One Hundred Days

A couple of weeks ago we checked off our 100th day of school. It came and it went - no big deal. But now I have an infant and energy for science experiments, creative projects, and unique field trips has been waning.

Enter my idea to take a day and fill it with all things fun, all things requiring no thinking, and all things needing minimal preparation on my part: a day all about 100.

The boys answered a variety of questions pertaining to 100. For example:

I wish I had 100...

Micah: M&Ms 

Grady: Friends

But I'd never want 100...

Micah: Footballs (And he went on to say he wouldn't want that many because it would take up too much space in the garage for his other sports equipment.)

Grady: Spankings (Which is a great answer, but I really can't remember the last time the boy even experienced one.)

If I had $100, I would buy...

Micah: A car 

Grady: Bibles for other people 

I would like to eat 100...

Micah: Tacos

Grady: Watermelons

And so many other fun questions... these answers alone alone are very telling about personality and priority with my boys. I will laugh over their answers for years to come.

Snack time took on a new twist, too. I set out 10 dishes with small items and the boys had to count 10 from each dish. Going back to Micah's answer wishing for 100 M&Ms, he was crushed when he realized there was a dish of Skittles but not M&Ms. Oops - my bad.

Although I would have been bored to tears, my boys actually enjoyed this activity: I asked each of them to flip a coin 100 times and graph the results. For Grady, heads won; for Micah tails won. For me, however, I was the real winner because I had 35 minutes to drink my coffee, fold laundry, nurse Jax, and read a story to Annalyse.

I came up with other random counting and measuring ideas pertaining to 100:
- Stack 100 coins and see it it was 100 centimeters.
- Stack 100 coins in 100 seconds or less.
- Arrange coins side by side until it measured 100 centimeters or 100 inches.

I put 200 coins in a bowl and told the boys they had one try to scoop out what they estimated were 100 coins. Then, after counting their scoop of coins, if it was exactly 100, they could keep the coins. If not, the coins went back in my change jar. You can imagine the major disappointment when they didn't get exactly 100 coins!

We did a few other things to make the most of our morning being all about 100:
- 100 basketball dribbles and 100 jumping jacks in the driveway
- 100 jumps and 100 backward steps around the dining room table
- Painting a picture with 100 on it
- Sitting completely still and completely silent for 100 seconds (though, I really should have gone after minutes)
- Reading Psalm 100

And, you get the idea. Simple things that made an ordinary school day not so ordinary after all.