I woke up this morning with an attitude of gratitude ~ thankful for cool weather moving in, our house move coming along, and the ability to snuggle in bed with my two little sidekicks tucked under each arm. Then, I remembered it was Monday. School day. Ahhhhh!!! But, today I was armed with a new schedule and worksheets that I had prepped over the weekend, and Sam had the incentive of all incentives for Eli to finish his work quickly today, so it was going to be fine…everything would be just fine…right??

I made Eli a schedule so he would know exactly what he needed to accomplish every day and could check off the boxes as he worked his way through the school day. He’s still earning 20 minute screen-time smiley faces for each assignment he does, but the schedule is more so he knows what to expect. Today, aside from the screen-time rewards, Sam also had an extra incentive for Eli and his friends if they got their work done in the morning – a lunch time airplane adventure! It started with the airplane gliders Eli got for his birthday, and then progressed to a battery-powered glider (currently sitting in the top of our neighbor’s tree), and then Sam ordered a remote controlled airplane this weekend. So, if Eli finished his school work by the time Sam was ready for his lunch break, we were all going to meet at the park to fly the plane. And he did! Woohoo! The first great Monday of homeschool and all it cost us was a remote controlled airplane! Ha!

School went very well this morning with only a slight hiccup. Eli was working on spelling in his Lexia reading program (he chose to save this part of school for last because he hates it with a passion), when the phone rang and I got up from sitting next to him to talk to my mom. I told Eli to keep working and I would be right back, well, it wasn’t but a few minutes later I hear Sam yell from his office, “Eli, are you cheating??” I walked back in just as Eli was saying, “Hey Google, how do you spell made?” I can’t leave this kid alone for 2 minutes! Ha!

But everyone finished school by lunchtime with no yelling and no tears, so it was a successful Monday! Time to fly an airplane 🙂