It's the little things...

I started the day off with trip to the dentist to have an old crown replaced. Yippee. I don't have a big fear of dentists or anything, but it's not really my favorite place to be. They offered something new this time that did make it a little nicer. No, not laughing gas, lol. It was just a pair of headphones with some Mozart. First they started me off with some new age cd named Spa but that didn't relax me, it just annoyed me. ;) I requested anything classical instead and so she brought my good friend, Amadeus. I did frequently find myself annoyed that they were interrupting my music with Please turn your head this way, Jennifer, or Open wider, please, and it was a bit hard to hear over the whine of the drill, but it did make it an overall nicer experience. And with no kids to worry about, I almost fell asleep a few times...

I got home and Greyson was crying. Sitting on the couch, by himself, crying. Gotta love that particular "parenting" technique... leave the room. *roll eyes* Apparently though, he wanted milk and nothing else was going to do. I guess Daddies are at a disadvantage there. Anyway, after he was fed and happily asleep we got down to schoolwork.

Cameron insisted on doing Spelling again, even though I had wanted to wait until Wednesday to do it again. We did some exercises with the ending sounds of the words and then he designed a sign that would be appropriate to hang in a bus. The assignment was to write a rule that would be good for a bus. He said, "sit down," and Cassia said, "stay in your seat." He wanted both of them on his sign until he realized that he was going to have to write it himself. Suddenly, "Sit down" was enough. LOL. After he wrote it in the workbook, I decided to go a little Hands On on him and told him to make a real sign that we could hang in the minivan, since that was our bus. First he just wrote "SIT DOWN" in yellow pen, but then I encouraged him to make it a little more readable and embellish a little. I'm happy with the result. Of course, not so happy that I actually remembered to put it in the car, but you know.

Next came math and that was just another two page exercise on grouping. There are x groups of y pencils. He did a great job counting by 2s and 3s though. I wanted to do science also, but it was time to go to 4-H.

Today was Arts & Crafts day at 4-H and they were making books. We used some paper that they made last month in tie dye class (which we were unfortunately sick for) for the covers and then accordion-folded pages to fit within. Cameron was a little concerned that his pages weren't folding quite exactly to the cover size, but the group leader graciously told him that it was perfect and that that was what made his homemade book unique. I love that. There turned out to be some extra supplies so Cassia was also able to make a book, with another mom's help. I didn't even ask her to help us; she just jumped in and made a book for Cassia, letting Cassia help just enough so that she felt it was her own. I love that too. Do public school moms do that? I hope so (for their sake), but it is that attitude which will keep me homeschooling for as long as humanly possible.

Anyway, we lingered there for a long time coloring in our new books and playing with our friends. The leader was really happy to see Cameron and his friend C.O. filling up their books with drawings right away. I guess older kids tend to save their special works for special writings - poems or drawings - and sometimes they never even get used. I find that happening with my "special" books and journals... you just never want to "ruin" them with something unworthy. Anyway, it was a refreshing change to see children just using them and making them beautiful NOW.

And the final treat - which I could NOT leave unmentioned - CUPCAKES!!! Our friend C.J. from preschool park day, brought cupcakes to yet another activity to celebrate her birthday this past weekend. Sadly, there were a lot of kids this time and we had to suffer with only one each. I wasn't even sure I would get mine, but they seemed to save the last one for me... which I did truly appreciate. ;) But like I said in my title, it's the little things that make a day good.