Summer breeze makes me feel fine

The only good thing to me about public school was summer break. I lived for it. That feeling when you walk out the door and you know you don't have to go back until the fall. It's still with me. Maybe that's why I've quit so many jobs. Just to get that I don't have to go back bliss again. My girls will never have that desperate feeling with school ( I hope) but I want them to have a break too , so we're on break. I don't think they see much difference.

We've been running around like mad though. A very busy June and July this year. Maybe it just seems that way because I've been feeling like shit. Dave went fishing, we went camping, went to the fireworks, had cookouts with new neighbors, Back to the 50's , birthday parties. It's been busy alright.

Still have a vacation coming up. It's fair week this week with all the 4-H stuff going on. They're swimming a lot. Driving their little jeeps around the yard having pretend safaris. We watched many episodes of Big Cat Diaries this winter and they act out some of it.

I have been very busy working on curriculum for next year. I need the break just to get this all done. I know what the girls need to work on, and where they excell. Emily is reading on almost a 6th grade level so we don't need to focus on that very much. She'll read plenty on her own.

I know what didn't work last year and what we need to do. I got Emily a 1/4 scale violin and I can't tune the damn thing or get a note out of it. Maybe Dave can help her with it, but for school it's going to be keyboard and reading music this year. Maybe she can take lessons on the violin when she gets a little bigger.

We need to focus on math more. We just need to bring it up to level she is working on in everything else, then the skys the limit. She's 2 years ahead . I've found a lot of cool stuff, ideas for that will be fun for her. We're going to have a sale, hopefully if I can pull it off. I'm thinking October. The girls can turn the playhouse into a toy store , Emily handling the money, while I sell antiques, etc. in the garage. I found several great math websites, math lessons with candy necklaces, a" mini office" to print out- math lessons and lapbook material. So we'll be off to a good start.


Emily wants to learn about the presidents, inventions, animals and plants. Ok. I'm going to throw in some womens studies so she's not just getting male history thank you very much.

Alison is actually more challenging. She's very close to reading , but just not quite ready for that leap yet. Could pass Kindergarten with flying colors at 3 I'm sure. Whips through any work I give her eager for more. Keeping her busy and learning while keeping Emily on task is the hard part.

As I'm writing this Emily comes up and gives me a story she wrote about my birthday and my gift from Emily is a horse. "the best present I could get" It was hard to read it without getting all choked up. THAT was the best present I could get and I told her so.

This year will be more demand on my time. I can see it now.

Fair Week

Emily's dolphin project:

Spring of Wildlife

4-H Presentation Day

I am so proud of Emily! Today we went to the 4-H presentation day and Emily got up in front of a room full of people and did a presentation on dolphins. She spoke up , was poised and did an amazing job! She had a poster to set up, props and set the whole thing up all by herself, read well and did a beautiful job. Much applause and praise from other people. She won a green ribbon, a sticker and $3. dollars. She was just giddy for hours. Such a positive exsperience for her. I never could've done that at 7 years old. 4 months ago she felt too shy to say her name at meetings, now she's doing public speaking. . Amazing(I have video which i will add as soon as possible)

Animal Rehabilitation Center

A local center had an open house and tour. Since children couldn't handle the animals , each child got to take a stuffed animal through and have it treated by the staff. They loved it. Right behind this facility was a local nature center so we went to that too. Fun trip!

The extra picture is Alison's first attempt at writing her name. She did a great job!

The Amazing Dolphins

Emily has worked so hard on her dolphin lapbook. Turned out so cute! I just love it. I am so proud of her efforts on this. She worked very hard and pushed through when she was getting tired. She has learned a lot about dolphins, increasing her vocabulary with words such as echolocation, habitat, pod, mammal , practiced writing skills, and organized the layout of the book. Quite the artist too. Great job Emily!