Blast from the Past

Well, I introduced the kids to Bill Cosby yesterday.

Charlotte and Elijah were working on a Bible study lesson entitled “How Long Can You Tread Water?”, which was about Peter walking on the water toward Jesus.  However, I cannot hear that line and not remember Bill Cosby’s famous routine about Noah’s conversation with God about the ark and about the animals getting on the ark.

So, I did what any good 21st century mom does…I looked up Bill Cosby on YouTube and hit pay dirt.  Not only was I able to find the Noah routine, exactly as I remember it off of my father’s LP collection of the best of Bill Cosby, but I also tracked down another old favorite, “Toss of the Coin.”  (“Sittin’ Bull says that you and your boys got to wait at the bottom of the hill while he and all the Indians in the world come ridin’ down on top of you!”)

When Jeff got home, he jumped in and found a YouTube recording of “Chicken Heart,” which was his very favorite Bill Cosby routine.  As you might guess, we were strangely gratified to find our kids just as entertained by Mr. Cosby as we once were.  I actually had tears in my eyes from laughing at “Chicken Heart,” which was new to me.

When Charlotte and Jeff get home from basketball practice, we’re going to play “Lone Ranger” for them.  Good times, good times.

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I just have to say that Bill Cosby is truly hilarious, and he uses nary a foul word nor innuendo to be that way.  I like that I can play his stuff for my kids and not worry about its being completely inappropriate!

I’ll probably get back to my Christmas stuff soon, but I wanted to share something else before I do.  Charlotte and I visited an open house at Peoria Christian School this past weekend.  Charlotte is very interested in sports, and she is about to age out of what she can do with the local village sports leagues.  In sixth grade, most kids who have any sort of ability try out for the school teams, as middle school is sixth through eighth grade here. 

As we are not flexible about putting her into school full time during these particular grades, we are starting to look at our options.  One that kept cropping up, especially in my homeschool circles, was the idea of part-time school at Peoria Christian.  It is very homeschool-friendly, in the sense that the school allows part-time enrollment and allows part-time students to participate on its athletic teams.  We know several families that do this, and they have all had good experiences with it.

Of course, this would be a pretty big commitment.  Charlotte would attend school in the afternoons from about 1:00 on and then stay after for athletic practices, given that she makes the team.  (She is currently interested in soccer, basketball, and track.)  Peoria Christian’s fifth- and sixth-grade classes are on a block schedule, so we would simply decide which block she would take, and, then, she would have study hall, band, choir, or art at the end of the day.

This is a big decision, and, fortunately, we have about six months to make it.  Charlotte, of course, is all for it, and I am tempted.  It’s truly the best of both worlds for a middle-school-aged, homeschooled athlete!  My big fear is that we would arrange all of this and then Charlotte wouldn’t make the team!  The people with whom I spoke didn’t seem to think this was likely, but I’m pretty good at worst-case scenarios.

The biggest motivation for this is the chance that Charlotte could succeed athletically, not in a scholarship sense, but in a being-part-of-a-team-and-all-that-entails sense.  I am not closed to her attending high school, but I know that, if she waits until then to try out for a competitive team the first time, she will very likely not have any chance of making it.  Middle-school experience is necessary.

So, we will praying about this and making lots of mental lists about the pros and cons!  It’s so hard to know what the right thing is, especially when it comes to our kids.  We shall see!