October 30, 2007

• Milestones for Joseph

  
  

  Joseph has passed some significant milestones this month.  Here's a quick accounting:

  
  

  A couple of weeks ago we took Joseph to do baptisms for the dead - his first time.  It was a great trip, albeit a tad early - the only available time was the 6:40am slot.  We went with our friends the Bertagnolli's who have a son Joseph's age, Thomas, and are good friends.  Thomas was recently called as Deacon's Quorum President and he called Joseph as Secretary.  Afterwards we went out to breakfast.  Good times!

  
  

  

  
  

  Here we are in front of the St. George temple with Stan and Jalyn Bertagnolli and three of their nine children.  The Bertagnollis provided family names from Italy for the baptisms.  Fun!

  
  

   

  
  

  On the left, proud parents and son.  On the right, Secretary Joseph and President Bertagnolli.

  
  

  This past Saturday Joseph participated in his troop's 50 mile bike ride, the final effort on the Bicycling merit badge.  He was one of only three boys to finish and he came in first place!  He got the drafting thing figured out and made good use of it the last 10 or 15 miles and then just before the end he cut out in front of the adult leader who was in the lead and made for a glorious finsish.  I was so proud of him and all the hard work he has put in on his own initiative over the last month to prepare for this event.  Here are a couple of shots from the day:

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

  Joseph and Thomas on the road early on, around mile 13.

  
  

   

  
  

  Lunch break at the Kolob Canyon Ward building in New Harmony.  Joseph and Thomas - two of the three finishers.

  
  

  In other news, Joseph has been enjoying his new schooling experience this year.  He participates in a local private school called a New Commonwealth School - basically a co-op for home schoolers.  He takes classes in Shakespeare, American Government and History, Dance, Speech and Choir.  In the past two weeks he has read over a dozen of Shakespeare's plays.  Most often he has the actual text that he reads while listening to an audio recording of the play and then he has a dictionary and Cliff's Notes nearby to help when he doesn't understand something.  A week or so ago Liesl took the three oldest children to The Tempest which was playing at the Utah Shakespearean Festival here in Cedar.

  
  

  It has been a remarkable experience to watch Joseph blossom as he enters what is called the Transition to Scholar phase.  The past six years have been a leap of faith for us as we have implemented an educational philosophy that differs signficantly from what is considered normal and acceptable in our society.  We are seeing amazing results in self-direction, maturity, behavior, etc.  A few months ago, for example, he expressed interest in learning a stringed instrument.  Earlier this month he started Viola lessons and is making great progress.  Fun!

  • 6:10 pm
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