Messes and cleaning...

First, there's the messes. While I am teaching Ammon, Sarah, and Nathan school everyday, Beth is very patient. Sometimes she sits at the table and colors. Sometimes she sits on my lap. She rarely interrupts. Her favorite activity is to play with "school toys." This includes file-folder games, math manipulatives, and phonics tiles. Sometimes she even adds the challenging game Blokus to the mix. Let me show you how she plays with them:

So this is what I get to clean up everyday after school. It is the price I pay for a peaceful schooltime. Being me, every single phonics tile has to be placed in alphabetical order and all of the math manipulatives have to be separated into their proper bags with matching parts, etc. (There are at least 8 different sets of manipulatives.) That's not because I am OCD, it is because when I need to use the "school toys" to teach school, they better be where I can access them. One day, Beth dumped out all the separate bags and stirred them with her hand singing quietly, "I making a mess." She's delightful.

And then there's the cleaning. The boys (you know the ones: Ammon and Nathan) organized Grandma's toy room. Grandma has lots of old Cabbage Patch Kids from the 80's. Well, I'll just show the picture.

(They usually have clothes on and faces.) I apologize for the vulgarity.