Snow No!
This morning my children awoke looking...unkempt. A mild, but yucky illness has been making its rounds in our house. I decided that the (now) 10 year-old needed a shower immediately followed by a nice soapy bath for the 6 year-old. I was upstairs preparing for the school day while everything progressed swimmingly in the downstairs bathroom. All of a sudden, I heard the murmurs of discontent wafting up the stairs. Soon enough the murmurs turned to disputings and the disputings erupted into the noise of violence that drowned out my feeble attempt to continue with math class as if nothing was happening. I heard a crash, a scream, and the distinct wail of a little girl with a sore throat. Being that this sort of thing happens on an almost daily basis, I tend not to panic so I sent the 7 year-old down to compile a report while I trudged on through negative integers with the 10 year-old. She came back upstairs with the information that sister was attempting to kill brother over a quarter. While the 6 year-old was in the tub she spied her youngest sibling making off with her hard-earned "I had to dig through the couch cushions for 3 whole seconds to find that" money. She jumped out of the bath and streaked down the hall to apprehend the would-be thief...and shove him into his toy box.
After apologies were made and hugs were begrudgingly given and accepted, the traumatized boy decided he needed a bath to make him feel better. My older girls and I became absorbed in diagramming complete predicates and didn't notice the minutes slipping by. All of a sudden I heard a faint cry of panic and the pounding of little feet dashing for the stairs! My extra clean son ran up to me and thrust his thumb in my face. With a look of what can only be described as terror he cried,
"Mom!!! My skin got OLD!!!!!!"
Hiding my amusement I told him that's what happens when you stay in the bath too long...you age prematurely. My humour was completely lost on him so I tried again and gave him a scientific explanation geared to his 4 year-old understanding.
By this time the older kids were struggling to stay focused on their lessons because they were anticipating building their first snowman and going for their first "crazy carpet" ride of the year. When they woke up and saw the white blanket now covering the grass they could barely contain their excitement. They tried to convince me that it was not fair that homeschool kids don't get snow days. I told them that public school kids don't get the day off for their birthdays. That ended that conversation.
We continued with reading and science in between forlorn glances out the window until one of those glances revealed a visitor. Let me explain something first. Hubby and I decided we would do as much Christmas shopping online as we could this year. With his work schedule, the distance we have to travel to get to the stores, and the normalcy of inclement weather at this time of year, we rarely get an opportunity to shop for any length of time. We didn't, however, consider the enormous possibility of the packages being delivered when he kids would notice them. At 1:30 the Purolater man had shown up with a rather large package and the kids spotted the bold lettering on the box. Buddy #1 yelled out,
"There's a guy here with a big box that says Toys R Us!!!!"
Don't be fooled. There are certain dangers in teaching 4 year-olds how to read. Imagine the poor delivery man's face when he was greeted at the door by 5 screaming children during school hours. He admitted he'd never felt so welcomed into someone's home as he did ours, so that was nice. After warnings and threats of a presentless Christmas should the box be so much as touched by a finger that had an under 30 year-old body attached to it, the kids decided it was in their best interest to leave it alone. Smart kids.
After apologies were made and hugs were begrudgingly given and accepted, the traumatized boy decided he needed a bath to make him feel better. My older girls and I became absorbed in diagramming complete predicates and didn't notice the minutes slipping by. All of a sudden I heard a faint cry of panic and the pounding of little feet dashing for the stairs! My extra clean son ran up to me and thrust his thumb in my face. With a look of what can only be described as terror he cried,
"Mom!!! My skin got OLD!!!!!!"
Hiding my amusement I told him that's what happens when you stay in the bath too long...you age prematurely. My humour was completely lost on him so I tried again and gave him a scientific explanation geared to his 4 year-old understanding.
By this time the older kids were struggling to stay focused on their lessons because they were anticipating building their first snowman and going for their first "crazy carpet" ride of the year. When they woke up and saw the white blanket now covering the grass they could barely contain their excitement. They tried to convince me that it was not fair that homeschool kids don't get snow days. I told them that public school kids don't get the day off for their birthdays. That ended that conversation.
We continued with reading and science in between forlorn glances out the window until one of those glances revealed a visitor. Let me explain something first. Hubby and I decided we would do as much Christmas shopping online as we could this year. With his work schedule, the distance we have to travel to get to the stores, and the normalcy of inclement weather at this time of year, we rarely get an opportunity to shop for any length of time. We didn't, however, consider the enormous possibility of the packages being delivered when he kids would notice them. At 1:30 the Purolater man had shown up with a rather large package and the kids spotted the bold lettering on the box. Buddy #1 yelled out,
"There's a guy here with a big box that says Toys R Us!!!!"
Don't be fooled. There are certain dangers in teaching 4 year-olds how to read. Imagine the poor delivery man's face when he was greeted at the door by 5 screaming children during school hours. He admitted he'd never felt so welcomed into someone's home as he did ours, so that was nice. After warnings and threats of a presentless Christmas should the box be so much as touched by a finger that had an under 30 year-old body attached to it, the kids decided it was in their best interest to leave it alone. Smart kids.
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