Summer finally caught up to us. I've been trying to keep some learning in summer, but we were spending a lot of time at Lake Calhoun. Faye started to feel pretty crummy and for a couple weeks she was waking up every 6 days puking and following that up with a week of diarrhea. We brought her to the doc and though they didn't really say or do anything about it, she was feeling fine. She was still complaining of belly aches, but no puking or pooping.
My family reunion was on July 31, so we drove up to Alexandria for that. We spent a couple more days up in that area at Clayton's uncles cabin. We had a great time and probably could have stayed longer. Neither of the kids wanted to leave, but we had plans to drive down to Tennessee. We left on Tuesday morning (much later than I wanted to) and came home, rearranged the car and took off for TN. We got to my sister's house around 2 or so.
We had a good time in Tennessee too. Faye found her love of Toads and didn't want to leave TN either. It was in the upper 90's to 100's while we were there and I could have just laid at the pool all day. I loved their town pool. It wasn't that great for Faye, but it felt great and it was salt water instead of chlorine! So nice!
I slammed my finger in (under the lid) tank of the toilet right before leaving and had to being ice with me for the drive home. My poor finger throbbed for the whole 14-15 hours it took to get home. My finger still hurts. Other than that, the ride home went better than the ride down. It was nice to come home to a quiet, untouched home and to my own bed!
It has been really hard to get out of lazy mode and it's been in the 70's, so I have no motivation to go to the beach or anything like that. We've only gotten out of the house a couple times since getting back.
I completely gave up on Faye's tumbling class. I tried to get our money back immediately after the first class, but they wouldn't give a refund so we decided to try to stick it out. Well, we've only been to two classes, including the very first class. The class is all done now and we signed her up for teeny, tiny Tappers which is a much younger and more specific age group. She is 8 days away from being too old for the class, so I'm really hoping it works out for her. She loves dancing!
First grade starts for Maddox in 2 weeks and preschool for Faye, 2 days after that. She'll go twice a week and she is pumped!
I signed up to be an Independent Consultant with Usborne books and hope to make enough monthly to pay for Karate for Maddox.
Monday we had dedicated to "Art Day" but we decided to ride downtown with Dad on his way to work. We went over to the library, over to Target, and then met Dad back at his work and drove down to Lake Calhoun. We had lunch a Tin Fish (which is a little eatery right on the lake) and then headed down to the beach (the part of the lake where Tin Fish is has sailing, boat rentals, etc, but no beach). There are several beaches on Lake Calhoun, but we went to the East Lake Calhoun Beach, as it was the closest to Tin Fish. We were there for hours and it was BEAUTIFUL! No pictures, but we had a really good time and plan on going back either Monday or Tuesday. There were tons of Sunny's that Maddox and another kid were trying to catch (with their hands). If we had a net, we probably could have caught a couple! We walked over to a shoe store that I have a groupon-type deal at that was just a couple blocks down and spent a little too much time there. I didn't like any shoes that Faye picked out and Faye KNOWS what she likes and didn't like any that I picked out. We were running really late but I had promised the kids Ice Cream, so we hopped on the bus and rode down to Sebastian Joe's and called Clayton to come meet us there. We were not going to make it back to his work before he got off and Maddox had T-Ball that we would have been late for.
We continued to work on some Ocean/Sea related stuff through out the week. We looked at Sea Turtles, Dolphins, and even Mermaids. We also have been looking at different Chinese holidays and festivals. We went to the Dragon Festival on Saturday. They had Dragon Boat races. We had seen them on Ni Hao Kai-Lan and were curious about seeing them, plus they had all day Martial Arts demonstrations and Maddox is really into Martial Arts. We've thought, on and off, about getting him into something, but haven't. A couple weekends ago, Faelyn and I made friends with a woman at Caribou that was waiting for her son at the Karate Studio next door. Of course I had to ask questions about it because Maddox would really love to learn and I'd really like him to as well. She raved about the studio. She has three boys, all go to the school. The oldest has gone for 17 years, the youngest for 6. She said it has taught them a lot of discipline, respect, and confidence.
Tuesday we walked over to McDonald's. It's about a mile away and we never go there. It was the first time I had ever checked in there on Foursquare! Maddox did his Summer Bridge book and reading, but we really didn't do much that day at all. At McDonald's, we ran into a boy that Maddox went to preschool with. Maddox did not remember him at all (and I don't believe the boy recognized Maddox), but they made instant friends! Faye was all over the play place, all the way to the top.
Wednesday, I finally used my laminator. I bought it at Costco at the beginning of June and have not touched it. I laminated some of the pieces from the Pretty Bugs Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1. I showed them to Faye on Thursday and we played with those. We did the 3-Part Cards and she really liked them. I laminated a lot more that day, including the Add It! Math Game from Confessions of a Homeschooler and showed that to Maddox today. I laminated even more today, from the Under the {girly} Sea Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1. We haven't played with those yet, but I also laminated the hide n seek number leaves thing from Pretty Bugs and played with those. I used the first 8 with Faye and gave Maddox the last 8 and all three of us played. I also gave Maddox some little gems so that we could make up different math equations to tell each other (that equaled the number that the little dragonfly was under). With Faye, I'd just tell her which number the bug was under. She can count up to 13, but she does not recognize numbers yet.
Also on Wednesday, Faye woke up puking in the morning and had a belly ache and other issues that evening. She was fine during the day though and Maddox's bike seat came in the mail, so I fixed that and we were going to go to Tumbling Tots that evening. Walking (and Maddox riding his bike) is our only way of getting there and it is 2.3 miles.
It took me an hour to fix the darn bike. -Long Story Ahead- We got a bike seat from my brother's house and the post ended up being too small for Maddox's bike. The seat and post were attached to each other, so I couldn't put the saddle on the post that I already have. So I didn't put it on. "Someone" decided to MAKE the seat fit and clamped the metal of the bike down around the too small post. Then took the ring clip that goes around the bike and post to tighten the post onto the bike and clamped that down around it too. I got pretty upset that day and they took the seat out and put the old post back into. I'm not entirely sure how they got the old post back in, but I imagine it involved a hammer. So as you would suspect, I could not pull this post out of the bike! This post actually belonged to Maddox's 12" bike. It was a Lightning McQueen bike and the seat was attached to the post with a screw. We threw away the seat (it was all tore up and too small because it was for a 12" bike, but we kept the post, just in case because it was the same size as his new bike, an 18" - and in case you were wondering what happened to the seat that came with his bike, it was stolen off his bike at his elementary school (the ONLY bike with training wheels at the bike rack) during his elementary school carnival...) So anyways, this post had holes in the top where the seat had screwed on, so I finally got it off by finding a screw driver that would fit into the holes and holding onto that and twisting and pulling. After that, I couldn't get the new post in, because the hole in the bike was still too small from being clamped down. I had to use the screw driver to loosen it back up. I oiled it a ton and got the post in only to realize the ring clip was bent and the screw that was in it was bent too. I got the screw out and found a new one. The ring fit around the post, but not the bike. I could not get it unbent, but I did find something that I could pry it open and slip it down around the bike. I went from angry, to really angry, to really really angry, to so happy that I'm darn stubborn and got the thing fixed by myself and ready for tumbling! I'm feeling much better about the whole situation, but not totally, because it's not the first time this has happened and I know it won't be the last time. And then Faye got sick again, so we didn't end up going to tumbling anyways! But Maddox's bike is fixed, he rode it all over the driveway and then he rode it to Caribou on Thursday afternoon.
So Thursday, I did do laminating and played a little bit with Faye and helped Maddox play the preschool pack stuff with Faye and we walked over to Caribou, but mostly, we did nothing. I woke up with the most horrible headache. I get headaches a lot. I've been a little better lately, but usually, I have several headaches a week and when I get a headache, they last all day long. Sometimes they develop during the day and sometimes I wake up with them, but I always end up going to sleep with them. This headache was the most awful headache that I've had in years. I did what I could, but it was bad and even Faye came to me a said "Mom, can you turn on the TV for me, but really really quite because I don't want to hurt your head"
She was an absolute terror that day, but she is a sweet, sweet girl! We all went to swimming that night because it was Maddox's last class. He did not pass his level and will be starting Level 2 again in September. He said "I didn't pass, but Drew said that I did a really good job!" And he did. He did an excellent job and he has come so far from the first time he did Level 1 (he did Level 1 twice). He did not pass Level 2 because he has a hard time with the rhythmic breathing and he cannot do the front crawl and back crawl on his own. We got him goggles last night after swimming and I want to find him a nose plug and we'll be going to Open Swim on Wednesday as much as we can (T-Ball runs until the end of July and Tumbling Tots until the end of August, but Tumbling Tots time does not over lap open swim).
Today we were going to go to the Como Zoo, but our friend that we were hoping to meet there had a sick daughter and Faye still was not feeling too well, so we decided not to. It's a good thing because it stormed all day. Severe Thunderstorms and a large branch came off our tree in the front yard. I wouldn't let the kids into the dining room because there is another branch on that tree that is handing over the roof right over the dining room and I swear it is going to come off of the tree and land on the house if it is not taken care of. Fortunately, the branch that did come off, did not hit the house. Close though.
Here is a video of Maddox and Faye and the 3-Part Card from Pretty Bugs
and Maddox and Faye playing with the Add It! Math Game
Here are just some links to an awesome Taekwondo demonstration that we saw at the Dragon Festival last Sat!
Faye wanted to go to the playground, so Maddox and I went and waiting for them Martial Arts. We were both glad we waited as long as we did to see if someone was going to perform!
Monday was the 4th of July and so we made some flags with the kids hands a feet. Maddox and I finished up the Independence Day lapbook. Later, we had a BBQ at a friends house and played with some sparklers once it got dark out. The funniest thing ever, John was wearing a Sex Pistols shirt with the British flag on it. While we were sitting down to eat, Maddox looked at him and very accusingly asked him why he was wearing the flag of the country that we fought for American independence!
We cut out felt creatures for "Slippery Fish" and are hopefully going to make a stop motion video. HOPEFULLY! We did some worksheets and are in the processes of making a lapbook for Faye. We also made some coffee filter Rainbow Fish.
"Octopus have tentacles that are sticky. Mako sharks can go 60 miles per hour. Dolphins can do tricks. Lobsters have sharp claws."
We took a little day trip to the beach. Did not get any pictures, but Maddox swam, and Faye and I tried to lure minnows (or as she calls them "baby tadpole fish") into a bucket. They were too quick for us though and escaped every time!
Today we rode the bus over to the North Mississippi Regional Park and swam in the wading pool. The prairie there had much more wildflowers than the wildflower garden we went to last week!
We got started pretty late on Friday. We've been sleeping in this summer. It's so hard to get the kids to bed at their normal bedtime when it is still SO bright out and the sun is still at least an hour or more away from sunset.
Friday turned out to be a pretty hot day. Over 95 degrees with a heat index over 100. We were only out picking strawberries for about a half hour. It was long enough though, we brought home 9lbs of strawberries!
We came home and took a little break in the air conditioning while I made lunch. We refueled, cooled down, and headed back out of check out the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden & Bird Sanctuary. I really wasn't impressed with it at all. Maybe it would have been better if it was a lot cooler out and the kids could just mosey on about, but we were all boiling hot. There were supposed to be a lot of different flowers in bloom and we saw very little. I was disappointed that we didn't see a single Lady Slipper (they were supposed to be in bloom). The "Lady Slipper Lane" had nothing and neither did the rest of the place. They had Poison Ivy but it wasn't marked and the post number had been hammered into the ground by a tree that was blown over by a tornado that came through about a month ago. The only reason we knew it was Poison Ivy is because when we went into the visitor center to get the free guide (because we have a museum adventure pass), the woman in there said to look out for the #35 post marker at the poison ivy because the tree pounded it in (not even a "make sure you don't walk in the poison ivy"... lol).
Dad had the day off so we didn't really do much of anything else (in terms of learning, haha!) Maddox and I did work on a little bit of the Independence Day Lapbook before I let him go down to play the PS3 with Dad...
It was decided months before I even heard of the Smart Summer Challenge that I decided that I needed to keep Maddox engaged in school activities through out the summer. I have been having him do at home worksheets and units during the school year to try to get him involved in something besides TV and Video games while is was too cold to spend most of our time outside (and he was in half day Kindergarten).
So now to encourage me to do more during the summer (and just for fun), we joined the Smart Summer Challenge. We're not following the Calendar made by these wonderful Ladies, but I definitely printed it out and noted some ideas that I liked!
One thing we will be doing every week is creating Art on Monday's. We borrowed The Usborne Art Treasury from the library and are going to keep it for as long as we can (hopefully we'll have all the projects done by the time it goes back!) This Monday, we did watercolor sky, snowy ground, and winter tree's. The inspiration for the painting style was Hendrick Avercamp's A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle, painted in 1608-1609. We used extra watery watercolors, splats of water in the sky, and used a blob of watery watercolor paint and blew it into a tree using a straw.
We also started a little science experiment. We have a fun little log from the Dr. Seuss website and we are testing how Lima Beans grow. Here are our dried beans soaking over night.
Maddox did a minimum of 15 minutes of reading (Monday, I think it was closer to 35!) and did the front and back of one page in the Summer Bridge activity book. Plus T-Ball in the evening!
Tuesday's homework - We have a "Creatures of the sea Flying Fish" book that Maddox picked out from the library. I went through it and read it and then wrote down questions for him to answer. We did Chapter 1 on Tuesday, Chapter 2 on Wednesday, and Chapter 3 this evening. It was late today, so he only finished two of the questions and will have to finish up the rest tomorrow.
Again, he did a minimum of 15 minutes reading and another page in his Summer Bridge book. And had Swimming Lessons in the evening.
Tuesday we were going to go to the Library, but Maddox woke up with a sore knee and pain shooting down his leg every time he walked, so we didn't end up going. We went on Wednesday instead. He finished the last page of his first 20 days in his Summer Bridge activity book, then we walked just under a mile to the bus stop. Rode the city bus down to the library and somehow managed to get there in time for Story Book Theater (or something along those lines). I didn't even know there was an event going on! First, Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock was read (and acted out!) and then Little Miss Giggles. Both stories were read and acted out by a group of elderly men and women. It was a lot of fun! Then we went and looked for some books. We returned a few, still had at least 5 at home still, and come home with this stack...
He did a minimum of 15 minutes reading (I think he did bare minimum this day, lol) and another page in his book (which I already mentioned somewhere). Madd and Dad went to T-Ball pictures. No practice because of pictures. Faye and I went to open swim for the first time since.. maybe December!
Today we were pretty lazy this morning. We waited until afternoon to start talking about Independence Day, The Revolutionary War, and all that jazz. We went to the outdoor pool with our friends (from Maddox's preschool years) and spent a good 2 hours there. Maddox and I worked on some more July 4th stuff, including starting a Lapbook and then we realized we were 15 minutes late for swim class! Fortunately his class is about half a mile from home, so he made it for most of his class. We came home and read Chapter 3 of the Flying Fish book and did two questions before he was beat. No reading today (oops!) and since he did his last page for June in his Summer Bridge book, I gave him a break today!
Tomorrow we are going to try to go somewhere to pick Strawberries. Then we are going to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary (hopefully, assuming that if our State shuts down, this is not one of the parks that will be closed! I don't think so though, since it's a city park. I do not believe it is a state park.) We also need to work on our Lapbook, Flying Fish questions, and start the new month in the Summer Bridge book, plus those 15 minutes of reading!
I had made a post awhile back about not knowing what to do about the boys toys. It took me a lot of deciding before I settled on anything that I could live with (both purchasing - price wise, what I could find, would it work when we move, etc).
I was going to try the itso products from Target, but they ended up being too big. They had a cool little white board door that you could put on the cubes and a lot of accessories, but it was all too complicated (not to put together, just not as simple and plain as I was looking for) and the cool little white board door sucked. Especially if a 2 and 6 year old was going to be using it.
What I ended up with was a ClosetMaid 6-Cube Organizer in white (because my Target did not have the "Marine Blue" Circo brand shelf. Then we bought ClosetMaid and Circo bins. They are 10x10 (loosely, they may be closer to 11x11??) and the also have some 5x5x10 bins that I bought to go ontop of the unit for all those little random toys that I was complaining about (the Kung Zhu, plastic animals (mostly bugs and dinosaurs), Nerf Darts and mini targets, etc).
We still need to get two more bins for some stuff and another set of the small skinny bins to go on top (instead of that clear "junk drawer", which is mostly filled with die cast cars at the moment). And Of course, Maddox's awesome bed (from IKEA) helps give us some space to put the shelf...
We try so hard to keep her stuff on her little shelf thing... but she is SO not helpful! To the right of this, on the other side of the door way is a play kitchen and all those accessories. They're also laying all over the floor, because again, Faye is SO not helpful!
Three more years and we can give Faye Maddox's bed and get Maddox a full loft bed with a desk!
We had such a fabulous week last week. It was our first official week out of school for the summer. And we made a good effort to make it educational and active and we succeeded. Maddox started T-Ball on Monday the 13th and Swimming Lessons the 14th, T-Ball on the 15th and Swimming on the 16th and Friday was our "off" day.
Monday we rode downtown with Clayton. We went to Target and shopped around, mostly for birthday presents for Dad. We did buy a toy for Maddox, he bought himself some Pokemon cards and Faye bought an Aquapet named Bertie. We went to Rock Bottom Brewery for lunch and spent way too much time there because they were so slow! Rode the bus towards my moms house, past her house to the mall to go to Borders, back to my moms (we did not find what we were looking for at borders - well really, they did not have paperbacks buy one get one 50% off so I decided to order online instead). We went to my mom's and hung out there until Clayton came to pick us up. Maddox got his homework and reading done. We got home and went to Maddox's first T-Ball practice.
Tuesday we did homework, sight words, and reading. Played Pokemon for almost 2 hours and watched some PBS Kids after that (while lunch was getting ready). The kids ate lunch and then we took off to Maddox's school to the Baseball field to play some catch and hit some balls and run some bases. We spent some good time there and then it started to thunder, so we headed back home. We watched a little more PBS before heading off to swim classes.
Wednesday we did homework, sight words, and reading. We ate lunch and then spent the following 3+ hours hunting for bugs. Maddox, Faye, and Mom (me) with a beach bag with 2 bug nets, 2 magnifying glasses, one clear plastic box, two clipboards, two notepads, two pencils, and a camera... sitting on random peoples lawns looking at bugs and taking notes. We came home and finished up in the backyard. I discovered, first hand, how worms mate... Then it was time to get dinner ready and get ready for T-Ball. Then T-Ball was cancelled.
Thursday we did homework, sight words, and reading (yeah, he's pretty much sick of that schedule LOL). Ate lunch and headed for Maddox's school to play some ball. Had a beautiful Dragon in a dress with us. It ended up being a lot hotter than the temp was (muggy from the humid, really!) and so the beautiful dragon turned into a beautiful little girl! Maddox and I played ball and my jeans & T pretty much STUCK to me. Yuck! We were out there for quite a long time and Faye was trying so hard not to let us play! Home, dinner, Swimming. We walked there and Clayton picked us up. We went to Target afterwards and spent too much money on Birthday and Father's Day cards, which I ended up returning... LOL
Friday we sat on our butts! Ok, Maddox did homework, sight words, and reading. And then we sat on our butts and sat some more. LAZY! I actually spent the entire day searching online for stuff to make Father's Day lapbooks (since I returned the cards from Target!)
Maddox, Faye, and (mostly) I worked out butts off all weekend to get the Father's Day Lapbooks ready. They turned out awesome and I'll post some pictures of them. Sunday was Father's Day AND my husband's birthday. Maddox, Clayton, and I went to the Minnesota Twins game at Target Field and brought my father with. He's officially been to all the stadiums that the Twins have called their home. After the game, we came home and scurried to get ready for Clayton's birthday BBQ at home.
Last week was terribly boring. Every day Maddox did all his homework, sight words, and reading. It rained a lot and we didn't get out to play or search for anything.
Monday, I did some educational research on the comp, which meant the kids did not a lot. T-Ball.
Tuesday we rode DT Mpls with dad, went to the library (managed to get a MN Zoo Pass!!!) and then took the bus to my grandmother's house. She has been in and out of the hospital and not feeling well. She really needs someone to look after her, so we tried to give her some company, look after her, and help her out. She has been recently diagnosed with congenital heart failure. Maddox was able to do his homework and reading that day, regardless of our travels. Then Maddox had swimming.
Wednesday, you know what we did.. homework, reading, sight words. Maddox sat on the couch and read "Flying Fish" quietly to himself for nearly an hour. He was still required to do his 15 minutes of reading aloud. T-Ball. Faye and I stayed home. T-Ball got rained out.
Thursday, homework, reading, sight words. And who knows what else! Yikes! Maddox had swimming! Faye ate a lot of Cinnamon Toast Crunch...
Friday was a FUN day! We rode DT Mpls with Clayton, grabbed something to eat and drink from Caribou and hopped a bus ALL THE WAY DOWN to the Minnesota Zoo! We got in for $12 for all three of us, thanks to the Museum Adventure Pass tht we scored from the Mpls Central library earlier in the week. An hour on the bus down there. We got there at 11 AM, we caught a bus back at 5:51 PM. We hopped off the bus at MOA and onto the LRT. It took a tiny bit longer to get back DT, but it was 3 blocks closer to Clayton's work! No homework for Maddox, or reading, but he made all that up today!
Starting on Monday, we are going to do an art project a week. We got The Usborne Art Treasury from the library today and OMG that book is amazing! I really love it. So we're going to renew it as many times as we can and pick a project to do once a week. I also got the Scholastic Children's Thesaurus from the library and that's a cool book. I just wanted to look at it. I imagine I won't actually use it for anything with Maddox for another year. We got the Usborne book of Animals and the Children's Encyc in the mail today. Excited to dig into those too!
