Operation Falling Hippo: A Firefighting Family's Homeschooling Downtime

Ahhh…the joys of teaching my girls at home. There's rarely ever been a dull moment in my life. After all, I came from a family of crazy people (even though I love them dearly, they're all pretty close to an outhouse rat on the sanity scale,) I married a firefighter, I birthed three daughters for him and we decided that home educating is the way to go. Since the promise was for better or worse, my fireman is still hanging around after all these years, but usually the laughs are worth it for him.

Some days though, I question our judgment. I got a bowl of reheated chili for lunch today and was just settling down to eat, when I noticed something fall on our front lawn. What the heck was that? I looked out the window to see a stuffed blue jay on the ground. Poor stuffed birdie. Plop! There came another one. Poor stuffed something else. Seriously? I had left the girls upstairs, only three minutes before. We did science this morning, and they were supposed to be finishing cleaning their closet so we could move on to the ever-exciting task of folding laundry, then working on math. Yeah!

I opened my mouth to shout upstairs because we've discovered that no matter how much the experts say you are not supposed to yell at your children, hollering between floors is often the shortest distance between my mouth and an answer. Before I could get anything out though, my oldest daughter thundered down the stairs, flung open the front door with a great whoosh of arctic air, and announced, "It's Operation Flying Birdie and Falling Hippo!"

"Um…what for?" I have no idea sometimes why I bother asking questions.

"Because, they're getting prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"For the Flying Squirrels!" Out she went, to stand on the front lawn at noon in her long johns and a t-shirt (homeschool uniform-approved for cold days,) so she could catch other assorted stuffed animals as her sister flung them out the upstairs window. Apparently this is serious business because the throwing and flinging progressed and became more complicated over time. Decorative sashes, scarves, belts and doll blankets were eventually used to mummy wrap victims and perform high-angle rescue operations from the girls' dormer window. Yes, I'm sure our fireman will be proud when he finds out.

My only question now is, what category should I classify today's Operation as, in my homeschooling journal?