My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

We spent about an hour doing sit down school time this morning. An hour seems so short, but we got a lot done. They practiced their spelling. Luke has the planets so I taught them the "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies (or pizzas)" you know, for the planets in order from the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Okay okay, so technically Pluto got demoted. I briefly mentioned that to them. Maybe we will look it up for part of school tomorrow. Isabel then drew and wrote about "Super Isabel's" weaknesses. Since Luke had already done that part for his superhero, he drew and described some setting ideas. We also read Martin Luther King Jr: The Life of a Civil Rights Leader by Gary Jeffrey illustrated by Chris Forsey. What's great about this MLK book is that it is in comic book format, word bubbles and all!

Alright, so the reason why we only spent one hour doing sit down school was because it was a beautiful day outside. After school we got ourselves some Costco hot dogs and headed for the park. They (we) played for a couple hours there and then I let them ride their scooters in the front yard when we got home. When they came inside they played Webkinz while I rested and read my book for a half hour. They are now doing their Math.

Webkinz School and Obstacle Course

While I was putting Christmas away, Luke played his new Game Cube game, Isabel rode her new scooter and Sylvia ran around "helping" me. Luke and Isabel then played online with their new Webkinz pets. I don't want to explain what Webkinz are for two reasons, one, that's just more typing for me and two, who ever is reading this is probably more clued in than I am and already knows all about them. Just click on the link if you don't know. All I have to say about them is, inexpensive and educational. They are great! Maybe my Sabrina School can be changed to Webkinz School. Every morning I'll just tell my kids, "Here's your stuffed animal now go to the computer and have school." Kidding. Since we live in Las Vegas, it rarely snows, but it does get pretty cold. Even though there is grass and blue sky's outside, it's difficult to convince myself to get out there with the kids. So today I set up an obstacle course in the backyard. You don't need much. Joey had bought us some little orange plastic cones and hula hoops and in the garage I found some left over 2 by 4s. The course was to jump over the parallel cuts of wood, walk across the balance beam, jump rope ten times, run around the cones and then hula hoop two times around your hips (we are amateur hula hoopers.)

The one thing I DO need for this obstacle course is a good hand held timer or stop watch. I kept having to run into the kitchen and set the timer on the microwave. The kids liked seeing how fast the three of us could make it through the course. Afterward Isabel liked moving the cones,wood, etc. around to make her own course.

Errands with four and Isabel "goes to home school."

Last night I babysat Ryan and his older sister Tori (5). I had them all make paper Christmas chains with twelve links for each day left until Christmas. Isabel LOVES count down paper chains. I overheard Isabel and Tori's conversation... Tori: I made a count down chain in school before.

Isabel: Well, I go to home school and we made a count down chain for Thanksgiving.

I just love it how Isabel "goes to home school."...funny.

This morning, Luke and Isabel took their Friday spelling test and completed their Math worksheets. I HAD to get the oil changed in the car and go to get white tights for Isabel's dance performance. Taking four kids to Jiffy Lube and Target??? You better BELIEVE I said a quick prayer before pulling out of the garage.

And it worked....sort of. Although the little Jiffy Lube lobby was filled with chaos because of my four (crayons all over, Apartment Finder catalogs Sylvia threw around, Ryan and Sylvia running in circles screaming) I was very patient and pretty creative in distracting them. Luke just read his book, Isabel colored her Twelve Days of Christmas pictures, Ryan was pretty crazy, but Sylvia was pretty crazy AND had a poopy diaper, so she wins the prize. Let's not even mention Target, it was more chaos with ANOTHER poopy diaper by Sylvia and no more clean ones in my bag for her, enough said. Looking on the bright side, I never lost my patience, yelled at them and then felt guilty later. That is what usually happens.

This afternoon I was planning on burning our Christmas candle and reading the Christmas stories to the kids while they color their Twelve days of Christmas and do more Christmas projects, but instead I have a last minute doctor's appointment that I have to drag the four to. Need to say another prayer and hope I have some patience left in me!