Scavenger Hunt

First of all, I spoke with my mom yesterday, and I am happy to report that their power is back on (it was knocked out by IKE)! She was thrilled, it was the second day back at work (she teaches 9th grade World Geography), and when she got home, she noticed the generator was off, so Yeah for Mimi and Poppy!

Today, I really needed to clean my house. My kids ( and husband) have really made a mess out of it this past week. This morning I came up with a new game. Stonewall was whining about a snack, and I was whining about cleaning house. So, I told him that I would fix a snack after the timer dinged. I set the timer for 5 minutes, and told him that when the timer dinged, I was throwing away all the toys on the floor. I handed them the empty toy bin, and they got to work. They were running around the house picking up their toys, and I was cheering them on. They finished with like 2 minutes to spare, and I secretly upped the timer by 3 more minutes and told them to pick up all the dirty clothes off the floor and put them in the laundry basket. They finished this with 3 minutes left, and I handed them an empty trash bag, and told them to pick all the trash up off the floor (like I said, it was Messy!). They ran around, picking up, while I cheered them on, "Go,go, go, Hurry, Hurry" They had a great time, and they picked up! They beat the timer, and in 8 minutes, accomplished what would have taken me over an hour working around and against them. I fixed their snack, and sent them outside in the backyard to play while Rev and I swept and mopped! (Yes, Rev helped, it was so sweet! I just LOVE it when he pitches in and cleans without me even asking!)

Stonewall and Skywalker played on their power wheel until the battery ran out (I forgot to charge it, oops.) Then they were coming back inside, whining about watching TV. I did NOT want them to spend a beautiful day inside watching TV, so I came up with a scavenger hunt for them. I wrote out a list of things for them to find outside, and drew pictures next to the words, since they can't read yet.
Flower, Stick, Stick shaped like a "Y", Rock, Worm, Leaf, bird,berries. Stonewall didn't know what my rock picture was (as if I am notthe best artist, or something), so I asked him to sound out the word "ROCK" and he did it! I'm so proud of him, he is really doing good with sounding out short words! Anyway, after they found everything in their scavanger hunt except for a worm, they were back inside asking for help. The last thing I wanted to do was go hunt worms, so I came up with a new idea. I made them each a bracelet out of duck tape, a simple loop of tape, the sticky side out. Then, sent them out to make nature bracelets. They found leaves, flowers, bugs, grass, and small sticks, and decorated their bracelets. I was so proud of them!

Now, of course, they are sitting inside, watching TV. Oh well, they wanted to play with the slip and slide, but I really didn't want to get it out this afternoon, maybe tomorrow.

And the best part of this day? Rev informed me that he called a babysitter, and we're going to a movie tonight!