Creative? Who, me?

Still a few days away from when my "big girls" start back to public school, homeschool for my first grader is in full swing. We started back Monday.

The lazy days of summer - watching Spongebob Squarepants and "Good Luck, Charlie" from sun-up to sun-down - have (thankfully) given way to reviews about how nine is the highest possible number that can be placed in the "ones" column of a place-value chart ... and how biologists are sometimes stumped to sort and categorize things by features. We're chatting about common and proper nouns, and O-dawg is facing his first-ever memorization challenge - well, his first teacher-led one; he's, unfortunately, well-versed in the department of, ahem, LMFAO songs.

We also started writing O's "autobiography" today. I was pleased that he listed "Chronicles of Narnia" as his favorite book!

Definitely the hardest part of homeschooling so far has been finding ways to keep Poppi C. entertained while O and I are studying. Last year was hard. She was only a couple months old when we started Kindergarten. But at least she slept. A little. As a toddler, the child literally doesn't sit still.

Just as an example, when I was preparing Monday morning to make O's special back-to-school breakfast - a healthy heaping of chocolate gravy atop buttermilk biscuits with colorful candy sprinkles and, of course, a candle - this is how I discovered Poppi C.:

The week hasn't improved much. 

I've tried letting Poppi play with paint containers, construction paper, magazines and, yes, even food. Over the weekend, I even made homemade finger paint for her using this recipe from Easie Peasie:

Here's Poppi, working on her mess masterpiece: 

But today, neither of my "big girls" were home, so this morning was a good trial run of how the school year is going to be once they start back to school next week. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I had to get really creative to keep Poppi C. entertained. 

Enter my stash of fuzzy pom-pom balls:

Eureka! It worked! 

For 15 minutes. 

... But it worked! 

The only dilemma is that Poppi is one of those children who puts everything in her mouth. And I mean everything. For instance, the mud that's caked on the bottom of her dad's work boots. Yeah, even that.  Thankfully, the fuzziness of the balls appeared to act as a deterrent. 

O and I were able to wrap-up our "Greater-than, More-than and Equal-to" monster craft (more on that later), and all is well with the world. 

Until tomorrow.