Summer living and learning.

I want to start this blog up again, mainly because there is always SO much I want to do with the kids in the summer and never get around to doing most of it.  I have things swimming around in my head, and I hope that blogging will help organize it and that telling people will motivate me to actually do it.

Zach told me today that he wishes we could unschool, and promised me that he wouldn't just want to sit around and watch TV all day.  I asked him what he would want to learn about, and he said history and science.  I pointed out that we already do that -- he just goes to school on top of it.  So I am really going to try and give him lots and lots of experiences this summer.

So far, both kids have each spent a week in Flint with my mom (separately -- "They do fight," she said), and Zach has been to Boy Scout camp.  He had a wonderful time, judging by the state of the laundry I've been tentatively retrieving from his duffle bag.  He earned his swimming, art, and leatherworking merit badges. 

Both kids have just turned in 4-H projects.  Megan did her very first project for Exploring 4-H, the subject being our dog, Freddy.  Zach did a computer project, which was a poster illustrating the parts of a computer, and built a birdhouse for woodworking.  The birdhouse turned out very nice.  I will take pictures of them Friday when we go to see how he did and post them at that time.  He was also in rifle club and did a trophy shoot.  His target will be displayed at the fair.  I am glad to have them done.  It's always a bit stressful, but well worth it.

Zach started band today.  He has chosen to play trumpet.  It's something I feel I can help him with a little more than Tae Kwon Do (he is still involved in that as well -- he's a busy kid).  He is very, very excited about it.  I am trying to give Megan some piano lessons, but we're not very consistent about it. 

Megan played baseball through May and June but is done now.  She says she wants to play again next year.  She was getting to be pretty good, for it being her first year, so I hope she sticks with it. 

So besides all of those official activities, here are some things that we are doing or would like to do this summer: 

*Going out to our camper where we can swim, fish, boat, and hike to our heart's content.

*Raising a monarch butterfly.  Although we haven't found a caterpillar yet, I do NOT want to skip this activity for the second year in a row.  It's such a fun and easy activity.

*Geocaching.  We didn't do this last summer, but we went out and had four finds in one day, which got Megan more excited about it than she has been in the past.  Her legs are finally getting to the point where they can keep up with the rest of us and not tire out as quickly.

*Sunflower house.  The sunflowers are growing, although not as many as I had hoped.  I think some bugs and bunnies got to some of the shoots.  I still hope it will be a nice spot for the kids to read and play in once they get taller and start to bloom.  I'm trying to keep an eye on them.  I've never been very successful at growing things, but I truly hope this works.

*Keeping a running list of all the birds and other wildlife we see.

*Reading, reading, reading!  Yes, Scott and I still read aloud to Zach, even though he's perfectly capable of reading some college-level material.  We all enjoy it, and I will continue to read to my kids as long as they'll let me.  Scott and I alternate who reads to which kid at night, and I read to both kids together during the day.  I use Sonlight and Ambleside Online reading lists plus the kids' own selections and a few of my own favorites.  We have independent reading time every day where we all choose a quiet spot and read.  

These are our current read-alouds: 

Megan:  On the Banks of Plum Creek and D'Aulaire's Benjamin Franklin with me (I'm surprised at how much she is enjoying the latter) and Bedknob and Broomstick with Scott.  We also still read picture books aloud, and some of our other standards that we read from over and over are James Herriott's Treasury, Aesop for Children, Just So Stories, The Burgess Bird Book for Children, Anderson's Fairy Tales, and The Blue Fairy Book.

Zach:  Poor Richard by Dougharty, To Kill a Mockingbird, and It Couldn't Just Happen with me, and Johnny Tremain with Scott.  We just finished The Pilgrim's Progress, which Zach seemed to grasp fairly well.

Both together:  Ben & Me (since I'm reading biographies of Benjamin Franklin to both of them), Paddle-To-the-Sea (mapping as we go), a poem a day from Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Fifty Famous Stories Retold.  We're almost finished with Ben & Me, and I plan to start The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe next.

Currently Reading I'll Hold You in Heaven By Jack W. Hayford see related

To Sam, "God hears," who left us on January 10, 2008 at 8 weeks' gestation.

Nobody Knew You
Nobody knew you
"Sorry about the miscarriage dear,
but you couldn't have been very far along."
...existed.
 
Nobody knew you
"It's not as though you lost an actual person."
...were real
 
Nobody knew you
"Well, it probably wasn't a viable fetus.
It's all for the best."
...were perfect.
 
Nobody knew you
"You can always have another!"
...were unique.
 
Nobody knew you
"You already have a beautiful child. Be happy!"
...were loved for yourself.
 
Nobody knew you
...but us.
 
And we will always remember
...You.
- by Jan Cosby

Poem that comes with the Reunion necklace I am ordering:

Since heaven has become your home
I sometimes feel that I'm alone;
And though we now are far apart
You hold a big piece of my heart
I never knew how much I'd grieve
When it was time for you to leave
Or just how much my heart would ache
From that one fragment you would take
God let this tiny hole remain,
Reminding me we'd meet again
And one day all the pain will cease
When He restores this missing piece
For Jesus heals each tiny part
That holds your memory in my heart

We'll love you forever, we'll like you for always.  As long as we're living, our baby you'll be.

Currently Reading And Ladies of the Club By Helen Hooven Santmyer see related

Back to school pictures.

Mr. Cool wearing his signature look:

 My big kindergarten girl *sniff*:

Siblings-turned-schoolmates:

Best buddies:

The gang at the bus stop (our house):

Here comes the bus -- look how excited Megan is!

All aboard!

And finally, Zach took my first-day-of-school picture on my first day of preschool:

Currently Reading And Ladies of the Club By Helen Hooven Santmyer see related

First day of preschool was a mixed bag.

Currently Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation By Lynne Truss see related

The kids are so excited about school starting!

Zach woke up thinking today was Wednesday and that school starts tomorrow.  He groaned when I told him it was only Tuesday!  He can't wait to see what Mr. P's class is like and how it will be actually going in to class with friends for the first time.  Megan is so excited that she gets to eat lunch her very first day and that they're having chicken nuggets and green beans! 

I'm so happy for them.  I hope they have as great a year as we're anticipating.  I hope it goes okay for me, too.  I'll have my job at the preschool Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have my application in to sub both in the school libraries and the classroom at any of the elementary schools on the other days.  I'll probably be giving up transcription and the doctor's office altogether if I get plenty of subbing, but I'll hang onto them for now until I see how things go. 

It's hard to let go of this way of being that I've enjoyed so much.  I'll miss having a small child around me most of the time (I say as I prepare to teach two classes of 14 three-year-olds -- but of course it's different from being with my own).  Being pretty much a stay-at-home mom has been the best time of my adult life so far and the happiest I've been.  I'm trying to keep in mind the story from my grandmother's funeral about the woman who told, as each phase with her children passed, that it could never get any better than right now, and it always did because of the lessons she taught her children along the way.  I'm sure that's the way it will prove to be for me, too, it's just hard to see it from here.