Housework, Slimy Slugs and Grassy Bugs

After yesterday's rejoicing at our successfully organised weekend, I woke this morning to realise we had failed to 'organise' any cleaning etc into the weekend.  Result: one really untidy house!  It's not the end of the world though as Mondays are usually pretty relaxed - we rarely have any 'first-day-of-the-week' plans (another benefit of Home Ed: Mondays are not a thing to be dreaded - in fact I quite look forward to them!) - so this morning was mainly about teaching the boys how to do housework.
Incidentally, I've been trying to think of ways to differentiate between the boys on here as I really dislike referring to them as a number (ie DS1, 2 & 3).  It works for some people, but I'm not really a numbers person, I'm more of a word person.  I am a bit paranoid when it comes to internet safety, so I refuse to use their real names.  Nicknames would confuse me, and I was thinking of calling them Big, Middle, and Small - except that my youngest really isn't small, never has been (was born weighing 10lb11oz!), so I wasn't entirely comfortable with that either, hence I resigned myself to using numbers when I started the blog.  Anyway, having chatted about it to a friend recently it was in my head again, and I thought of a possible solution, so from now on I will - assuming I remember - refer to them as Eldest, Middle and Youngest.  It works for me (as long as we don't have any more babies, but that's highly unlikely, and anyway that would be a whole other blog!), so I hope I haven't confused anyone out there!Anyway, enough procrastinating: back to the housework (how many times do I think that in one day?!). Eldest has been half-heartedly playing about at tidying his bedroom for a couple of weeks now, without ever completing it, which meant that any progress he did make was very quickly lost again.  This morning I went up with him and helped him to clear all of the mess into one area (on his bed) so the rest of the room looked good which gives a psychologically boost, and gave him a more confined area of intense mess to deal with.  Possibly the bed was a bit intimidating, but actually less so than having an entire room to deal with!
The laundry basket was in full 'erupting volcano' mode, so I gave Middle the job of sorting all the clothes into three separate mountains of whites, darks and reds (we wear a lot of reds in this house).  He loves sorting, and there was some semblance of art involved as he had to work out which colours had red in (we also wear a lot of purple and orange).  While Middle was sorting the dirty washing, I got the 'lonely sock' pile out of the airing cupboard where it was threatening to take over, and gave Youngest the task of match-making.  He's not got the hang of folding them together yet, but he loved handing matched pairs to me faster than I could fold them :)
After the younger two had helped Mummy with the washing - or at least made a start on it - they were still keen to help, so they emptied the dishwasher for me (I took the knives out first), and then they were thanked with a piece of Daddy's 'Father's Day fudge' which he had promised them  (we made sure Eldest got some too).  Middle & Youngest were still keen to help with more housework (yay), so we sorted the chaos in the lounge.  While sorting they came across the Horrible Science Slimy Slugs kit that Middle had bought with his pocket money the other day, so once we had finished tidying the lounge, we called Eldest downstairs for a break, and had some science fun with slime in the kitchen.  Middle was particularly pleased as he got the green slime that looked like a giant bogey.  It was so much fun!  We stretched it, tried bouncing it, blew bubbles in it (the farting noises that it produced were hilarious, even to Mummy for once), made slugs out of it... generally had a great time with a fab little resource!  There was a recipe included for making more slime, so I'll share that after I've showed you the boys slugs...

If you want to make your own slime you need half a cup of white PVA glue, some cornflour and a few drops of food colouring (and a sealable container to keep it in - if you don't want to keep it, throw it in the bin, don't tip it down the drain, unless you don't mind calling a plumber out).  Pour the glue into a bowl, add cornflour a little at at time (you don't need a lot), stirring all the while, until the slime is a good consistency.  Add few drops of colouring, & voila!

Our other science-based experiment that the boys particularly enjoyed today were some Grow Your Own Bug kits with grassy heads that they had been given lately.  We started on the kits a week ago, and hadn't really paid them a lot of attention this weekend as we were so busy - but when we looked this morning the boys were thrilled to see that they've all done really well.  Grassy hair-cuts may be in order soon!

And that was this morning.  Lunch with CBeebies again (Middle did a particularly cute dance with the Numtums), and then this afternoon Middle and Youngest took it in turns playing on the CBeebies website while I helped Eldest finish sorting his room.  Hopefully he'll keep it nice now - at least for a few days... until the next housework bonanza day, anyway!