Summer!

We are about five weeks in to the longest summer break in (my) record. This summer is twelve weeks from the last day of school until the first day of the next school year. Personally, I am not a fan of long summer breaks. If I had my way, the kids would do year round school with 3 weeks off in each season. I think it would help with knowledge retention and, while I do enjoy summer, I love the fun of the other seasons as well.  When I looked at the calendar for next year, they have 6 days off for winter break. That's it. Six measly days. It seems so sad to try and compress holiday fun into 6 days, especially since all of them come after Christmas when it feels kind of anticlimactic to be out singing carols or looking at lights. But, I digress.

The kids have had one week of VBS and one week of camp. For camp, which was this week, Jack did Minecraft, Kara did Spies and Detectives and Anna did Candy Making. Even Luke had a camp this week--Camping Camp, but his was at his preschool. Everyone had a great time. The camps only last a few hours in the morning, but they were always so eager to tell me everything they did that day. They have one more camp later in the summer. The rest of our time has just been lots of trips to the library, park and other nearby activities.

The girls and Luke also did swim lessons. We tried evening this time, which was a pain. Luke started at 5:30, so we had to eat an early dinner and race out the door. I signed the girls up for level 2, but they probably should have been in 3. They both got a bit better at their freestyle and side breathing. Kara worked on diving and got better at that as well. They enjoyed it and it was a good use of time, but next year I think we might just do private lessons. Luke was in preschool level 1. Mostly, we wanted him to develop some water safety skills and gain a healthy fear of the water (fear is probably the wrong word, but we want him to realize pools are dangerous if you can't swim). I am not sure we accomplished that, but he had fun. For two weeks he begged them to let the class jump off the diving board. He was the only one in his class with this desire. They finally indulged him on the last day and he was thrilled.

Because life can't be all play, we also made them a checklist of items that they must accomplish each day. They (mostly Jack and Anna) complain about it every day, which drives me nuts. But, last year, all three of them told me how glad they were that they hadn't forgotten as much as some of their classmates and that they were thankful that they had done some work over the summer. The "work" part of what I am asking shouldn't take them very long. They generally spend more time complaining than they do working. This parenthood thing is a constant, uphill battle.

Sample from Jack's cheklist

He beat his previous typing record! Slowly but surely, they are making progress.

We have also done a few trips to Six Flags and that is always fun. Anna was finally tall enough to ride Superman. She was very nervous and initially did not want to go. We convinced her to give it a try. And, she loved it! It is a really awesome roller coaster, definitely in my top 3. I like that it doesn't go upside down. It has two really large hills and seems to go on forever. Thomas rode with her and she was so glad she tried it.

Anna is up there somewhere. Thomas texted me so I would know when to take the picture.

Luke also tried a new ride--the river raft. I stayed with our stuff and I saw him float past, he looked so nervous! I was convinced, 100% sure he was not going to like it. But, he did! He got off happy and said he loved it.

Jack and I tried the new giant swings. They go up 240 feet. Neither of us loved it, he was nervous his swing was going to break (we had a nice conversation going down trying to decide at which height we could survive a fall) and I got dizzy. There are lots of circular rides and I had had my fill. Kara was tall enough to ride the Wild Bull Ride, which is similar to a scrambler, but up in the air (another dizzying ride). I'm not sure why it has a 52" requirement, but it bummed Kara out last year that she couldn't ride. So, all the kids got to try something new!

Wonder Woman