End of the first full week

After a shaky start, today hasn't turned out too bad. When I finally got the kids to come downstairs to actually do stuff, they seemed to have fun.

After chores in the morning, we do a learning time. Usually I try to help the younger kids learn their letters and numbers, and I did start with that. We didn't do that for very long today though, and went on to learning about cats and spiders (they picked what we learned about today). Since I have boys, they were more interested in the spiders. And then thought it was pretty cool and funny when they went into the bathroom after and there was a spider climbing up the wall.

We had music time today and pulled out different things we could make instruments out of: a metal plant holder, empty milk cartons with some unpopped popcorn kernels, a 2-liter bottle filled partway with water, and some spoons. After we made a lot of noise with those, I pulled out our seldom-used guitar and showed them how each string plays a different note and how you can change the pitch of the notes by pushing on the strings. They really had a lot of fun strumming on it and all wanted their turn strumming with the pick. They did get a little impatient waiting their turn and would get a little mad fighting over that, but for the most part they were very cooperative.

I think for the most part, it's been a very successful first week. I haven't been as lazy as I was before and my kids seem to get into less trouble and fight less when we're doing these things. Sure, they still get in trouble occasionally, and they still fight, but it's less often than before. Or maybe I'm just more patient with them. In either case, I'd say it's a good thing.

Since their dad is working late tonight, we're going to have a movie night after dinner with popcorn and maybe chocolate milkshakes. I think they're excited to play with Mom.