summer term wrap-up

My summer plans changed A LOT. My original plan was that after spring co-op ended on May 16, we would take a week off, and then have 4 weeks of working on Frontier Girls badges, a week of camping, and take July off. That totally did not happen.

What DID happen was The Music Man. Eight weeks in June and July, four nights a week, anywhere from one to three hours. As we got closer to the play, it was the full three hours every night. The last week was 7 days in a row - 4 rehearsals and 3 performances, and A LOT of hours. I don't even know.

We went camping in June in New Hampshire, and it was a good week.

We're spending a lot of time at the pool (and have 3 more weeks before they close for the season) and even though I didn't pay for swim lessons this year, Posy and Birdie are figuring it out. We ran into some friends at the pool recently and the 5-year-old said, "Look what my mom showed me!!" as she dog-paddled across the deep pool entry. Posy and Birdie watched for a couple of minutes ... and before we left the pool that day, they were able to do it for a few feet as well.

Library visits are every couple of weeks, so a little slower than usual but we're still reading like maniacs. I'm reading my way through a bunch of Young Adult fiction to teach a book group/literature class to 4th-6th graders at fall co-op.

Summer art continues right along from the winter and spring - drawing and drawing and drawing with markers. The girls have polished off a full case of paper since the first of the year, and a heck of a lot of tape because a lot of the drawings have been taped up in their bedrooms. They're darn near wallpapered in their drawings - Sunny has taken to taping them to her bedframe, because she's out of room on the walls. The fun art element added recently is scissors ... and after drawing on the paper (but sometimes not), chopping it into tiny pieces with scissors. The downstairs broom is getting quite the workout. It's admittedly exasperating for me for them to go through SO MUCH STUFF, but what am I going to do? Tell them No, they can't draw? That would be like telling them they're not allowed to eat or read. It is what it is. I'm just rolling with it.

Sunny and Posy are both in weekly hour-long therapy now, so those are education hours as well. I don't know if I've mentioned it on here before ... Sunny is ADHD and off the charts with hyperactivity. Posy is on the autism spectrum and has been in various therapies for the past 2 years. She's now with her 3rd therapist, focusing on communication and social skills. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money, and I don't understand anything that happens at or with therapy. But here we are.

And we went on A LOT of field trips - another 6, so we're up to 17 on the year.
- a Renaissance Faire in North Haven called the Robin Hood Festival - very fun
- Kid City children's museum in Middletown
- our week at Camp Calumet in New Hampshire
- Ben and Jerry's factory in Vermont
- Sagamore Hill National Historic Site - Theodore Roosevelt's home on Long Island
- the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, and the American Indian Smithsonian that's in Manhattan at Battery Park. We also briefly saw the Wall Street bull and the statue of George Washington at Federal Hall.

WHEW! No wonder I'm tired! We have a couple more things planned for August that will count as "school time," and we have 3 more weeks of the season at the pool. But I'm taking August off. We'll get back to "real school" the day after Labor Day, and have 12 weeks for the fall to finish out the year.