So I am posting a non-rainy picture to boost my morale. Abby Kate went from "Don't let go, Daddy!" to figure eights in the driveway in just a week's time. I am so impressed. That face just says it all. Her dad calls her Pink Speed, and now it's truer than ever.
Okay, so summer is starting in 3 days. When I ran my ideas by Tim last night, he said "So you're basically going to homeschool them for the summer." That gave me pause for thought. I guess that's more or less what I'm proposing, but I always think of homeschooling as a very neat, orderly, quiet sort of thing -- all the stuff my kids aren't. They're loud, boisterous, and messy, so when I visualize these activities I picture a certain amount of arguing, a lot of jockeying for position, several attemps at going off half-cocked, and me needing a handful of Motrin at the end of it. Still, I'm going to give it the old college try. Win one for the team and all that.
One thing I have to commit to is pre-planning, to the extent that I lay out materials the night before and write up a lesson plan just as I did when I was teaching real school a hundred years ago (of course, I taught high school, so I spent a portion of my classes trying to wake people up, rather than trying to calm them down as I do at home). Trying to organize this stuff is half the battle. I realized this morning that I don't have anything even remotely resembling a planner -- which, although not strictly necessary, would make me feel spiffy.
I was working on "Improving the body" last night and came up with this list:
- water balloon fight
- dancercize
- bike ride
- hopscotch
- go for a walk
- swimming lessons
- wash van
- play tag
- p.m. at the pool
- Rookies Class -- a 4 week sports exploratory, 1x/week
I'm pleased that I, the consummate couch potato, was able to come up with some good stuff.
Under "Improving the Mind" I have:
- zoo camp
- individual reading time
- writing/alphabet practice
- kid science
- library visits..and the coup d'etat:
- Spanish lessons
This really is a coup. My sister, who is an elementary Spanish teacher and general foreign language goddess has agreed to do Spanish with my kids once a week, all summer long. Sweet.
For "improving the soul/spirit" I have:
- painting class (Abby Kate 1x/week for 4 weeks)
- rubber stamping
- card making
- paper punches and glue stick
- watercolor painting
- working with stencils
- sidewalk chalk
- playdoh
- scrapbooking
- Vacation Bible School
- photo safari/photo scavenger hunt
- making placemats
This is more unfocused. I have posted before about my hate/hate relationship with crafts, so the fact that I have trouble figuring out what to do here is not a huge surprise. Still, if I keep the activities focused on my themes -- oceans, rainforest, desert -- maybe they won't be so scattershot. I, personally, love to do crafts, but supervising children doing crafts gives me a stomachache. We shall see about this area of my plan...
Next post I am going to map out what I think a typical day will look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment