100th Day of School.

Friday was our 100th Day of School!

Kinda' cool.  I honestly have no idea where most schools are right now in their day count.  According to Maine law, we have to complete 175 days in order for the authorities to not come and take us away and call us unfit and too wacko to teach.  Just kidding about the wacko part...

100% Juice and little headband-y "crowns" to decorate

Anyway, the boys and I are in a neck and neck race against London - to see who can "get done" first.  My lofty goal is to be entirely done - if not for some final books to be read together - before she makes her grand arrival.  At the pace we are going, we are both scheduled to be finished cooking the same exact week.

We shall see.
It's honestly no big deal - it's just my goal.  And it's good to have goals, methinks.
Goals are always made to be not met, right?

Anyhoo...so Friday was the big 100.

And let me just give one wee little disclaimer here before I go on with the rest of my post.  Lest anyone think that I think I'm all that and a bag of chips, my wee little five year old and I are only on Lesson 23 of his book.  And while I don't do anything completely structured until my kids are six -- let's just say that Lesson 23 is a far cry from Lesson 100...isn't it, now?  Schooling with this oh-so-free-spirit who thinks entirely out of the box, is an entirely different kettle of fish than schooling with the other - and while many days I have felt that it's been a ginormous exercise in me utilizing excessive amounts of self-control in not bashing my head repeatedly against a wall so as not to break this little spirit of his - this year has served as a learning field for the both of us in how we may approach our more structured Kindgergarten program next year....with a brand new baby....and a big boy in third grade....and a four-year old besides.  You just might see us at our local neighborhood school in the fall -- and that will be okay, too.

Big baths of grace for everyone, Baby.
One year and one kid at a time...

So, annnnywaaaaaay....back to our 100th day.

I kind of wanted to make this day really fun as the growing age of my oldest is becoming more and more evident to this Mama, and I fully realize that - maybe even as early as next year - some of the activities that brought him quite a lot of delight this year just might cause him to roll his eyes next year.  My boy he is a growing up.  AND, there's this rockin' teacher down the road - you know who you are, Mrs. Sedgwick - whom I always said my boys would have when they came of school age....but you know how life and being on Journey with Jesus works sometimes.... - and she does her 100th Day - and really all of the rest of her school life - up larger than life.

There's really no way I can compete.
But, Mama guilt is a powerful thing - and whilst comparison does indeed destroy contentment - sometimes it's good to get a little nudge of "C'mon.  Make today different.  Spice it up.  Make it special."

So, that's what I tried to do.
And it really was a super fun day.

And again - not knowing where anyone else falls on their schooling days, or even how old anyone's kids are who read this blog, or even if you homeschool, or want to do the 100th day of "not peeing in your pull-up" or of "not sucking your thumb," -- in the event that anyone would like any of these ideas, I shall share.

All right.  First of all, I declared it a Pajama Day, which my boys absolutely love.  It is beaten out only by letting them run around the house in their underwear...a habit in which I am seriously trying to break.  It seems like little boys are hard-wired to want to be naked.  We are working on that.  Progress is indeed being made.

And then we made a big old pancake and egg breakfast.  Normally, throughout the week we are a toast and cereal kind of morning.  On the weekends when Daddy is home we'll have a special breakfast - but rarely on a school day.  So, that was kind of fun and special.  We honestly are, really all about the food...

And while I cooked, they went on a scavenger hunt ALL around the house looking for 100 Hershey's Kisses that I had labeled and hidden.  Each kiss had a number taped on the bottom of it in which they had to match onto the corresponding number on the poster.

Check out THAT bedhead of amazement!  Wowza!

In the end, we found all but one Hershey's Kiss.
But Jesse found a jelly bean hidden from last Easter, so I guess we're pretty even.
Maybe that lone Hershey's Kiss will make its appearance next Christmas?  You never know...

After breakfast, we painted and charted and graphed 100 gumballs onto some paper gumball machines.  It is no secret in this family that my gifting does NOT lie in Math, so upon giving all said instructions, and upon showing my sample gumball machine that I had made, Kaden quietly and gently pointed out to me that I had only graphed 95 gumballs, and that I needed to choose one color to paint 10 extra times - not five, like I had instructed.

Ah yes.  I is a rockin' homeschoolin' Mama....

 In true Jesse form, this activity was right up his alley.  He preferred to "just do my own thing and paint as many gumballs as I feel like, okay Mama?"  And in true Kaden form, he went precisely by the instructions....the correct instructions.  So, Jesse had whirling, swirling, mashed together, 200+ gumballs....and Kaden had 100.  Exactly.  In perfect circles.  And they were graphed precisely.

And Ransom just oh so happily made a mess...

After this, we flipped a coin 100 times and graphed how many heads and how many tails we got.
Are you getting the all-things-100 theme here?

 And they had to guess if they thought they would get more heads than tails before flipping.  If they ended up being correct, they got to keep their quarter.  Any incentive for counting...

This is Ransom's chart.
Methinks he's been blessed with his Mama's gift of Math.

And snacktime was our favorite part of the morning.  Obviously.

We read tons of stories, and they got to eat 100 snacks - all in front of the fire.

There were organic gummy bears, organic jelly beans, and organic fruit circles, not organic at all M&M's, honey roasted peanuts, mini marshmallows, and cheez-its, pretzel goldfish, raisins, and mini bunny grahams.

They sorted them out in groups of ten on their "placemats" and proceeded to acquire a sugar rush of amazement whilst I read "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for her 100th Day of Kindergarten" to them.

Then, I set the Hoolies free to run some off some pent up energy.
I sucked back my second cup of coffee for the day and stared into space.
And we re-convened for the rest of our day....until resttime when there was blessed silence for two hours.

And when Daddy came home, we had blueberry pie to round out our day and told him all about our fun.

I had one final craft activity to do with Kev when he got home - that was the plan all along.  My tender heart Kaden was worried that Daddy was going to be super sad for missing out on our fun day, so I saved the "Make a Self Portrait of Yourself of What You'll Look Like When You are 100" and the Bucket List of things we are going to do before we get to be 100.....

....but you know.
We were all pooped.
And snuggling on the couch to watch Wheel of Fortune together was just more appealing to all said family members than getting out more paint and scissors - and Heaven forbid, doing a little bit of writing.

So, we vegged.
And besides.....there's lots of letters on that show, right?
It's kind of like school....

So, there you have it!
Happy whatever day of school you and your wee ones are celebrating - be they home or abroad!
And just so you know, not a single one of these ideas was my own - so feel free to steal and adapt at will...