Journey Journal ~ Summer School Week 1

I've decided to change my Weekly Wrap-up title to Journey Journal. Kinda catchy, don't you think?!

It felt pretty good to get back to a school routine this week. Even the kids said that two and a half hours of school each day wasn't too bad. Truth be known, I think they enjoyed getting back to it, too.

We leisurely get into our school day at 10:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday. We are wanting to finish the books in the Little House series so have been starting our day each morning with about 45 minutes of Farmer Boy.

Next, the kids do a math assignment from Mastering 5th Grade Math, Volume 2 (this week they were doing introductory addition of fractions) and a grammar assignment from Fix-It Grammar, The Nose Tree. That takes about 30 minutes. We also did a fun fractions addition game from Sheppard Software. Do you ever use any of those online educational games? They are really quite good!

Then we go back to reading aloud as we read about 45 minutes out of our library summer youth Book Club selection, which is currently Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein . This is a fabulous book that we are absolutely loving! So perfect for summer reading for a 9 and 11 year old! On Monday afternoons they attend their Book Club at the library where their leader has them do fun projects. This week she wanted them to draw and design their own libraries. Brynne got right to work on hers. Ummm .... Eli probably needs to start working on his.

The kids then end the day reading out of their personal books for anywhere from 15-30 minutes each day. Eli is reading the first book in the How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell. So far he is loving it! Brynne is on the third book in the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, Forest of Secrets.

Additional schooling comes in the form of swimming, softball, and speech therapy (this week Eli was learning all about his "speaking machine", which included anatomy).

Mom gets in some good reading time at the pool!

A sweet treat on the way to therapy.

Wait, that's me. The parents scrimmaged the girls one night when the other
team didn't show up for the game. We killed 'em!

And then it's play, play, play ... just like summer should be.

I have finally had the time and cooperative weather to get some gardening done and to spruce up my flower pots.

Then there's reading, hanging out with my 2 year old niece, working out, and binge watching Gilmore Girls.

She likes to be gated into the kitchen so the dogs can't
bother her while she's playing with her magnetic letters
on the fridge. Really, I don't cage her in.

Today is Friday and we take the day off. I let Eli and Brynne do something last night I have never let them do ... stay up ALL NIGHT with Dawson and his visiting best friend, Antonio, playing video games in Dawson's room. Eli made it until about 1:30 a.m. and Brynne finally gave up at 4:00 a.m. It is now 2:00 p.m. and they are still asleep!!! Two teenagers in the making, right there.

Summer rocks!