Here comes summe!!! I am thrilled??? scared???? overwhelmed??? by the thought that yet another schedule change is fast approaching.
Ever since the girls started school I have worried that summer lazyness will take away all that they learned during the school year. In fact, I am all in favor of year round school because of it! I have a conversation in my head every year about this time...it goes like this...
Thought 1-"The girls can't forget what they have learned"
Thought 2-"But it is summer...isn't summer about fun?"
Thought 3-"But what about when they start school again...it won't be fun to catch up"
Thought 4- "Ok...fine...but what is too much fun vs. too much work"
And on and on it goes.(Maybe that is why I am on anti-anxiety meds)
So here is "the plan" for the moment... And actually most of "the plan" was brought on by one of the twins second grade teacher insisting that twin b keep up her reading and writing because she is just at grade level in those areas.
The "work" part-
I have ordered the summer bridge books for all but Kendell. I know that some kids do not like the summer bridge books but my girls(especially Kyla) love the worksheets. If they didn't I don't know if I would bother with them.
30-minutes of reading each weekday. This shouldn't be too hard. We do this during the school year(and try to remember the weekends too!) I would like to know if any of you have experience with the books above??? We don't have any Christian series books for the girls...and I have to say that I am MORE THAN FRUSTRATED...with the amount of witch, fairy, strange...books that are out there. If someone is interested in trading some chapter books with us, we would be more than happy! In fact, that would be great! We have a good selection of books that we have already read. I do realize that we can go to the library and we will...but I thought I would throw the suggestion out there!
Journaling. I don't think I am going to put a time frame on this. I do know that writing every day(again...we will try to remember weekends), is just as important for my girls as the reading is. So, we will be journaling...about things that happen, what we are reading, our family, friends etc. AND...we will be journaling about...
FROGS!!!!
I ordered a tadpole kit from insectlore.com. It is a great rescourse for life cycle projects. With our kit we get mondo(is mondo a word???) tadpoles, a lilypad growing kit, everything that you need to house and grow the tadpoles and the lifestages models. This will be great b/c the kids can also draw the stages as the tadpoles grow. We did the ladybug stages during the summer when the twins were going to be going in to kindergarten and they just loved it! It was great to talk aobut our observations, draw pictures and learn the vocabulary that goes along with the stages. If you have never checked out the insectlore website you should! It is great!
The FUN STUFF!!!!
-The twins will be going to playground program. Playground program is pretty much a day camp(afternoon) which is part of our city's recreation department. The three oldest girls went last year(morning) and they loved it! I am not sure if Kyla will go this year...she would be going to morning all by herself and is telling me that she doesn't want to go, I might "force" her to go to get her out of her comfort zone...sometimes she needs a gentle push so that she sees that what she thought was scary...just isn't.
-Library Program- We are blessed to have such a wonderful summer reading program at our city library. There are incentives that go hand in hand with our regular reading program...some of those include, prizes, topical "classes" about fun stuff!, a pool party, and even a FREE play out our town's Opera House. The program is FREE and we have been doing it for years. All the kids will be involved in this program this year. Kyla is actually really looking forward to this!
-Camping- Easy enough...we have one trip planned already and will plan at least one more. With my schedule it is difficult to block off weekends.
-Soccer- The twins are already in soccer and will continue as the finish up their spring season. I am still trying to find something that will work well for Kyla as she has said..."Mom, I don't want to do soccer, that's what the twins do". So...I am working on it! :)
Other than that...I think we will play the rest by ear! I already have 7 parties booked for June, a trip to California planned for July, and I am sure will come back to more work in August. Now that I planned work AND fun for the girls...what do I do about myself???
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