2.for.Tuesday

I am considering this the first official day of summer since the weekend doesn't count and the holiday is, well... a holiday. Today was the first day *I* should have been in school but he wasn't because it's summer. Craziness. It's summer.

This is a photo of his last day of school. The large poster he is holding is his life sized emu he wanted to make. Did you know emu was pronounced ee-myou?

Because it's summer I'm going to ignore the backlog of great ideas I have to share with you and share some of my own [and there will be more than two this time]. I'm going to attempt keeping my kids mentally engaged this summer while still keeping it fun. I know you're laughing and thinking "good luck with that one..." But hey, I can dream right? And besides, they're still young...

One: summer book club idea/photo from BH&G magazine. I first read this article a few years ago and now that *I* is turning into a voracious reader I think he'll really enjoy it. After a little search I've discovered a few different lists for kids book clubs. Oprah's and Great School's + the article link also give suggestiong for choosing books. I'm sure there are even more out there...

I talked to him today about the idea and he loved it. He already has his friends list and knows which book he wants to start with. He wants to read Fablehaven but I just checked library availablility and though there are 20 copies there are also 12 requests. I'll check back on that and encourage him to choose another book. Maybe something like Peter and the Starchatchers. Except the library only has 2 copies of that one. Hmmm... Sorry, I will stop boring you with my search of books to read...

Two: what I did this summer books. I'm having him/them journal write and he chose Mon/Fri to write. I'm making a conscious effort to make sure they get all of their pegs done before they can play and *B* wants to have them help buy their school clothes with the money they earn from that [the photo above is of the peg charts I made last year]. I'm planning on going on official outings once a week [don't think this will be anything huge. Probably just a trip to the splash park or something like that]. I will let him use my camera to take some pictures and I will take some pictures and he will write about it in his journal. We will also be making projects like embroidering pictures they draw [since he wants to learn to sew and I told him he has to learn to handle a needle + thread before he can use my sewing machine] and we will be traveling the world. He insists that his class went to Australia the last day of school and he loved it. The whole last week they learned things about Australia and wrote a report about something they liked that was unique to the country/surrounding area. We discussed it and he would like to visit one country every two weeks. I'm cool with that. I think it will be fun. We'll read and cook and search the net and in the end he will think he's traveled the world. Love it! In the end we will make a book at Blurb and he will be able to remember what he did this summer. He loves the idea.

So, these things paired with lots of roaming the neighborhood + playing with friends + our standard camping/fishing trips + growing/eating our garden fare = one pretty eventful summer. Hopefully we'll be able to spend some time swimming too. It would be a tragedy if my kids didn't learn to swim.

enjoy the journey!