A Perfect Monday

Mondays, in our home, are usually very trying and hard for Mom! We are trying to get back into our weekly rhythm with Papa back to work and the beginning of our "work" week. I was fearing today, with the long Holiday weekend we had, but I was fearing nothing it turns out. We began our day as usual with breakfast and getting dressed. I lost the three eldest when they went upstairs to get dressed. Rather than let them be to play, I decided to follow with some cleaning items and thought we would tackle Elysa's bedroom which was in great need of a clean and weed! We did this until noon, and no we're not done, but we started! We are readying the house in preparation for the Advent season and cleaning out the old and unused! It's a bit of a headache with 4 little one's underfoot, but we're together and that's what's important...right? We had a lunch of grilled cheese on whole wheat no crusts and salad with carrots. Then, we headed to the schoolroom to begin our schooling. I was prepared for the now famous "Monday Struggle," but alas what's this the middles did worksheets while I did Alec's Language Art's and Math lessons. When Nick was done he had a bit of a challenge with me asking him to pick up 3 giant floor puzzles he had left on the floor the day before. He needed to pick those up before he got out anything else or he was on "the bottom step." We just so happen to have a bottom step on each level and this serves as the "thinking spot" for children who aren't so kind or are misbehaving. Nickolaus is on the bottom step quite a bit. Well, Elysa saved the day and decided to help him and they worked together to clean up the puzzles and each earned a sticker jewel for the good queen or king crowns. These crowns are my little invention for good behaviour in the schoolroom. When someone does something I am especially happy with they get a sticker jewel for their crown. For the record, Elysa has the most...she used her newly acquired skill of counting to let everyone know just this! When all were picked up, Nickolaus got his new math game out and sat on the carpet and played with it while I gave Elysa her lessons. She read fabulously her new words and then copied them on paper using her "spaceman" (a clothespin with a face) to put spaces between the words. She did a marvelous job! We started our notebooking journal pages for our History books and accomplished quite a bit on those! A tub of stickers engrossed them for the good part of the afternoon! From now on, Monday will be sticker day! :)