Summer Camp Week 3

Miss Roo

This week was international travel week! They learned about England and made their own Big Ben. They learned about Japan, had candy sushi, and practiced using chopsticks.

They had Wet Wednesday and this time they got to run through sprinklers! Thursday was New Zealand day and they cooked anzac biscuits, sweet coconut oatmeal cookies. Friday they learned about Mexico. Roo picked out her outfit Friday with no guidance at all. All I did was her hair that day. Speaking of hair...

Mom gets a gold star for a successful Elsa braid on Friday! Woohoo! Another semi-successful hair experiment we did was hair hearts. It did NOT look like the Pinterest pin, but they did resemble hearts. She wanted hearts in her hair to match her new leggings that are pictured above with little white hearts. I tried it at 7am free-form twisting and pinning. I wish I'd done it on wet hair to start, but it held up great. Everyone at school recognized that it was supposed to be hearts.

Isaac

Official last day of camp photo.

Sadly, this is Isaac's last week of camp. Monday he finished his "About Me" power point presentation. Tuesday he played hookie from camp to go to a theme park. It was a trip his grandmother took him on with his cousin to reward them both for completing 5th grade with good grades.

Wednesday the kids at camp broke into teams and launched rockets. He also presented his "About Me" power point presentation. He said the presentation went well. At home he completed his first Tenmarks (a math website) goal for the summer and earned a Slurpee. Thursday was the final day and they took a field trip to the aquarium. Fun stuff! When he got home on Thursday we went to the library for some more science experiments. There was even a robot dance party and alien mask craft this week!

Week Three 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?

Summer Camp Week 2

Miss Roo

Riley dove into her second week of camp, pun absolutely intended! These were their themes this week:

• Monday 6/16: Scuba Diving Day
• Tuesday 6/17: Hermit Crabs
• Wednesday 6/18: Seahorses
• Thursday 6/19: Sea Turtles
• Friday 6/20: Ocean Scavenger Hunt
• B for Barracuda & D for Diving

They had finished the school year with an ocean theme so naturally Roo had requested ocean themed attire. Unfortunately, she grew out of her seahorse outfit, shark shirt and even her Nemo shirt recently. As you can see by the time she started camp on Monday I had come to the rescue with not one, but two seahorse shirts. God Bless, Kohls clearance. The one she wore on Monday is pictured above. It has a big seahorse and then a fish and sea star friend. She was thrilled!

Isaac also cleaned out his jam-packed book shelves and passed down two new ocean books to his grateful little sister. He gave her I Wonder Why Fish Don't Drown by Annabelle Donati and Into the Deep: Life through the depths of the ocean by: Dr. Mark Norman and David Paul.(That one seems to be out of print so try your library). It's a book of beautiful underwater photos. She brought them to camp to share during the week.

These paper plate and hand print hermit crabs made my day. The class read Eric Carle's A Home For Hermit Crab. The main characters in the story has eclectic shell decorations. Aren't they lovely? Roo says hers (on the top row next to the one that looks tie dyed) has sea urchins on it. I just love them. They also made a sea turtle shaped snack out of apple and orange slices this week! Yay for cuteness and healthy cooking projects. Last week was Greek Salad.).

Everyday when I arrive to take her home is a struggle. She's always disappointed to stop what she's doing to come home where there are no friends to play with. These pictures where taken on Tuesday (and that is her second seahorse shirt) when she was building an impressive tower out of Picasso Tiles, magnetic shapes. I allowed her to finish her structure, but when I told her to demolish it and put away the pieces, negotiation broke down. That's when I used the trick that sometimes worked with Isaac's Lego creations and offered to take a picture. You can't tell by her expression, but peace was restored after this picture. I'm glad she loves her friends and teachers so I try not to take the daily "Oh, Man!" response to my arrival personally.

Isaac

Isaac scored his second free book of the summer this week! This kid is on fire! He completed six tasks on the library's summer reading game. I included a picture of the chart. So far he completed: Read a book, Do a Science Experiment, Read a book that's part of a series, Watch a movie based on a book, Read a book by an author that is new to you, and Read a fiction book. You can see (if you click the picture of the chart to enlarge it) he scrawled which book he was using for each task. I'm his witness all of them were completed. The stamp in the corner indicates a librarian verified his six tasks were done and allowed him to pick his book. Since it was still June there was quite a selection. He went with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (remember that one? I do!). He'd read it cover to cover within the hour and has re-read parts of it several times!

Week Two 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?

Just to clarify, they didn't really light him on fire during his field trip. He's referring to an outdoor, black fabric maze under the June sun being uncomfortably hot.

Ready, Set, Camp!

First Day Smiles!

Miss Roo's summer camp is at her regular preschool. She gets to be with her friends and teachers from the school year, but this time...she's in the VPK classroom. She's thrilled to be a big kid! Their theme is Cruising into Summer! They have a big cruise ship on the wall and they go to a different port every few days. They even have a suitcase with objects they can velcro on to pack for the trip and a passport they get stamped. Fun stuff, right?

Here's Miss Roo on her first day. Her teacher had attached star balloons to each seat with the kids names to help them find their seats, cute and clever! At the end of the day she got to take her balloon home. That wasn't her only swag during the week either, on Wednesday she brought home leis for her and I. Such a sweetie. They are super on the ball (which I've come to expect after a pleasant school year.) and even had a photo collage up when I came to pick her up on the first day.

Wet Wednesday

Another fun change for summer is that every other week is wet Wednesday! She got to wear her bathing suit to school thrill beyond thrills! They had buckets of water and a bunch of sponges on the playground. Fun stuff! Riley drew her friends having Wet Wednesday on my chalk board. Later in the week she kept drawing herself and a friend holding sponges dripping water, so adorable!

Happy Friday!

Isaac's Week

Isaac and I decided we would do a weekly video wrap up this summer. Wrap up questions:

Weekly Wrap Up
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?

Here he is to sum it up. I thought about editing the noisy 4yr old, but I decided to leave it uncut.

Ready, Set, Summer!

We originally thought everyone would stay home this summer, no camps or programs at all. While I sat back, NOT doing my usual chicken-with-it's-head-cut-off stressed out summer prep (researching, deciding, scraping pennies together, etc) it all fell into place by itself. First, Roo's school had said that there wouldn't be a a summer option at their location. We were fine with that because we took stock of Isaac's options and decided he done most of the things worth doing around here camp-wise anyway.

Everything changed when we went to an orientation meeting for Isaac's new school and they told us there was a free four week program over the summer. It's S.T.E.A.M. (Science, technology, engineering, art and music). It's set up for kids entering the magnet program. It is 4 half days a week for the month of June. So, of course we jumped on that. He'll get to make friends and get the lay of the land for next year. I think it will be great for him. Plus, it's only 8:30-12:30 four days a week so he'll still have lots of free time.

After that we were told Riley's school was doing a summer program at their location after all. Roo gets to be with her friends from the school year and her teacher for next year all summer. She is beyond thrilled. They're going to have the staff we already love and fun Summer Only things like "Wet Wednesdays" too. I think it'll be great for her.

We're blessed this summer for sure. Programs are handled (budget and schedule flexible schedule in-tact), the inflatable pool is up in the back yard, my list of cheap and free activities is filling up and invitations are trickling in. I started talking to Mike about a short, cheap couple of days away from the house. We're still batting around some ideas, but it's kind of nice to do a low key, low budget trip because the preparations are much easier. I think it's going to be a good summer!

Science Camp Week One Wrap Up

Isaac has successfully completed Beginning Lego Robotics. Pretty Cool. He actually owns the Lego Robotics set, but since Santa dropped it of it was mostly collecting dust. He learned to build and program a robot from scratch. He even learned about audio and light sensors. They had sumo tournaments where their creations went head to head. He said taking his creation apart on Friday was sad, but deleting the code he had written was sadder! Possible future career? I think so.(CORRECTION) He'll be learning C.S.I. Forensics and tackling Intermediate Lego Robotics next week.

He calls this one Katrina.

"t"s Crossed & "i"s Dotted

More then getting the offspring out of the house, their summer plans are milestones this year. I enjoyed having summer camp at home last summer, but this year my birdies will spend much more time out of the nest. As of this week the kids are all signed up/turned in/registered/deposited/squared away/sorted/set for the summer. There will be camps for big brother. He'll be splitting his summer between two different summer camps to make the most of their sciency offerings. He's been waiting a million years to be old enough for the Lego robotics course and his time has finally arrived! He's top dog now, going into 5th grade in the fall. So exciting! There will be preschool for Little Miss. Now that it's official all there is left to do is wait.

In just under a month things will be different forever. Emotionally, logistically and financially. There's no going back. Riley will be in school five days a week and Isaac will finish elementary school. My children are growing up. I will be driving them to opposite sides of town this summer instead of them being five minutes away. I will be missing my little Roo like crazy now that she'll have a big kid schedule. I'll have to pack two lunches starting this summer. With kindergarten and middle school on the horizon reality is not so much setting in as smacking me in the face.

With the water fowl lined up for the kids' plans I feel a lot of pressure to "figure it all out". What will I do with the opportunity to do more? What will it be like...For now I'm hoping to get some pressing medical issues tended to and go back to yoga. I'm not imagining any huge changes right away. I'm not worried about the kids at all, just me. I know we've made all the right decisions and the kids will have a lot of fun while learning and growing this summer. I plan to make the most of our time together too. I've written as many free activities as I could squeeze on the calendar in addition to their weekly schedules. I'm looking forward to the renewed sense of appreciation that time apart brings. I'm also, as ever, looking forward to our next adventure.

Preschool countdown, bah-na-ba-ba-bah!

Man Down!

I fully admit to being completely spoiled by Mike's speedy immune system. Generally, if he catches what the kids bring home it goes like this: 8am Mike says "Honey I don't feel good." then he goes to bed all day and around dinner time he emerges announcing, "I feel better.". He's been in rough shape all day. Fevers off and on, sore throat, congestion and stomach ache. This bug seems to hit everyone a little bit differently.

Isaac is better and happily at camp making anemometers out of wood and drinking straws as I type this I'm sure. Riley seems completely recovered, but what do I know? She ate a normal breakfast, got dressed and played happily. Here she is watching Beauty and the Beast in her Cat in the Hat dress with a dinosaur bag full of plastic food.

Even though my week has been de-railed from its original I am determined to get my "classroom" set up for next week. I have pocket charts for daily schedules and a white board set up. I have cleared the dining room table for a work space, but Mike promised me back pack hooks and a small felt board this week and those aren't likely to materialize by next week. Since I don't have the time or expertise for those projects I've been concentrating on Riley's schedule cards. Obviously, her schedule will be much looser than Isaac's and she can't read yet so I'm doing pictures for her. This way everyone has a schedule and we can work on some early literacy skills. After nap she colored, in a tu-tu, with me while I finished them.

Isaac bounded into the car with you guessed it an anemometer (or at least I did because he did the weather course last year). He also got a new Science Center shirt which thrilled him no end, but I would not have paid for it because it is exactly last years' design with blue text instead of black. Riley's definitely fit to return to school tomorrow (yay!). Since it will be Isaac's last day of Science Camp for June it means a few hours without either kid, Yay! If only Mike weren't at death's door. Thank God for these super strong antibiotics.

Manic Germ Infested Monday

We got home just before 1am last night. Somehow we were all up a moving a scat 6hrs later. Well, the humans were moving. Alas, when Mike went out to load up Miss Roo in my car to take her to school we discovered my car would not be moving today. Oh, well....It wasn't totally shocking after all the drama with it last week.

As it turned out some of the human types were moving slower than others. Isaac wasn't just tired he was sick. Plans for a quiet week for me to gear up for summer turned into fantasies. Isaac was supposed to go to Science Camp this week. So, it was sick Isaac and I home with no wheels, no biggie.

We both climbed back in to bed (after cough medicine for Ike) while Mike and Riley went to work and school. When we roused I had a phone call reminding me Isaac was supposed to start camp this week. I was embarrassed that they must think I was a total flake. I called to let them know I was aware he was supposed to be there, but he was sick. They weren't overly concerned or even remotely interested in why he wasn't there. It made me wonder how many people pay the deposit and register and then forget and go out of town that week?

It occurred to me that the summer will be the complete reverse of the school year. When Isaac's in school. I have tons of one on one time with Riley and not a whole lot with him. Usually if I have Isaac then Riley's home too. Most summers he does camp the same hours as school so my routine doesn't change too much. This summer will be the opposite. It always feels like I took time machine back 4yrs when it's just me and the big kid.

He roused all coughy, snotty and tired, but much better for the rest. I made us lunch and put on a movie for us to watch together. As it turns out Isaac has seen several movies based on Roald Dahl's wonderful, childhood shaping literature, but he hasn't read much of it. I put on Matilda assuring him he'd like it, but that the book was way better.

So, aside from his Florida Battle Books list, we now have a few others on our read this summer list. He was doing so well after dinner we did a workbook page from the Summer Bridge Workbook. I figured it would ease him into Summer Camp at Home. He even seemed disappointed that I didn't have his schedule pocket chart up yet.

Confident that Isaac would attend the rest of Weather Week/Universe Explores at Science Camp I discovered Riley was acting a little under the weather. Two-and-half-year-olds are so tricky because they're entirely manic and not super articulate about what's happening with their bodies. At least I got one pretty restful day it looks like I'll need it.