Summer so far

Its been a while, because we have been BUSY!

We had a three kid birthday party, which went wonderfully, and we have just been working really hard on our new lifestyle changes in preparation for fall. We are streamlining and getting really honest and serious about what we want for our selves, our home, our educational plans, our daily habits and routines, how much it costs to live our life, what we need to do as a family each and everyday to keep this whole ship afloat, etc etc and so on. when I set out to start this on June 2nd I had no idea how far we would have come in one month. I am very excited and optimisitic.

One of the lovely things that has changed our lives this summer is our NEW POOL! The children got this from my mom and stepdad for their birthday present, and it is great. Day one had me almost reaching for the tranqulizers, I was so uptight and stressed about how much we had to re-learn how to live and be in our backyard now, how to keep the baby out of it, how and when we can swim, who can be out there un supervised, who cannot, etc, but it only took 2 days to really get into the swing of Backyard Livin' with the big pool!





I had a pool growing up, and lived in that thing. I would come out for "lunch", to choke down a sandwhich and then I was back in till bedtime, literally. I want my kids to feel that comfortabkle in the water, and even though we have talked about it for years, I have never been able to get them into some kind of swim lesson program, its just the logistics with me, always, no babysitters, no way I am sitting on the deck of a pool with three little ones waiting for so-and-so's lesson. I cant do it! Same goes for all those Mommy-and-me type things, and Swim-with-your-baby...um ok so who watches your other kids?




So, like homeschooling itself, we are having natural, self-taught "swim lessons" right here at home. Not by 60 dollars for 20 minutes with some hungover teeny bopper who forces you to make scoopys, make scoopys, make scoopys with your hands, but by hours and hours in water itself.

We have joined one of those summer reading programs at a local library with our best homeschooling friends. This is a thing where you chart how much you read, in 15 minute increments, and when you have 2 hours read, you may go and get a prize. Once a week there is a craft or an activity, and there is also a weekly drawing for prizes which Mickey and Casey won! this win puts them into the big drawing which I think is some huge prize like a dirtbike or something crazy! Phew!

So we go once a week to the library to do the craft and to get our prizes and to see our friends. It is nice. Although years ago when I thought I knew everything, and of course, I knew nothing, I probably would have had some witty little thing to say along the lines of "You shouldnt give children gold stars for doing what should come naturally, the love of literature, blablablabla and so on"



Ummm...



Hopefully it is clear that we all use motivational techniques to do good things, to make sound choices, to help us sort through the thousands of choices that we have each day as to what we can do with our time, and if we as adults want to pretend that we don't, then we are lying. This little book club has made my kids read more. Period. Plus it has shown us a new library that I probably never would have gone to, and it gets us out every week to see our friends!



We have also been going once a week to Homeschool Park Day, which meets at a park less than a mile from my house! This is the highlight of the week, for sure. Most of these kids are from Campfire Scouts, but there are some new faces as well. I would like to sit on my blanket and shoot the breeze with the other moms, but right now since I am in the world of having a one and a half year old, and so you can mostly find me at the bottom of slides, at the top of slides, running across the fields, or, when I am lucky, behind the baby swings, grateful to have a minute or two of pushing.

The blanket moms either have older kids who can maintain, or maybe little babies and older kids who can go off and play.

We have a zillion pets now, and the kids are taking good care of them, with my guidance. they have really added a new dimension to our lives, and I think it is all going well. We feel a bit like farm children, with our morning chores of feeding and washing and refreshing and visiting all the critters. Its really cool!

We now share our lives with:
1 Cat

2 Tadpole/frogs

2 Fire Bellied Toads

1 White's Tree Frog

1 Uromastyx

1 Minnow

3 Bunnies

2 Society Finches

Crickets, which are feeders, but which we still have to feed and care for!



So this is our summer, The Pool, The Book Club, The Pets and ParkDay. Its nice.