From the time I made my post yesterday morning I was not able to pause until about 3:00. I had the luxury of a short nap because my baby's nap coincided with my being able to take a break. Then, after about 45 minutes it was another mad dash until 10pm. Probably nothing out of the ordinary for having 4 children, I guess it's maddening in that we are out of our normal routine. We are fortunate in that we can depend on Samuel to play on his own for short periods of time without having to worry about his safety. I know some families that cannot do that, their children get into trouble or are self-injurious. I'm sure we'll face some spells where he will be up to some mischief and will keep us on our toes, but things are pretty calm with him right now.
I was able to work with Samuel two different times: the first at about 1pm (which I had hoped to do at about 10:30!). He was not very cooperative, but I waited him out a bit, used the token board with some mini-marshmallows, and we got through some Reading and a Math exercise. It took us 20 minutes. Then he got to play Playstation.
Our second "Work Time" was just before dinner, 6pm. He was much more cooperative this time and it only took us 13 minutes to work on some Social Studies, Science, and Religion. Then he got to play on the computer until it was dinner time.
Did I ever get to do anything fun with the boys yesterday? Not like I had hoped to. However, while his brothers were out playing in the snow with a neighbor, I spent some time "playing" with Samuel in the play room. We tortuously worked a farm jigsaw puzzle (he had to go jump on the mini-tramp after setting down just about every piece, which I had to show him) and then we sang "Old McDonald" He joined in quite nicely! My oldest son seemed happy that I read to him before bedtime last night. We just started a new novel, from a series about boys at a boarding school written by a priest in the late 19th century. The language is very different, but the stories are so appealling to my 9 year old!
As I was getting his baby sister to sleep last night Samuel came and found me in her room and asked "Mom, can I do more school work at home tomorrow?" I'm sure this question stems from not wanting to go to school, but I wonder if it means he is actually starting to enjoy our "Work Times"? Samuel will get his wish today, school is closed again! I just finished typing lessons for all the same subjects that we did yesterday.
Samuel just came in and said "Mommy, there's snow today. No school today!" He has the biggest smile on his face and has gone prancing out of the room!
It's shower time!
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