Three kids wasn't enough for me so I'm taking on a couple more, but only on occasion! The mom next door recently went back to work and is having a hard time finding childcare so I'm covering Mondays & Tuesdays for now. All 5 girls are in heaven at this arrangement! Four of them come home on the early bus & the last one is in an older grade & is on the later run. They run inside, bring their stuff upstairs and vie for my attention so they can get their work done. Inevitably someone has to wait to do their reading with me and gets impatient but it's working out pretty well overall. The best part is that the dad next door is HANDY! plumbing, carpentry and he's also an electrician. Just between you, me and the world wide web, I hope they don't find a a babysitter for Mon/Tues for awhileand I'll take out my hours in trade!!! Imagine! Maybe I could work off getting light fixtures in the rooms upstairs and get rid of the stupid lamps! I already got our downstairs tub caulked which was pretty exciting. I did it myself a few months ago but it didn't go very well. Dad, recall the black paint incident in the 80's? Substitute caulking for the paint I wore and you've about got the picture.
Anyway, today I suggested getting out the bubble stuff after homework and they were keen! Homework was done in record time and we got out the gear and got to it! They also decided to set traps in the trees for the witch they've been hunting since the sighting at Tulip's birthday party in June. The traps involved lots of skipping ropes looped into noose like arrangements so we'll be putting those away for awhile again!
After dinner, Murray took Honey for a bike ride/bottle hunt that was a raging success! 15 returnables, one sighting of a cat (not ours) chasing a fox and every once in awhile the fox would stop, bark at the cat, then keep running. Honey found her teacher's house when they passed her out walking with her dog & daughter.
While they were gone, the rest of us went for a skip/walk down the road. They've just recently figured out how to get that rope over their heads and to jump it and run a bit at the same time but the rope movement isn't overly fluid yet and they can't get the momentum going to keep the swinging in motion. It has improved dramatically though and with a little hop forwards as they clear the rope, they can keep moving for several steps and are thrilled with their progress. They skipped the whole way there & back pretty much.
