It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written, I haven’t had a whole lot to say. But today was the last day of Kindergarten for my little girl, and it was a fun celebration of being young. They had a little ceremony where they sang some of their songs from the year, and then we had punch and cookies afterward. It was fun to hear about how much she’s blossomed from a quiet late-comer into a full-fledged ready-for-1st-grader! She’s done really well this year, in spite of missing the first three and a half weeks of school, and we are glad that she’s right on track.
But the school sent home a lot of “warnings” about how kids can lose so much of what they’ve learned while on summer break. To help combat that, we’re going to do a lot of reading and writing, and try to get in some math and science as well.
For our reading program, we’re going to make every effort to get to the library once a week, and get 7-8 new books to read. I want her to read a totally new book each day, even if it’s one we own and haven’t read yet. I’ve also got her started with a folder filled with writing and drawing paper, and she’s going to write about each day and draw one or two pictures about her day. Some days will be boring, I’m sure, but our goal is to write each day, no matter how boring it was, and to fill the whole folder with her own memories of this summer. If it goes well, maybe we’ll do it every year, and start Alex on it, too!
As far as other plans for the summer, I’m trying to figure out a way to do something special at least one day each week, and also do a little “summer camp” at home for the kids one week. I don’t want to fill up their days with lots of activity, I want to have relaxing, lazy summer days, but I also don’t want them to drive each other up a wall, so I’m going to start planning for “emergency” fun activities to get the kids off each other’s backs. I’m also going to try not to allow the tv to be on most of the day, and I’m going to have an hour in the afternoon that is a quiet time for everyone, where they can either read a book or rest.
I’ve been thinking about my personal habits, just as I’ve mentioned at Uncluttered about my home habits, and I’ve currently been working on dealing with anger. I’d say this is going about half as good as I’d hoped, so I’m going to continue to work on those issues, but in about 2 weeks, I’m going to add a daily habit of reading at least 5 chapters of the Bible each day. I’ve been trying to read the Bible regularly this year, but I’m lagging behind, and there are days that I will sit and read for an hour or so, just because it’s quiet and I can. But other days, I miss out completely. I want to be more intentional right now about reading the Bible, so I’m shooting for 5 chapters a day.
I also want to work on some habits with my kids, which is why we’re doing the reading and writing each day, but I have to figure out what to do with my 3-year-old. I’m probably going to start with reading at bedtime each night, and nights I know we won’t be home early, I’ll try to read him a book at some other point during the day. After I get that habit going, I’d like to start getting him to practice writing letters. He already knows each letter, but his writing skills are pretty normal for a 3-year-old boy, which is pretty much non-existent. So I’m hoping to get him to the point of writing the whole lower-case alphabet by the end of the summer.
When it’s time for school again, we’re not going to be doing traditional public school anymore. Nour is currently enrolled in a virtual academy, and we’re planning to change this to their international version, as we’ll probably be moving mid-year. So she will not go to a typical classroom anymore, and I’m using the summer to start practicing what it will be like for us to do her schoolwork at home. They have some summer programming to go through, so I’m counting this as a huge benefit for practicing. I don’t want her thinking that she doesn’t have to do a lot of work anymore because she’ll be at home, so we’re going to probably need the whole summer to get used to this!
So that’s my big plan for the summer as it stands right now. I absolutely expect it to change, and I know it’s not going to look the way it does in my mind, but I’d rather have some sort of plan than just do whatever!
