The Wild Rumpus

Well, homeschooling has started in earnest this week. In the words of my favorite children's book, "Let the wild rumpus start!" That's from Where the Wild Things Are. I told Hunter to pose for a first day of school photo. I got this. Actually, we are loving doing school at home this week. Hunter is soaking in the learning, and I am loving being able to teach at a level that's personal to him rather than a whole class. It's unbelievable how much time is wasted at school and we just fly through the subjects here at home. I looked back over my lesson plan the first day in surprise to see how fast it went. What I had scheduled would have taken a full day in a classroom, and it only took us two hours. Plus, he has some added subjects that he wouldn't even get everyday at school. I bought little sister a Bumbo seat to sit in next to us while we do school, and she loves it. She likes sitting up and looking around.

She's getting quite big already. The newborn phase is over. This is my last baby, so I am savoring every moment.

Don't let this next picture fool you. Ainsley is quite happy playing by us and doing her own thing while we are doing school, but as soon as we are done, and I let Hunter loose, the squabbling begins.

Yes, these three have been full of mischief. See the big scrape under Ainsley's eye? She also has a big purple lump under those bangs. She decided to take a dive off of the plastic slide onto the patio cement a couple days ago.

There has been a little too much squabbling for me the last two days. So, I put five marks on a post-it on the fridge. I told them when they fight, I would check off a mark. If they got to five (I don't care whose fault it was), then they would be playing seperate in their rooms by themselves the rest of the day. That seriously cut down on the fighting, but they did get to five by dinner time. Ainsley came out crying saying that Hunter said he was "going to throw me in the trwash can!"

I seriously started chuckling which I don't recommend when you are trying to lay down the law, but really, I guess big brother was pretty fed up if he told her that.

So into their rooms they went until bedtime. About an hour later, Ainsley came out dragging a suitcase full of who-knows-what. She said, "I'm pretending that my parents died and I'm running away." Little stinker! I sent her back to her room and told her she had to pretend running away in there.

And what was Hunter up to with all of his new found freedom since school isn't taking that long? Well, he built a monster to block my front door. He was very excited about it, and couldn't wait to show me all the parts. He definately wanted me to take a picture as well. Here it is:

I told him I needed my front door and the monster was going to have to block something else.

Oh good gracious! Now I see why people live for day when their kids go to school and here I am wanting to keep them home and run a busy etsy shop at the same time!

I'm not insane, I promise....just...totally in love with my wacky children.