Summer Camp Week 5

Miss Roo

This week was Eric Carle week! On Monday, Roo insisted on her rainbow leg warmers for some color as a nod to the theme. I got a few books from the library so we could read some of the books we don't own at home during the week too. She's holding Pancakes, Pancakes! in the picture which is one of her favorites. They read it on Thursday and made pancakes for their cooking project! They made sunflowers when they read The Tiny Seed and bear puppets when they read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

On Tuesday, Roo got the Super Camper award! I took this thumbs up picture and we all went out for breakfast for dinner. She says it's because she made "the best-est choices ALL day." They had Wet Wednesday and broke out the sprinklers again! Roo got to wear her awesome new dinosaur bathing suit.

Speaking of new clothes, I found both kids a new octopus shirt! The stars aligned and there was a shirt that suited each of my kids on clearance at the same store. On Thursday, they happily donned their cephalopod attire. Adorable, right? They got compliments all day. On Friday, I kept Roo home and we celebrated Cow Appreciation Day. We dressed as cows and went to Chic-fil-a for free food. It's becoming a yearly mother/daughter tradition.

Isaac

Isaac made his usual rounds to the library, my appointments, and the normal errands with me this week. On Monday we discovered he had his first library fine. Honestly, I felt more sentimental than annoyed. We took steps to make sure it doesn't become a habit. He checked out some nonfiction books to fulfill the final requirements on the library's summer reading chart. He completed his second Tenmarks goal early in the week, earning a movie trip next month (Yay!). Later in the week, he ran into some difficulty with on Tenmarks. He'll talk about it in the video, but I always find it fascinating the way intelligent children react to a challenge.

Speaking of challenges, Friday afternoons Isaac is supposed to mop the kitchen. We have a steam mop and a tiny kitchen so it's about a 15min job, at the most. This week I heard Isaac moving the small kitchen rug and step stool out of the kitchen followed by heavy sighing and muttering. He came to me with a look of exasperation and stated, in his favorite completely general way, "Mom, the mop can't work." I pressed for details, but he remained resistant to specificity, so I suggested trying again later when he wasn't frustrated. He was happy with those instructions and went off to read a book for a while. About 20min later he came to report that it still wasn't working, but this time he had the presence of mind to add "I noticed the handle isn't moving very much." With a steam mop you have to pump the handle to get the steam going. Mike came in for lunch instantly diagnosed the problem. The cord was wrapped tightly around the hooks from being stored and was preventing the handle from moving.

The whole episode was either a stall/avoidance tactic or being confronted with a problem caused frustration and shut down. He'll attack a problem on occasion, as long as he views it as a challenge AND important to him from the onset. Neither the online math program nor that mop had caused an issue before so he wasn't willing to invest any time. Granted moving up a level and earning badges, games and rewards on the math program ranked head and shoulders above a clean kitchen floor, but he was only willing to invest what had been required to this point. At least that's my theory.

I discussed Cow Appreciation Day with Isaac and wasn't at all surprised that he declined to dress like a cow in public (even for free food). That morning after Riley was in her cow costume I was finishing my costume (and my coffee). I heard the kids playing together in Isaac's room. They were saving Mario World from Evil Koopa (It was a Lego game). Far be it from me to prevent a world saving mission (conducted with sibling cooperation). I left it play out before I collected my little cow. After Roo and I returned (and napped) I loaded both kids into the car for free Slurpees! This synchronicity of two of the summer's best freebies lead to some spectacular memories!

Week Five Video Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up Questions
1. What did you learn that you didn't know before?
2. What was the worst part of your week?
3. What was the best part of your week?
4. What was your favorite meal?
5. What was the weather mostly like?
6. What was your favorite activity/project?
7. How many books did you read?
8. What were they called?
9. Which book was your favorite?
10. Where are some places you went this week?

Isaac would like me to state that we do lots of fun stuff over the weekends that we don't discuss in weekly wrap ups. Today there was a failed attempt to release a crow with an injured wing we rescued in our pool right before the kids got out of school. We also attended a glow-in-dark bowling party where Isaac ended his last two frames with strikes!