OtterPops: Wrapping up School

School pickup one afternoon

In order to decrease the number of meltdowns on Jocelyn's part and increase the patience on my part of Homework every week, we generally try to go to the Rec Center every Monday and tackle most of Jocelyn's homework packet for the week in one afternoon. I check the younger 3 kids into the kids club to be babysat (sometimes Lillian stays out to work on her HW as well, but she doesn't have nearly as much) and we sit at the tables in the lobby to concentrate. She still has reading and spelling to keep on top of throughout the rest of the week, but this gets the bulk of it accomplished. If I can focus with her instead of having her yell across the house that she needs help while having Emma hang on my legs screaming and Jonas telling me he needs my help and me thinking all the while "I need to change the laundry and get dinner started!" But hallelujah we only have 8 more days left of school for the year.

Girls doing Homework at the Rec Center

Since it is the end of the school year, it seems all the kids have had field trips and activities at school. I was able to help out at Jocelyn's field trip to a local school (literally five miles from our house) that was the first school built in the county so they could learn about what school was like 100 years ago. All the girls had to wear aprons and the boys wore vests and they had a fun day rotating stations and learning about a different way of life than they are used to. I was also able to help out on Jonas's field trip to a local pond so they could release their class "frogs" they had for their pond unit. Oh the excitement and anticipation of 5 boys!

Jocelyn at her fieldtrip

Nature station field trip

Jonas's class releasing their frogs

Jonas with some of his preschool pals

The elementary school also had crazy hair day which was much anticipated. Jocelyn requested little braids with feathers all over her head and when she looked in the mirror after I had tried to deliver exactly that, she freaked out! After a ridiculous meltdown Jared and I were totally done with her...Long story short, we told the carpool they could go on ahead without her and she was up in her room until it was convenient to drop her off at school when we took the car to the shop for more repairs. Sheesh! Jonas also had "pajama day" at preschool and was thrilled to wear his "camping" pajamas that Grandma Diana made him for Christmas even though he has apparently grown and the pants look like highwaters on him now!

Jonas ready for Pajama day

Crazy Hair day before the meltdown

Lilly with her crazy hair

Lillian with her teacher, Mrs. Hendrick

Emma has "sibling school" regularly. Here she is showing off what the girls taught her to do during their training. When they say "cheese" she does this with her fingers and and smiles. It's pretty funny, actually, and she totally does things like this for them that she would never do for me. She thinks it's great when she can get her older siblings to laugh.