day of school, which was a half day to get a feel for things, the next day turned out to be a snow day. The first week of school really worked out well. He was really hyped about riding the bus and was really bummed that Mom and Dad took him to and from school on his first day. Beth had planned to take him the second day but I thought it would be best to get as much practice in before everyone was back at work.
Friday day of school. 
First bus ride.
Toph was really jazzed about starting school and he wasn’t disappointed. While he was in the first grade in the Philippines, based on age, he was placed in second grade here in the US. Normally an eight year old would be in third but he was no where near ready for the things going on in a third grade classroom, and second grade seemed like a good compromise. He is super happy with his teacher, Mrs Green. All in all, the transition back into school has been very positive and he seems to be enjoying himself at school a lot.
In other news, we had started a chore chart. One thing that we had a hard time with was understanding that money is a finite resource and we can’t just buy everything we see and want. While a majority of the chores around the house are for “helping the family”, there are paid chores. While trying to sort out how we would work out a system that would work for us, we decided to do a pay per task method of tracking and payment, and we used Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Junior Kit. So the paid chores are: Opening/closing the chicken’s door ($.25 per task), feeding the pets ($.25 per task), putting away clothes ($.25 per task), cleaning out the cat box ($1 per task), and cleaning the yard of dog poop ($2 per task). Most frequent and easiest jobs pay the least and the jobs that are more involved and happen less frequently pay the most. At most, we figure, it will pay about $11 per week if everything is done. On top of that, money is split into three categories, spend, save, and give. So far we’ve only incorporated save and spend. Give starts with the next payday (on Fridays) and he can give to Hospicio or Church or to what ever charity he likes.
Christopher really has enjoyed having his own money and it gives him a real sense of ownership. We’ve had to help channel his impulse to spend, as you’d expect to have to do with any eight year old. For example, dad and lad were in Walmart getting odds and ends for the fish tank (post to come) when Christopher spotted some, in my opinion lame, Paw Patrol finger puppets. I knew they wouldn’t last a day as far as entertainment value was concerned, and they were $5. I told him that we weren’t going to pick them up and we were going to wait a day and we would know that if we really wanted them we would get them the next time we were in the store. He agreed, but about three five isles later he lamented that those finger puppets were really cool and he wanted to spend his own money on them. A new strategy was required. I told him we would go to the toy section and look there to see if there was anything else that was cooler. Then he saw a Star Wars lightsaber on clearance for $3. It was “amazing”. I asked if he was glad that he wasn’t buying the Paw Patrol any more and still saved $2 as well, he totally agreed, and a lesson was learned.
Beth goes back to work and we had a busy weekend. It was nice to get out and do a couple things before that happened. We went pants shopping for Christopher and the big plans for Saturday which included going to a movie. He told us he’d never been to a movie theater, well it turns out he had been to one, just not in the US. Some times asking clarifying questions helps to understand what he has and hasn’t actually done. It took the social worker visit to get the finer details of his movie going past.
The large popcorn was gone before the movie even started. 
Lego Movie
We watched The Lego Movie:The Second Part and it was really good. Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Chicken wings have become a real favorite. On Sunday we went up to Rochester for Pa’s birthday and had fun with the family.
Tuesday was Beth’s last day of family freedom. We decided we’d go out for a family dinner on the fly and it was a nice way to wrap up her family bonding vacation.
Back to reality for all of us. God bless!
