Another Monday not going as planned...

Well it's Monday and as the kids are pouring glasses of milk...I came to realize they drank all but 1/2 cup of milk over the weekend.  They ate all of the precious "pizza rolls" that Brayden must have right now in his diet and all of the pizza that Joey must have was gone also.  Now someone might ask and start pointing their fingers at the horrible diet I allow my children to eat, but please before judging me...remember my kids special needs.  I have to be grateful somedays if I can get food into Brayden, because over the summer he would go several hours without eating.  Did I mention we were also out of the popsicles that Caty will only eat because she is cutting a molar right now?

Anyway I decided to take the girls and run to the store, since my mom was already taking our car into town, I figured I might as well do it this morning.  The only problem is that it kind of messed up my inital plans to finish schoolwork first thing in the morning so the boys could veg out before basketball practice.  The other obstacle was I needed to entertain the girls in a therapy office waiting room while my mom was getting therapy.   I had been keeping tight control of my Monday mornings the past couple weeks, but lost control this morning.  I dread the return of the Out-of-control, since I am so trying to rein in the chaos in our life right now.

Since the decision to go was so last minute I ran around and got the girls ready.  Talked to the boys about what they should finish while I was gone and then gave them permission for "free time" video games if they finished.  And then I went into my reserves.  I knew I would have to keep the girls occupied for at least an hour at the therapy office.  So I grabbed Lydia's phonics lesson for today, a Fancy Nancy book and the matching butterfly wings and a new art game I had ordered from Scholastic book clubs.  Basically it was going to be a mini-Carschooling day!

We started out reading Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly.  I had found these cute butterfly outfits on clearance at Halloween.  The older people coming in for therapy thought the girls were just the cutest.

Then I pulled out a reserve item.  Something they hadn't played with yet.  I ordered this from a Scholastic Book order that Caty's teacher (she receives therapy in a group 2 times a week).  It's been put on the shelf.  When I pulled it out today, the kids fell in love!  It's from Alex Toys.

Pros:

• Bright and colorful
• Easy to understand and good storage tray
• The plastic tray that the card sits on could be used to "create" a personalized design.

Cons:

• The buttons do not snap into place and they are fairly large in size. 
• They could be a choking hazard though if a child likes to put stuff in their mouth.  
• Only 10 cards are included and I haven't found a way to purchase more.   

It did help out in occupying time today.  I would recommend this for kids up to 6, or any younger group trying to work on fine motor skills.

You can buy it from here, I found it on Amazon (and might I add a little cheaper than I paid).

We finished most of Lydia's phonics lesson.  Turns out when we are working on word syllables daily, instead of clapping the syllables, we are probably going to be jumping them.  She actually made it up to the point of her worksheet, we just ran out of time to finish it.  Another benefit of homeschooling, The Ability to adjust curriculum to benefit a student WITHOUT the hassel of getting permission from some higher up that doesn't even know who the child is!!

When I finally made it home, the grocery store was a nightmare---Caty had a meltdown and screamed most of the time and there was only 2 checkout lanes open,--I was very surprised to find out that they boys actually attempted to work independently on all assignments that did not have a "Do With Mom" tag in the box.  Yeah...maybe workboxes are gradually working!!!!!!