We have been just loving summer! so much to do and experience in the summer and our summer has been packed with fun, The big kids get to go to summer camps together this year, which they love, the above picture was their first day, they have done camps on building, camping, Dr. Suess, Pirates, and they have loved them all. If you look close it looks like James has a black eye, it was a rough first day, just kidding that happened at home, whoops... He in particular has done so good at camp I wasn't sure if he would be it has helped him oodles with some things he was struggling with. They have gone to two different facilities for the camps and technically james is not old enough for the one camp it is four and older, but I took Addy in the first day and after the teacher grabbed me and asked if there was a reason I hadn't registered James, I noted he wasn't old enough and she replied the cutoff is four, I repeated he isn't old enough and she gasped, she had worked with James last semester as one of his teachers for a program he did, after gasping she said I had no idea he was three, he can come just register him, so we did and he has done great other then he got in a screaming fight with another little boy who kept telling James he was 4 he had to be 4 to be there and well James let him know he was 3. But if that is the only trouble they have, it is a good day! This week is our last week of camps for the most part, August will be spent working on learning to swim.
Camp out's, We have the coolest dad that just does fun things with his kids, they were all kinds of excited about camping after having finished a unit and learning all about it, but Doug's back isn't doing all that great right now so going up to the mountains would be too much so he decided a campout in the backyard would do the trick and it did, they went on animal hunt's, made smores over a pretend fire, caught pretend fireflies we don't have those in this area, and just made a night of it, the kids were thrilled.
Their first Lemonade stand, the kids were ADORABLE we had a Garage sell getting rid of some things from our house that won't be going to the next house, we still have oodles to get rid of but it was a good start, and the kids Enterprised off our sale, it was a win win. The first few customers we had only bought lemonade. They did well, we counted their money when they were done and divided it between the two of them. I asked James what he wanted to do with his money and he said put it in my piggy bank I am going to need that some day, I asked Addy and she said what are my options.... OH My they are so fun. I love this age for the most part. Now when they are asked how the lemonade sale went they say "good, we got lots of money, paid our tithing to the Bishop and are getting blessed" LOL OH to be young...
We have been doing some new things this summer we do what is called power hour to work on some of our learning things that we had set goals on, Addy is working on writing and reading, we are using the full HWT program now which it is so nice to put it all together and not just be using pieces but she needed the building blocks so it is all good, we are doing orthography and the Sam Readers She is doing well considering, above you can see she has mastered writing all of our names and can read addy, mom, dad, and James in text which is huge, she can also write and spell all of them without help, Audryn is still a challenge for her as is wild she can do it but often looks for reinforcements even just a nod is usually enough. The process is a bit grueling though as she struggles with delays and learning she often learns new things and deletes the old which would be fine if knowledge wasn't a building block situation, it is tough. We had to put our phonics to use, we make the letters with the HWT program then transfer them to 3x5 cards, then tape the cards together, then write them on paper in a continuous manner, then copy them to another sheet, then find them in sentences and scan for common words to complete the process, every word, hopefully once she gets more words the process will simplify but as of yet when simplified it doesn't stick. In case you were wondering what teaching someone to read step by step looks like, now you kind of have an idea.
The James above is actually James' writing, he is working on writing his name not bad for 3 and on reading as well (his choice) they each get a portion of power hour alone with me to work on their goals and they are doing great, He cruises through his reading lessons so we will see how that all goes, I often have to repeat lessons with Addy and he will sit down and do them himself which is not how it is suppose to work, I have to slow him down a little.
Addy's wall of words, She has worked so hard and done so good, she had to put forth more effort then anyone I know to learn things, and she never gives up, it is amazing to me.
We are also doing a Family Date night reward system for doing their chores everyday they can earn 1 gold doubloon for completing the chores on their chore chart, after 10 are earned they turn them in for a family date night of their choosing so far we have done dinner and a movie and an ice cream night, soon we will be headed to the water park.
The big kids are sharing a room while we are in transition and building a house, it has been quite the learning curve for them so for incentive to go to bed and to meet a need we had in our family we gave them a simple system go to bed when told and you get a tally 5 tally's gets you a 1:1 outing with your parent of choice. They have both met the goal at least once and both wanted to go to the movies so they got to see the new planes movie. I do love summer, so many fun things to do, we have been using our little blow up pool and enjoying the warmth, we frequent the parks with our little or not so little park group which is oodles of fun and just find so much enjoyment in the long warm days, I can't believe it is almost August.....
