Today we had a blast! In fact, I am genuinely exhausted as I write this! We had a great day at school... a good morning routine and good lessons. We wrapped up the unit on manners... although that will be revisited on an hourly basis I am sure. But now I at least can know they have been taught the proper ways! We had public speaking where they each shared their journal entries with the group... they enjoyed that again. We also played the game Headbanz. During quiet time they all planned a group activity for the day. Ashley's was first: after Allison woke up from her nap, she was allowed to start her party that she had organized so thoroughly. That took about two hours of fun and she did a great job running the show. She had alphabet soup using scrabble letters for the main party dish and her game was a vending machine... Adam hid inside the ottoman and we slid Connect Four chips into the slit, then he stuck out a Smartie candy for each token cashed in. She had planned to make necklaces with macaroni noodles and they created a self portrait out of various craft items taped to construction paper. It was really cute and they all enjoyed it. I participated for a while but then I needed to get some things done! While I was making dinner I found out it was Anna's turn to start her group activity. She planned a fancy dinner. She set the table as fancy as possible including juice boxes poured into a wine glass for the kids and real wine for the adults. Wes brought home roses for me... just because... so she was delighted that she could set those on the table! She went upstairs and had all the kids get dressed in fancy attire, she even dressed Allison in her fanciest dress and brought down a fancy shirt for me to put on with my black capris while Wes put on his shirt and tie! She said she was doing it to celebrate our completion of the manners unit. The kids demonstrated all the proper manners they had learned and we really enjoyed the meal. How cute it was and very well executed! After dinner it was Adam's turn... he had spent time setting up his store in his room. He was selling various items that ranged from 5 cents to 100 dollars. He organized the whole thing and wrote the price tags for some items until he needed help, then he recruited Ashley. When we arrived he welcomed us properly and showed us the items he had for sale. He explained the price on those items that he felt needed explanation. He took the money and made the correct change as needed. All three kids were very proud of their activity... and also enjoyed the other kids' activities throughout the day. It was really fun... I must say! It didn't end there... Wes had planned a movie night, so we watched The Three Stooges (or as they like to call it, The Three Stoogers) after everyone got in their jammies. This happened to be highly tied into our manners lesson as well... what NOT to do... ever!
