Brain Dump!

It's all happening here - and I have a headache!!

Yesterday we did:

• Tux painting
• Maths (online and off)
• Art (painting our Greek pots) - just the red-clay colour
• Spelling tests - with varying degrees of success this week ;)
• English (Galore Park at various level & 'Just Write' for Minnie)
• Lilo did some more Starfall work - she is doing really well with it and loving it atm)
• Typing
• Education City & Moshi Monsters
• DD & Stitch spent some time on Poissonrouge
• A few of the kiddos had some Wii time
• Minnie chose to get out the Moonsand - which I regretted saying yes to when I was sweeping it up from all around the house half an hour later. It's great stuff - outside, or on a weekend when I can supervise better, but when little ones get their fingers in it (which of course they do the minute it comes out), just like any sand, it goes EVERYWHERE! And because it's sticky it sticks to feet very well indeed - and therefore spreads around rather nicely!
• DD did some fine-motor work with paper clips and colour cards. He stuck with it for a little while, but was not that enamoured! Paperclips were a new skill though and he understood how to work them after a little practice and verbal guidance, so that was good.

Sure there was more too, but I forget what!

Here's how today looked;

• Bible study (four bigs) while I printed out a few bits I forgot last night .
• Lego Challenge for oldest 4, joined by younger 2 and later by stitch - build an aeroplane to be judged by Daddy later, on effort, design & strength - great fun - took AGES!! Actually Lilo decided to build a train & station, and Tweetie built a plane & airport :D. DD had a major strop because he couldn't do it (even though he didn't actually try), but in the end he built a wall and was quite happy with that :D

• Whilst Lego was happening Stitch was downstairs amuzing himself with 'Push' - a game that requires all it's 26 balls to be there and whenever he has asked for it in the past I have said "no!", but I was upstairs doing Lego with the others, so, sneaky*(see later story) as he is, he got it out and when I spotted him I decided to leave him as he was playing so nicely with it. I just WISH I could trust him though, because just as always, when he was done (and of course I was called away else where), instead of tidying it or even just leaving it, he threw the balls everywhere - WHY does he do that with EVERYTHING!?! So now, I am missing a ball of course - rrrrr!

Various combinations of Tux painting & maths.

Watched the tractor with giant hedge-cutter attachment as it massacred the hedgerows along the footpath beside our house (very entertaining for small children).

Taz did something on the Wii for a bit

DD practiced his name (getting very good now) and did a tiny bit of his colour sticker book. I'm not sure why he doesn't want to do the sticker book atm, maybe because it doesn't involve ME!

DD also threaded some foam shapes on a nylon thread - independently - and enjoyed that - phew!

Lilo made a felt shape 'ribbon' bracelet with a LOT of help from yours truely - the instructions were SO unclear and it was very fiddly for her, but it's pretty so that's good! :D

We learnt a bit about the Roman Army and made shields for the project folder - which also took AGES and needed to be finished after drama/prayer group.

Bugs, Taz & Stitch went to prayer group (chauffeured by Dad), whilst Minnie, Tweetie, Lilo & DD walked to LDG (Little Drama Group) with me - in the rain!

Home to judge the aeroplanes and finish off the shields, clear up and now to eat tea :D

I took quite a few photos! :D

The workboxes have been about half completed today, but hey-ho, it was a busy, fun day & there's only so much one can squash in! :D I have a headache, because, although the kids have been good on the whole, they can still be incredibly noisy and when it's this busy I find it all a little too much. I like that it's productive, but at the same time, it's exhausting! It's exhausting when the children seemingly refuse to think for themselves - I seem to be the first port of call before they tap into their own brains, even just a little bit: "Muuuuum, what shall I do with this tiny scrap of paper I cut off (that is obviously no good to anyone any more)?" - seriously - how bright does one need to be to work that out!?! It's also not helped either by DD being rather screechy rather too much of the time of late - whiny, in a high screechy voice about sooooo many things. And Stitch is also a bit clingy and whiny some of the time too, but only in a normal 2yo way - it just all adds to the intolerable noise levels/pitch/fuzzy-head at times.

OK - moan over!!

* Sneaky Stitch ... this boy is SOOO sneaky! Bugs gave him the tiniest piece of bread from his own sandwich at lunch time. Stitch took this as being enough, and, while my back was turned to make food for the others, helped himself to a chocolate mouse from the fridge, sat down, opened it and proceeded to eat it (with his fingers) before anyone noticed what he was up to. We NEVER have mouse at lunchtime - he knows this and you should have seen the twinkle in his oh-so-mischievous eyes!!

This boy is SOOOO sneaky that often, when I go to get Jaffa Cakes out at snack time, I find a black (high)chair in my pantry and an empty Jaffa box (or two!!). This boy is SOOOO sneaky he will pinch chocolate snack bars, open them and sit on the bottom stair with it and his drink (like a table), minding his own business and you won't notice him until the misdemeanour is almost accomplished - and he looks so innocent (and quiet) that you seriously have to consider if it is worth the hassle (and noise) of reprimanding him. This boy is SOOOO adorable that he is extremely difficult to tell off as he smiles at you with twinkly eyes and huge dimples, and so intelligent that it's hard not to clock his mischief up to pure 2yo genius, but my-oh-my am I gonna have my work cut out with him in a couple of years time!! He does NOT rule the roost, by any stretch of his imagination, and he DOES know the boundaries (and push them constantly), but he is a force to be reckoned with, no shadow of a doubt!! I do and will have to pick my battles carefully with him because I think he will be libel to grind me down - and I cannot afford to let him be the winning side in a battle that I have chosen to pick!