Summer Vacation, Days 1 & 2

Two days of summer vacation under our belts ... wait, no one here wears belts! Ah, lazy summer days!

We started low-key yesterday with nothing nothing to do and nowhere to go. We had some fitful discussions of what to do during our three months of summer -- fun things, scholarly things, house-cleaning things. When presented with the big "What do you want to do this summer?" question, the answer from the kids was, "Let's fill up all our pools in the yard!" (That would be two small, inflatable wading pools and one wading pool big enough for all of us to sit in simultaneously.)  That's it. Is there anywhere else that you'd like to go, anyone. "How about the park? The one with the really big slide?" That's a 10 minute drive from home, so not a difficult outing. Anything else? Anything? Anything? "Museum of Science and Industry?" says he who wants to see "The Great Train Story" again. So, the Summer Bucket List is a little empty, but we here at Olsen Central always have been homebodies and we like it that way.

Monday, the kids played together fairly well. (That means, of course, no blood and minimal bruising.) Old toys and puzzles were rediscovered and re-loved. No one got sand in their eyes in the sandbox. Popsicles were shared. Chores were done, because that's how to make Mom say yes to computer or TV time. We even cracked open the summer workbooks (because I am that mom) to absolutely no complaining. (When you specifically buy the book that tells a child what page to do on each day, do you stop the child from working ahead and hand that scholar a different workbook or just let her go?) The day was a going well, until dinner when one of our number became unexpectedly and dramatically ill. Yikes! All I could say was, at least this doesn't always happen in the middle of the night!

Summer, Day 2: Ill child is much improved. Maybe dinner was just really unappealing. We eased into the morning and had another eager round of workbooking. I'm impressed at how easily the kids take to doing these Summer Bridge workbooks. We've done them for three years now. (Yes, Erik will be just a third grader in the fall.) I learned the year William was born that it doesn't work to say go do a workbook page and let it get done in another room with no supervision. So, choosing a series that is paced for summer work between specific grades is very helpful. This year I also have on hand some other workbooks for specific areas I'd like to see extra practice: subtraction and cursive writing for Erik and sight words for Anna. It really doesn't take them too long to plow through some pages and they like having the routine of it. After lunch, we have devotion and reading time, which we tie into the library's summer reading program, (but we would do no matter what). Before the day is done, I also like to have the kids write a journal entry of some sort.  To be perfectly honest, sometimes it's nice to spread out these tasks so when the kids ask to do things I'd like to drag my feet on ("Can I watch a show?") I have a list of chores and academic things that need to get done first.

One of the challenges of summer break can be the necessity of having my whole crew come with me as I do errands. Keeping three kids in roughly the same area of Target while shopping for the week's necessities is no small challenge. I have not forgotten how dull shopping can be for a kid, which is what I jokingly said the kids should write about for their journal tonight. Anna instead went with "I ate strawberries." Erik wrote an epic analysis of the Power Trains/Power City sets that he saw in the toy section. Later I parked him in front of the computer and told him to do some price research on Amazon and see what he could learn. As long as a kid is going to be fixated on a toy, I might as well get him to do some comparison shopping. (Then we threw a wrench in the works and told him that the Lego trains really are going to last much longer even though they cost more. Now he's back to studying the Lego City train sets.)

Jamieson took this picture while were reading Harry outside.
So serious!

From a mom point of view, the great accomplishment of the past two days has been already hooking the kids on a new book. Last week Erik brought home  Lego Harry Potter: Building the Magical World.  He brings home every book the library has about Lego, but it made me think maybe it was time to bring out Harry. So, we did. We started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone yesterday. We're on the third chapter today and the kids are captivated. They get really annoyed when I put the book down at the end of a chapter. This is going to be a perfect summer read for them.