Four more weeks

As of today there are exactly four weeks left of summer break as August 27 will be the first day of 1st/3rd/5th grade for my three kids and the first day of my fall semester at BU. Now technically I have been counting some days this summer toward the 180 day requirement (such as history camp today at the Taber Museum), but as far as doing spelling, math, science, etc. we won't get back into gear until August 27. Some weeks the kids haven't been having any turns on the electronics because they've been too busy with other activities, but last week when Nadia was at camp Ian was definitely wanting to earn his turns on the Wii or iPad. He hasn't read very much this summer. He has been either doing Spanish via the Duolingo app on the iPad, practicing the piano, or practicing the recorder. If he wants a third turn on a given day (each turn is 20 minutes long), then to earn a third turn (the maximum possible) he has to write. Last week he was writing a story about a very bad sister. He got the idea from the book The Very Bad Bunny.

I was looking at our summer bucket list, and I removed a few items that aren't going to actually happen this year such as picking fruit. We have picked strawberries and blueberries the past few years, and I keep intending to also pick raspberries, but in reality we didn't pick any fruit this summer. Hopefully next summer I'll have my spark back and we can accomplish that. The strawberry plants I planted in 2017 didn't come back this year. Some how one of our two blueberry bushes was hacked down to almost nothing. Our other blueberry bush did have blueberries, but some animal got to them before we ate any of them. I didn't realize that cherry tomato plants would come back, but they did. We should have ripe cherry tomatoes and apples in a few weeks. Paul cut the apple tree back a few months ago, so hopefully there will be a more manageable amount of apples this year. I think that *most* of the items on our list highlighted in yellow (meaning we haven't done them yet) will happen over the next four weeks. The three that might be scratched off the list are Oliver learning how to ride a bike without training wheels, Oliver finishing Level One of reading, and me getting back in the habit of exercising regularly. We have about 30 items left to accomplish. Today Oliver did learn how to travel across monkey bars - a first for him (and not something that had been on the list). A man came to measure Ian's room for carpet today which put us closer to accomplishing one more thing on the list. I was leaning toward a far more neutral carpet (which would also be $75 cheaper), but in the end I let Ian pick the color he really wanted - dark green. I know how much I like the navy blue carpet in the master bedroom and Nadia really loves her purple carpet. It's been a little over a year since we replaced any flooring in the house. Doing Ian's carpet had been on my to do list for quite awhile. I am glad to scratch that off! I hope he loves it! I'll be happy to be rid of the vomit stains that have been on his carpet for years.

In previous years I would need to find something for Ian and Oliver or just Oliver to do while Nadia was in art camp, theater camp, Camp Good News, etc. This year one of the reasons I didn't sign any of them up for art camp was because Oliver wasn't allowed to do it. Nadia did Adventure Camp at BU for five days while Ian was at Camp Susque for three days, but other than that the kids have been doing things together this summer. They all did the 5 day horseback riding camp, the one day history camp, and Camp Good News together. Next week the boys will have Good News Camp (a different one) while she is at her first week of theater camp. This week Nadia and Ian have history camp from 9-12. Today Oliver and I exchanged our vouchers for tickets for the baseball game and then he played on a playground outside until the Treasure Castle Playland opened at 10am. We spent almost two hours there. He had a blast! I plan to take Ian and Oliver there two weeks from today while Nadia is at theater camp. It's cheaper on Mondays although I ruined part of the discount because I forgot to bring him a pair of socks and had to buy a pair for $1.

My to do list is also shrinking. I now have access to BOLT so today I got two of my four fall courses set up there. I've been doing more detailed planning for the year as far as homeschooling than I ever have before. Yesterday I finished my social studies plans, which include more than 200 books. Paul is glad we are devoting four weeks to the Revolutionary War. I've also put a lot of time into planning our field trips for the year. I am sure more will be added as the year progresses, but here are the plans at the moment:
1. T&D Cats
2. Safety Day at Camp Susque - 9/6
3. Mary Poppins  - 9/8
4. Nature detectives at RB Winter - 9/11
5. Jamestown, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and Yorktown - 9/13-19
6. Casting Crowns concert 9/23
7. Graeme Park and Da Vinci Science Center - 9/28
8. We the People program at FM Kirby Center - 10/4
9. Workshop at Home Depot and Superhero Saturday at the Children's Museum - 10/6
10. Books and bowling - 10/11, 11/8, and 12/13

11. Ephrata Cloister - 10/12
12. Mount Vernon - 10/15
13. Landis Valley Museum - October 25
14. Trip to DC in November (details TBD)
15. Corning glass museum - 12/1
16. Repasz concert - 12/11
17. Freedom train at FM Kirby Center - 1/28/19
18. Pottery studio at Camp Susque - 2/28, 3/14, and 3/28
19. Trip to NYC including Intrepid, Central Park, Natural History Museum, 911 Museum, NY transit museum, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Tenement Museum, Liberty Science Center - March 8-11
20. Laura Ingalls Wilder at FM Kirby Center - 3/12
21. BTE program at Bloomsburg Library - 3/16
22. Underneath a Magical Moon at Bucknell - 4/13
23. James and the Giant Peach at CTL - 1/13/19
24. Refreshing Mountain Adventure Center - 5/3
24. Erie Maritime Museum - 5/11
25. Aesop's fables at FM Kirby Center - 5/16
26. Reptiland - May 2019
27. Trip to Philadelphia area - Washington Crossing Historic Park, Pennsbury Manor, Lost River Caverns, Crayola Experience, Martin Guitar tour, Blue Angels Airshow, and Sky Zone trampoline park - May 22-25, 2019
28. Vacation June 2019 - Myrtle Beach, Fort Sumter, Luray Caverns, Montpelier, Monticello, Virginia Discovery Museum, USS North Carolina Battleship, Cape Fear Museum of History and Science