Sunday morning, before anyone could play video games, all walking children were required to go outside and play soccer with their dad. In the sub-zero, biting wind. Each kid took turns kicking goals (while M kept My Pathetic Doberman from eating the ball) until they discovered The Box That The Hot Water Heater Came In. The game was: crawl in the box, have Dad stand it upright, then try to knock the box down by climbing up the inside.The next box we had fun in was the swimming pool! Monday morning we told the kids if they had all their chores and schoolwork done by 11:45 we would go to the pool. Poor S was so bored during math! He already knows that 20 - 10 = 10, 18 - 9 = 9, 16 - 8 = 8, etc. He figured it out before he was born! I really struggled with the balance between training S that sometimes he has to sit and listen (like a public school environment) even though one of the (many) reasons I decided to homeschool was so that he could go farther in math without having to sit and listen. But even with our morning of, "S, please turn around. S please get off the floor and sit in your chair. IJ, the white board is that thing that I write math problems on," we still made it to the pool.
Here is F in her new swim diaperless bathing suit that I scored at a junk shop for 99 cents! The kids had so much fun in the pool. IJ can swim on his own now and just needs to refine his strokes. S and F are getting braver about going under water and floating on their backs. And F just wanted to swim on her own. If she would have had her own floatie, she probably would have swum all over the pool by herself. I was tired just from holding her by the time we were done swimming. And this is how conditioned my kids are when Dad takes them somewhere: as soon as we started heading out, E says, "Daddy! I want some hot chocolate ice cream!"
It wasn't hot, but it was chocolate ice cream. And it disappeared by the time we got home.The last thing we had to do yesterday was go to a Cub Scout meeting. M teaches Taekwondo on Monday nights, so I left E with A and took S and F with me to the meeting. I thought S should practice sitting and listening since he will be a Cub Scout next year too. Ugh... S and F are not a good combination. They both want to wiggle and make loud noises. By the end of the meeting I had to stand in the back with the two of them so they could crawl around on the floor. But IJ had fun! He earned his Computers Belt Loop and a patch for going to the nursing home in December. The boys also got to shoot marshmellows out of pipes:
IJ is the one with the orange kercheif getting ready to shoot. We got to bring our marshmellow shooter home with us. Oh Joy. I think that one is going to go in a box on the top shelf of the playroom!
