School on the Fly

Typical of myself, I somehow managed to put off the gathering of my supplies for the 4-H project I was leading today until the last minute. I did manage to get the sample made last night...

...but then I just went to bed and left the final gathering and organizing of the materials until this morning. Although I did manage to get it all done on time, I did not get any schoolwork done before we left.

I'd say the project was a success. We had seven kids show up, I think, not including the four cancellations and two no-shows. It was nice to have a smaller group for my first time. The project was just simple enough for everyone to be able to do it and flexible enough for the older girls, who were 9, to be able to embellish and really go to town. I forgot to bring my camera but most of the little kids' ghosts ended up with lots of silly hair and multiple faces, lol. The older girls tried for actual dolls and spent lots of time piecing together clothing for them. It was a little chaotic at times, but all in all, it went well. Next time I've got to remember to eat first though, lol. I made the kids a sandwich but I was running on coffee only.

We finished with just enough time to come home and run inside to get Cassia changed for ballet and then run right back out the door. I grabbed Cameron's math books though and he spent the hour doing triple digit addition on the coffee table in the waiting room. The receptionist was quite impressed with what he was doing and said something about how that looked like really complicated math for someone his age. One mom came in later with her first or second grade daughter and said, "Steer clear, Honey. That looks like some serious work there." LOL. I hope he takes those kind of comments as the compliments that they are meant to be rather than feeling like he is doing something he shouldn't be. But I was thrilled to death that he actually completed his entire workbook exercise in a strange place with lots of commotion and conversation going on around him.

Greyson said a new word while we were there: cell phone. He was digging through my purse, or at least trying to get past that annoying buckle, lol, and I mentioned to someone that he was probably digging for my cell phone because it was his favorite toy. Another lady asked him what he was trying to get and he said, clear as anything, "cell phone." LOL, what a nut. That, of course, launched us into a conversation about the kind of world we live in that one of Baby's first words is cell phone.

Once we got home again, the plan was to do a quick phonics lesson and then grammar (Cameron's request, I was going to skip it today) and then do a super-duper, exciting science project. I got a whole big box of LEGO Educational kits so I've decided to do LEGO engineering for the next month or two as Science, before we start MPH 4A. Today I was going to start the Gears kit. I even told Cameron that Science was going to be LEGOs but he just couldn't bring himself to sit down and do that phonics. I don't blame him though. He's had to be civilized quite a bit today so he really needed to just run around in the backyard being a kid for a while. It's a beautiful day too, so I just couldn't complain.

In fact, I decided to join him. I grabbed the phonics and grammar books, in case he got a sudden urge to school, and pulled up a lawn chair to peruse the introduction of FLL. I was flipping through the lessons when I noticed that Lesson 2 was the introduction to a poem for memorization. Inspiration struck and I casually said, "Hey, who wants to hear a poem?" As predicted, they both came running over, "I do! I do!" LOL. So I read them the poem and Grammar was accomplished for the day. Sneaky me. I even managed to read it to them again about twenty minutes later.

So we didn't get to Phonics and we didn't get to Science but we did do Math and Grammar on a day when I wouldn't have been surprised if nothing got done at all. So, I'd say we are ahead of the game today. Now if I could just manage to get a bathroom or two cleaned this evening, I'd be golden.