The Really Good Stuff

Well, we're kind of on Spring Break here in the Wonder House. As much as we can be. But I brought everyone together this morning to read and cut out and create. We've
been doing a lot of pompom crafts lately--making caterpillars and chicks and ducks. All very cute. So today we tried our hand at coffee-filter butterflies. I've wanted to make these for a while, but could never bring myself to buy the filters. I sucked it up though and did it. And no one saw me and asked why I was buying the filters. It's like no one cared that I bought them. Shocking--no one but me cared! But I digress...

We of course didn't start our day off with the butterflies. Oh no. First we did the important things like try to figure out how to write big numbers using Roman Numerals and doing spelling crossword puzzles (hey, it's Spring Break!).

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing! We started Rome! Harry was so excited. We read the chapter from Story of the World about the founding of Rome and then he told the whole thing back to me. He knows his stuff.



I set the table up during Quiet Time:
Cupcakes in the middle, the craft stuff on one side, stickers on the other, and books to read in the front. We read Sun Bread , Toestomper and the Caterpillars, and Spring Acrostics while eating the cupcakes. (By the way, they were cupcakes with a lollipop in the middle. I am now the coolest Mom ever!)



Then I told the boys what acrostics are and we brainstormed for a few minutes about Spring things that they could possibly write their own with. Harry settled on Cows. His poem reads:
Chewing grass
On the hillside
When they have their calves
Spring is here.

Acrostics turned out to be a bit limiting for Sam who wrote a haiku instead:
Caterpillars sit
in the sunshine. The eat on
a branch. Soon they spin.

After that Annika woke up, demolished her cupcake and we made the butterflies.

I'm going to say now, this is why I homeschool. Not every day is a party--most days aren't and there are a few when I think I just don't want to anymore. But thankfully I'm given days when we have cupcakes, write poems, and read stories. I can't imagine missing that. This is all stuff that could be done after school--but it wouldn't. I know myself too well. I homeschool because I'm able to be the Mom I want to be and because I can't do it all. I can't send the kids to school, pick them up, deal with homework and after-school activities and still read the stories, do the projects, and play with the kids. I've tried and it didn't work.

This post is written for the days I just don't think I can do it any more.