I’d be lying if I told you that we were off to a great start on our first day of school here at Agnus Dei Academy. We actually started at a decent time this morning, but it went downhill from there. . .crying, yelling, meltdowns (and that was just the teacher 
). Normally Tuesdays will be Larry’s day off, so I had a lighter day scheduled, starting with his teaching science to the older three while I quickly did my weekly grocery shopping. I returned in time to help him dole out age-appropriate assignments regarding the planets in our solar system, and he headed off to church to work since he was home for the holiday yesterday.
Silly Boy was deliriously happy that my back to school shopping included a big box of crayons for his use, as well as a glue stick (scissors too, but they were confiscated already for misuse). He busily colored and glued any paper he could find while the older children worked on their math.
That is to say, MOST of the older children. Bouncy Boy was much more interested in the crayons, and the day started going downhill when I insisted that kindergarteners do a page of math like the big kids. Actually, he does like math, but was not impressed by today’s lesson (counting to 100). Hopefully he’ll have gotten over it by the time he’s old enough to read mommy’s blog!
After the three oldest had all watched their Math U See videos, we took a break from math to do catechism. We mostly work on this during family devotions at breakfast, but one day a week they write the current section as copywork or dictation, depending on their ability. Eventually I would like them to write it from memory, but at this point it’s an aid to memory as we haven’t worked on memorizing catechism as consistently as I’d like. This week we are working on the third part of Baptism. Boy Genius made it clear to all within earshot that I was unfair to expect him to remember the same length of dictation phrases as Drama Boy not to mention having to write out the w-h-o-l-e thing (Twirly Girl only wrote out the Bible verses for this one; she just started doing dictation at the end of last school year and still needs quite a bit of help). At the same time, Bouncy Boy was still loudly complaining that I would not do his math for him, Silly Boy (who was sitting to my left at the table) kept insisting I look at his pictures, and of course Baby Boy made sure I didn’t forget he was still in the room too (bounce bounce squeal!).
As a result, catechism took much longer than it should have! Afterwards, the older three finished their math and science on their own and then were free to enjoy the day. Bouncy Boy didn’t finish his math until Daddy came home for lunch, meaning his reading lesson was pushed off until after rest time (something I don’t like to do, but it couldn’t be helped today). I am glad I had the presence of mind to review his letter sounds first, as it turns out he had forgotten enough that sounding out words would have been another exercise in frustration. I’m not sure if he’s that much less academic than the others or if I am starting to get tired of teaching kindergarten over and over! Either way, Teacher is going to be learning patience this year.
I have already survived 6 years of homeschooling so I’m not going to give up after a single bad morning, and the rest of the day went much better: laundry was done and meals were fairly balanced (no sewing though). I had put Southwest Bean Soup in the crockpot (thanks Wendi! I will add the link later, wordpress is not cooperating tonight) so I even found time to bake a cake to celebrate the first day of school. . .well it turns out I must not bake cake very often, because every child who walked through the kitchen wanted to know whose birthday it was! Bouncy Boy and Silly Boy were both especially adament that cake = birthday. As you can see, it is not a birthday cake because there are no candles.
Chocolate Carrot Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 cups finely shredded carrots
Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Grease, flour, and line two 9″ round baking pans; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, oil and carrots; beat until combined. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For frosting, in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar, cocoa, and vanilla until smooth. Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with half of the frosting. Repeat layers. Sprinkle with nuts and chips.
Note: I left out the last cup of powdered sugar in the frosting (so used only 2 3/4 cups) and also had about 1/2 cup of extra frosting for another use. It was still plenty sweet!
