School in session

As you might imagine, the first day back from our trip was mostly recovery. It was quiet -- we played indoors for the most part and Xander took a two hour nap. Jason had Tae Kwon Do in the afternoon and appeared to thoroughly enjoy himself there.

Today, however, school was back in session. We began with practising cursive handwriting -- and Jason has decided that he really LIKES writing in cursive. It was the getting him to stop and do something else that proved the challenge. While Jason wrote and wrote, Xander and I made homemade play dough. He loved it, as one might imagine -- and even tasted what he had created (from 1 cp flour, 1/2 cp salt, 1/2 cp water and red food coloring) despite my warning that it would be very salty. He was delighted with the whole process, got playdough in his hair and under his finger nails and made himself first a 'gingerbread' house and then a 'gingerbread' man.

After a bit, Jason also decided to make playdough and I showed him how to 'knead' bread using the mixture as a test case. He loved that -- guess we have to make bread again soon:> He was actually the first of the two boys to make a 'gingerbread' boy, and quite a fellow he was too.
Our next 'subject' was Dice math -- using the cinqo dice, Jason rolled dice, wrote out the additon/subtraction problems and did them. He had a great deal of fun and ended up using all five dice to create large number problems... then, after doing that for about 1/2 an hour, he begged to be allowed to continue practicing cursive... By this time, I was developing a bit of a headache and when I glanced outside, I realized that the rain had stopped. "Time to go out" I announced. We got shoes and coats on and headed out the door.

We stopped at Goodwill -- to check for Pokemon card, then went to the DO-IT center and bought two small rakes. I figure that the boys can work off some of their neverending supply of energy by raking leaves (grin). Then it was off to Lake Wilderness so that the boys could run and shout. Both boys were delighted to see that the stream was once again full of water -- 'Hello Alfred!!' they called to the troll under the bridge and tossed their 'gifts' to him as they headed for the playground. They played there for a good half hour before Xander began to show signs of tiredness. We then regrouped and headed off for lunch.

Once home and fed, the boys played Pokemon for a bit then we all three went into the bedroom where I read them a series of Native American tales. Jason then took over, reading Pokemon Junior books to Xander, while I came back to the bedroom to write a few blogs... Now my time is up and I need to get back out with them before heading off for PT.