Knight in Training

Every year when the brochure from our local department of parks and recreation arrives in the mail, Josiah and David grab it and eagerly peruse it to see what kinds of summer activities and classes they can participate in.  One that has caught Josiah's eye for several years is a fencing class; but for various reasons, he had never taken it.

Until now.  :)

This past week was the exciting, long-and-eagerly-anticipated five days of fencing class, and Josiah LOVED IT. No surprise there, as anything along the line of chivalrous warfare sparks his interest, the little knight that he is.  :)

Josiah came home really tired each afternoon, but each morning found him refreshed and ready to give it his all again.  When I would take him to class or pick him up, the other kids and I would sit along the side of the gym a little while so we could watch him.  I loved it.  :)

On the last day, I took some pictures; although the masks make it hard to tell who is who, Josiah can be identified by his dark blue shorts and red shirt.

This is his teacher in the black shirt and gray shorts.  It wasn't until the last day that I talked with her and found out that she and I have quite a few mutual friends.  That's always fun to discover.  :)

There were about 15 or so kids that took the class.  On the first day, I noticed that all of them were boys except for one girl.  It turns out I was wrong.  One of the other students was actually a girl, too, so there were two girls in the class.  Oops.  I'm going to sound old for a second, but I tell ya - with hairstyles of kids these days (short hair for girls, long hair for boys), it is sometimes really hard to tell which is which.  In the case of the girl in Josiah's class, her clothing wasn't feminine in the least, so I didn't have much to go by...until I heard her name, which I recognized as distinctly feminine.  I'm just glad I never addressed her as a he!  ;-)

The tall boy in the center of this picture (below) is named Drew.  He was the oldest in the class and the best - and really nice, too, which goes a long way with me.  :)  I found out, also on the last day of class, that he comes from a homeschooling family.  When his mom and I started chatting, she asked me if I homeschooled.  I laughed and told her yes and then asked how she knew.  She kind of shrugged her shoulders and said, "I could just tell."  Hmmm...what is that supposed to mean?  And I wasn't even wearing a denim jumper!  ;-)  She said that our large family size was a pretty big clue.  :)

Josiah is looking so grown-up to my eyes these days!

When I look at the picture below, I feel like I'm looking at my brother David when he was young.

I'm really grateful for how we are able to use our summers for extra enrichment opportunities that we don't fit in during the school year; and I'm especially grateful that this past week, Josiah got to fulfill a long-desired dream.  Seeing his joy brings such joy to me!

I'm so proud of my young knight!  :)