Some Summertime

So, yep.  It's Labor Day already.  I know I say this every year, but where did August go?  And July, for that matter?  At the end of the summer I always feel like I wasted the golden hours, but when I look over the days I don't feel like they were a waste.  It was a gloriously mild, golden summer.  We spent many, many hours outside.
 

playing hard all day long is TIRING!

The neighborhood kids practically lived in our yard and our house.  Katie counted any day of which she didn't spend the majority in the company of her local friends as pointless.

I think they breed like rabbits.

As I mentioned before, we still had quite a bit of school work to do, at least at the beginning of the summer -- but the subjects tapered off as the girls finished them.  (Joseph still has several pages to go in some of his school books, but since he's already reading, and it's Kindergarten anyway, I'm seriously not bothered.)  We took the last week of August off completely.  I have to say I'll be glad when the kids have some structure to their days again -- too much leisure is not good for man or child.  I think God kicked Adam & Eve out of the Garden after the fall for their own good -- only someone with preternatural gifts can endure so much free time without killing his siblings after a couple days.

One thing we did was have our own library reading program.  Every year we've signed up, it's always been disappointing in one way or another.  For one thing, the reading program doesn't start until public school gets out.  This year, that was practically the end of June.  For another, the reading lists have to be a certain number of books long.  This has been hard for Miriam the last couple years, because she is reading at a much higher reading level than many, so it's hard to pack 15 300-page books into one summer!  Finally, as the reward for handing in their filled-in lists, the kids would receive from the library a coupon book for local businesses.  Many of them are fun and usable -- discounts on waterparks, free ice cream, etc.  However, most of the coupons expired at the end of August.  Usually it's only the stupid ones ("Free package of floss from your friends at Happy Teeth Dentists!"*) that last through September.  So by the time we finish reading, hand in our lists, and get our coupon books, we have about 2.5 days to use them all.

And I always get a little twitchy when I see well-meaning grownups trying to reward kids for reading.  "Here!  Read this Pokemon book and you get a free ice cream cone!  Yay!  Isn't reading FUN?"  My kids love reading for its own sake -- they don't need stupid incentives to spend time getting lost in beautiful and amazing stories.

/rant

So, for our own personal family summer reading program, I printed out lists of recommended books (ripped em' off of Ambleside**), and every time we went to the library they would choose a few, and then keep track of those they finished.  The funnest part was making a list of the fun things we want to do -- Miniature Golf, Chuck E Cheese, lunch at Subway, etc.  Now I just have to follow through and do all those fun things....

Anyway, other than reading, here's a sample of what else we've been doing for the last few months.

power washing the house...

doing science experiments...

math/engineering...

math/art...

battening down the hatches...

playing in the rain after the storm...

learning to play with power tools...

building massive couch cushion forts...

being silly...

And, of course, enjoying the occasional siesta.

Joseph, about 20 mins. earlier: "Daddy, I'm NOT tired!"

*Not really.

**Caveat for those who are actually interested in the site -- Ambleside tends to have a very high opinion of children's reading abilities.  I recently learned to choose books recommended for the grade below my kids' current year.