Today was one of those days where I remember why we are homeschooling.  Oh, how I wish everyday would run so smoothly.  However, on second thought... it's not that our day ran perfectly, but that I had determined this morning during my quiet time that I was going to have a cheerful attitude come what may!  Hmmmm....

We started out our day great.  The kids got up at 7am with the alarm, fixed and ate their breakfast, and did their chores - without me telling them to!  It was amazing!  Then we sat down at 8:30am and read for an hour.  We read out of the Catherine Vos Story Bible, our history read aloud, and a chapter in Summer of the Monkeys.  I had intended to read that book over last summer - I'm a bit behind schedule... hee hee

At 9:30am, my oldest (9yo) got out his homework from his beginning art class that he takes on Class Days (a bi-weekly co-op we attend).  I had my 6yo sit down at the computer and play math games, while I sat with my 4yo to do a lesson out of her Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson's book.

After that, we got out the basics - my boys worked in their language arts books while Sarah took a turn on the computer practicing her reading with Starfall.com.  If you don't know of this site, I highly recommend it to help your child learn phonics!  Fun and educational!  She was so cute.  I could hear her sounding out words in the "book" as I sat next to my boys and helped them where they needed it.

Then it was time for math.  We use Math-U-See, and both boys were ready for a new lesson, so they sat and watched one another's video and then sat down to work in their book.  Sarah then decided that she also wanted to do some math, so I got out the Primer book and put in her video.  Once Nathan (6yo) was done with his math page, she decided she too was done and they went in the other room to play together while Ryan finished up his math.

I was amazed!  All of that done by 11:30am! 

I started fixing lunch and my Grandma rang our doorbell.  She comes over every Monday at lunchtime to visit with us.  She stayed until 1pm, so the kids visited with her and played a bit until she left.  Then it was back to school.  The "fun" school as Nathan calls it - science! 

I got out some paper and helped them put together a notebook page with their vocabulary words on it.  We had such a busy, messed up week last week, that I thought I'd press my luck and give them another notebook page to work on.  They were happy to do more.    This time, I gave them a cut-out drawing of a bird along with internal body parts of a bird.  We first studied a picture of the same and then they took the body parts and glued them in the proper places within the bird cutout.  THEN the boys decided to be creative.  One of them had the idea to cut out a piece of brown construction paper to make a branch for the bird to sit on.  They then cut out green construction paper and made leaves for the branch.  It looked great!  They labeled the body parts and had a great finished page!  We sat and worked on these pages for over an hour! 

They helped clean up and then had some free time to play until their daddy got up from his nap and it was dinner time. 

Let me share that in the course of working on the science notebook pages, a full cup of orange juice was knocked over by one of my children.  I didn't even raise my voice.  It was an accident.  I simply cleaned it up.  That is not my natural reaction, I'm ashamed to say!  I hate messes like that! 

Also during the course of working on their notebook pages, I had the opportunity to speak with my oldest son about what it means to be a perfectionist - that perfectionism is really a sin.  He is very detail-oriented and wants his pages to look his very best.  There is nothing wrong with that.  However, something didn't turn out exactly as he wanted it and he got a bit bent out of shape.  It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with him about how we handle mistakes and messes.  I'm sure glad that I had remained calm when my other child knocked over the orange juice!!

Somehow through all of that, I managed to get two loads of laundry done, folded and put away.  We were "on schedule" and stuck to our routines.  I wonder what made today so different than the others.  Was it merely my attitude?  My initial submission to the Lord this morning?  I didn't rush off on my own and in my own strength to face another day? 

I'm thankful for my time with the Lord this morning, for His refreshing Word, and for His amazing strength and joy that He can bring to someone weak like me.  I am certainly praising Him for our Marvelous Monday!

~ Lisa