Be Careful What You Wish For.......

Remember when I said I was so prepared that I should have been a Boy Scout? Uh, yeah. Tonight I let myself be talked into becoming the Den Leader for Buggy's Wolf Den. I always think that God giggled to himself when he blessed me with three little boys. I have no brothers, and raising boys is always a learning experience for me. So, I guess this will be another opportunity to learn. And, hopefully, so will the boys. Pray for them. And me. Thanks.

So, moving on. Today was our second day of school, and our first day without Keil. I have to admit, I had a small large amount of anxiety about how things were going to go, trying to entertain the littles and still manage to provide some semblance of an education to the older boys. This year I am bound and determined to stick to a "no electronics" rule during school time---for everyone. I know that this rule will get broken at some point....probably approximately mid-December when the snow is 3 feet deep and everyone is stir crazy. At that point I will have absolutely no guilt about popping in Leapfrog Letter Factory. But, this is only Day 2, and it seemed a bit early to already be resorting to the television to occupy the Littles.

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about (at least not today). Louie and Sugar Biscuit spent at least an hour playing with Playdough. 

When it was time for the older boys to do a painting art project, the Littles sat up to the table with their washable watercolors and created a huge wet mess beautiful masterpieces. 

I also pulled out a busy bag of color sorting beads for them. I was part of a swap organized by another homeschooling mommy blogger and now have 30 different activities at the ready (SEE! I told you I was prepared!) And while I was helping them get started with the sorting, Punky and Buggy were doing this:

Punky was reading their history out loud to Buggy, and they were discussing what they were reading. I was tempted to leave them all to it and go take a nap......or at least go hide in the kitchen and eat some chocolate. Oh please, don't tell me you've never done it!!

This afternoon, we made use of some of the file folder games we got for free. The Littles spent about 20 minutes sorting shapes and sizes. Oh, and if you are paying attention, you'll notice that Sugar Biscuit has changed her clothes in this picture. This is a common occurrence around here. Generally it is normal for her to be wearing a different outfit every time I glance in her direction.

Okay, now I'm about to admit something. Last year, we never did any art projects. Just the thought of organizing an art project, setting it up, supervising, and cleaning up was totally overwhelming to me. But, our new curriculum is so awesome. The art projects are built right in, and are so easy. Oh, we did have a heck of a mess to clean up by the time it was over, but the set up and process were so easy, that cleaning up the mess didn't seem so bad. And look at these awesome pictures of the ocean my boys created!

 I'm fairly certain these will one day be very valuable. But, there's a small possibility I'm biased. 

And now, the absolute best part of the day. First thing this morning, I gathered all four children around the school table and played our Hymn for this week. We are learning the first verse of 'Holy, Holy, Holy!' The boys were able to sing along without looking at the words, but what was really amazing was that the Littles were also beginning to sing along. Even Sugar Biscuit was singing her little heart out---she's not even 3 yet! A little while later, in the middle of the play dough adventure, Louie spontaneously burst into a chorus of "Holy! Holy! Holy!!" My heart smiled.