The First Day Back

Okay, so I know I said I would not be blogging this week, but I am on such a high right now that I can not help myself. We had the BEST first day of school EVER! I mean it, and I am not talking about just for us, but I am talking about the best first day back to school for all of humanity. It was truly amazing! I don't know if it was due to the fact that this is our third year of homeschooling and perhaps I have finally figured it all out. I don't know if it is because Elliot, after three years, has finally caught the vision, and I don't know if Hell has finally frozen over, but whatever it is, whatever guardian angel was sent to smooth things out for us today, I will take it, and I am forever grateful for it. Seriously, I was expecting all kinds of awful, but none of that happened. I had two, cooperative, albeit not impressed that summer vacation was over, boys who worked their butts off. Sure there was a time out for pushing, a time out for a change in attitude, and a time when the mama had to raise her voice in order to reign in her hoodlums and stop them from jumping on the couch, but heck, that is nothing! There were no tantrums thrown, there were no tears, there were no shut-downs and there were no mutinies. Yep, I can safely declare this to be the best first day back to school ever!

The day began at 7am, and much to my shock, although the boys were exhausted from our Back to to School Feast and Festivities the night prior (more on this tomorrow), they got out of bed and went straight to work doing their morning routine. No big deal, right? WRONG! This was a huge deal because it was just last night that I informed Elliot that he no longer gets a half an hour of screen time before school starts for getting up out of bed on time and performing his routine within the allotted time. The even crazier thing is that when I first informed him of this new change to the routine, which I thought alone could bring upon the apocalypse, he rolled his eyes and simply walked away. 

What no screaming? No accusing me of being the worst mother on the face of the earth?  No cry for an end to this cruel and unusual punishment inflicted upon innocent and deserving children?

I guess not. The alarm went off this morning, and he was ready to start the day by 8am. It was kind of anti-climatic.

Then, he worked his hardest all day long. I heard him chuckle while reading his new novel, The Indian in the Cupboard. He got really into a project we did for our study of Ancient China, where the boys decorated our bulletin board with illustrations and facts about the animals of China. He took notes in Science, wrote out his spelling words in both cursive and print, and he did his math warm up of 80 multiplication facts in the blink of an eye AND with only one mistake. Folks, I don't know where my son is, but if you find him, there is no need to return him. I am quite happy with this impostor . . . tee hee!

Sure, I am going on and on about Elliot, but Avery had a great day too. Yes, he was the one who had the two time outs and he was the one who instigated the mid-school break of rough-housing in the living room, but he aced everything he did! At one point, he was doing his math, his grade four math (I can't believe he is in grade four!), and he turned to me and exclaimed:

This math is soooo easy, and you were afraid that summer vacation would rot my brain . . .  wrong!

. . .  tee hee!

I love that kid!

Yep, the day was pretty spectacular, and it even ended on a good note. Elliot did his homework without complaint (he completes his corrections from that day as homework now in preparation for high school,which is only two years away . . . eeek!). We had no where to go and so the boys spent the evening golfing with crab apples in our backyard (again, I have the funniest kids!), which allowed me to tackle one job on my chore list. Baby Girl did a fashion show for me with all the clothes her Grammie bought for her today during their girls-day-out, and we had leftovers for supper (no fuss, no muss, and more importantly, no mess!) Pinch me, I must dreaming! And now for the proof:

Our jam-packed lesson plan, which was way too much because we did not finish it all until 4pm, but no one complained!

Two hard working boys:

Our Animals of China bulletin board:

One of Elliot's drawings. I had to laugh when I noticed that he was putting funny captions alongside each of his animals. This one is of the Takin, who we learnt is considered the rarest animal in the world; therefore Elliot wrote: "The zookeeper says I'm special!" . . . tee hee!

Here is Avery's camel. Avery LOVES to draw and so he took this assignment very seriously. I love how he coloured the camel in two tones of brown, and he included the fact that camels do NOT carry water in their humps. This fact blew his mind! I swear he found this even more shocking than the Santa Secret, which he also just figured out today. It's a long story, but let's just put it this way, he handled it much better than his brother . . . tee hee! 

The very yummy, and definitely not nutritious in any way shape or form, lunch that Grammie delivered to the boys when she picked up Zoe for their lunch and shopping date. They were in heaven, and I lost track of how many times they exclaimed: "Grammie is the best!"

Yep, this indeed was the best first day back to school ever!

And now I am preparing myself for the inevitable crash that I like to call "day two" . . . tee hee! Come on, let's be realistic here. This was just one of those cosmic irregularities, which will never come along again in my lifetime . . . but I can hope.

Wish me luck!