One of the smartest things I’ve done recently is set up a homework kit for Adam. It’s just a box that contains everything he normally needs for his school work – scissors, an eraser, a pencil (and sharpener), crayons, a glue stick, a highlighter, and markers.

It’s not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, but having everything he needs in one place (and safe from his little siblings) has already made things a lot easier for us both.

And in case you’re wondering just what sort of homework a first grader gets, here’s what Adam does each week:

– He reads at least two books each night and most nights comes home with a short reading worksheet to do as well.

– He’s given a four page packet of math work on Monday that is due back on Friday. I suggested doing a page a night, but he likes to knock it all out at once. It really doesn’t take long and we do it on a non-soccer night.

– He is also given his spelling words for the week on Monday and then is tested on them on Friday. On Monday night I have him spell the words out loud, so I can see if there are any that are going to be a problem (then I can randomly ask him to spell them throughout the week). Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I try to give him a written test.

– He also has a little bit of church school homework each week. This week it was memorizing a short bible verse (“Let the children come to me.” Mark 10:14). I printed out the verse and taped it to the door leading outside. Each time he goes out, and a lot of the time when he just passes it, he will stop and read it. That system seems to work well for him and he memorized this and last week’s verse (“God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” Genesis 1:31-1) pretty easily.

So that’s a normal week’s worth of work for Adam. He is doing a great job with all of it.

Whenever Maggie wears a skirt, or in this case, a long top with a tutu like bottom, she spins around and pretends she is a princess.

She’s strange, but cute.

“Mom, I know that you really can see me when I am wearing my camouflage jammies, but thank you for always pretending that you can’t.”

I started doing some preschool work with Luke last week. My goal is to do activities Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week. We worked on the letter A last week and also spent some time on patterns and colors.

Adding eyes to the aliens.

Maggie liked the eyes too.

Adam scored his second goal last week. This picture was taken just after the goal (so close!).

We use a desk we got from my Aunt Cathy for the schoolwork. Adam gets homework each week now that he’s a big first grader. He had his first spelling test last week, and got all 10 words right!

Maggie has been all about puzzles lately. Thankfully, since both her older brothers loves puzzles as well, we have a bunch.

Luke loves to play the Lego Star Wars video game. He and Adam work together pretty well – they do have their tiffs when Luke doesn’t do exactly what Adam thinks he should.

We spent a rainy Saturday afternoon at the children’s museum.

The kids loved watching the otters and Adam even made friends with one.

And that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to lately.

Last Thursday was a super busy one for us. Maggie and Luke had gymnastics in the morning. I was finally able to get a couple of pictures of Maggie. She loves walking on the balance beam and was thrilled to finally be allowed to jump into the foam pit.

Adam and Luke both had soccer on Thursday night. I stayed with Luke at his practice, while Dave and Maggie watched Adam’s game.

Adam scored his first goal! It was also the first goal of the season for his team!

Luke, on the other hand, spend most of his practice on my lap, pretending to be a cat.

He’s been doing that a lot lately. When in cat-mode, he only answers to Fluffy (or Fluffminster Tabby) and does a lot of meowing. It’s pretty cute – most of the time. It’s less amusing during church and when I am trying to get him to do something he doesn’t want to do, like pick up his toys (“Kitties can’t pick up toys mommy, they only have paws”).

We had a play date with two other little boys from his team on Friday. So I’m hoping that he’ll be more excited about actually playing soccer this week.

Yesterday morning the little kids went on my morning walk with me. Maggie decided about halfway through that she didn’t want to ride in the stroller.

She insisted on carrying her purse and her water bottle.  I mapped it out when we got home – she walked 0.94 miles. She was one tired little lady. When we got back to the house, she got her kindle and put herself to bed.

Luke and Maggie both still look forward to going to the bus stop to get Adam at the end of the school day.

I love how Luke insists on giving Adam a big hug each day.

I also love how much Luke loves that shirt he’s wearing. Let me tell you the story about that shirt.

Adam had a t-shirt with a ripped sleeve. So while we were at my parents’ house, he had my mom cut the sleeves off of it. A very upset Luke insisted that his shirt needed the same treatment.

I told him no.

There was nothing wrong with his shirt. He had other sleeveless shirts. But reasoning with a 4-year-old doesn’t always work. Especially when he has Mabel on his side.

My mom snipped a hole in Luke’s previously unblemished sleeve, and then had him come show me the tear and ask if it was okay for Mabel to cut the sleeves off now.

I told him yes.

Kind of hard to argue with that.

(And for the record, it was totally worth it. Luke loves his shirt and he was thrilled to have the sleeves cut off like Adam. Mabel knows best.)

Maggie and Luke had their first gymnastics classes this morning. Luke did so well. He listened to the instructors, followed their directions, waited to take his turns, and really thought about what he was doing during each station. He really nailed it and I was so proud of him!

Maggie did well too, it was a little harder to keep her focused. All she wanted to do was jump on the trampolines. No pictures or videos of her class, since the parents have to be in the room helping. She did do a good job with her forward rolls though and on the balance beams. Here’s a picture I snapped when I got home of her in her cute little gymnast outfit.

I can’t wait until next week’s class.