Summertime ~ Swimming Lessons

A couple weeks ago I signed my two oldest kiddos up for swim lessons.  Dd6 was begging for them, ds8 was begging for an exemption :). I told him that if he wanted to be able to get in the water at the beach, or go to friends’ pools, swim lessons were a requirement…

Dd6 had a blast, her teacher commented that she had never seen a child so happy to be in the water…

Ds8 was a trooper, he did his best ~ and he was glad when the lessons came to an end…

While the older kiddos were busy with lessons, ds3 kept me company on the bleachers inside the pool area…we always brought a bag full of fun stuff to keep him busy :)

Their completion certificates are the first items in their homeschool binders for the next schoolyear…one PE activity down, yeah!

Blog Walk ~ Week 3

Ready for another week of blog walking?  Hopefully I’ll be able to visit each of this week’s featured blogs:

 All American Family
 Growing Fruit
 Learning to Teach
 Codex Young Author's Publishing Program
 Stairsteps Homeschool Academy
 Kingdom Academy
 Living Sola Gratia
 Wynfield Christian Academy
 The Cow Queen
 Peace Creek on the Prairie

Do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs?

We call them fun :)

Baseball

Spring baseball season has come to an end…    

Ds8 had a blast…he discovered that he loves pitching,

  

and playing 1st base and 3rd base…and especially getting on base :)

Actually, I think he basically loves the whole game!

TOS Crew Blog Walk ~ Week Two

I'm going on on a "walk" with some of my fellow Crew mates to meet some of my fellow Crew mates...a blog walk...ten blogs each week.

This week I'm trying to visit:

Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning

Surviving The Testosterone

Family Style School

School Around The Bible

1628 The Story of The Goebels 5

Morris Family Madness

Homeschool Musings

Homeschooling (and then some!)

Heartfelt Homeschooling

following Him home

Happy First Day of Summer

Pardon the Dust...

Jolanthe of Relevant Designs is helping me "pretty up" my blog...I can't wait to show you the adorable header she has designed for me, along with some sidebar titles and maybe some other cool new additions.  Hopefully, these changes will make my blog easier on the eyes and more fun to read :)  

Books He Read in 2nd Grade

Last year I was contemplating a way to guide my 2nd grader to be's reading choices.  I did not want to dampen his joy of reading, but I did want to expand his reading choices a bit.  If it were completely up to him, he would fill his library bag with A to Z Mysteries and Boxcar Children books every week...not that these are necessarily bad choices but I knew that he was ready to move on (or at least I was ready for him to move on :). 

So I created a list that contained 50 books that I wanted him to read for 2nd grade.  First on the list were all of his Sonlight Readers (Readers 2 and Readers 2 Intemediate).  I also dog-eared my Veritas Press catalog...choosing books that would be interesting to him, yet also stretch him a bit.  I finished up the list with a couple books from the Ambleside Online Year One curriculum and others that I had on my shelf.

I created a chart that listed all of these books, plus a place to list the date the book was completed and a rating for each book and posted the chart on the refrigerator.  He was also required to give me a brief summary (or narration) of each book once he read it.  And just to sweeten the deal a bit, I rewarded him with an item from the "goody box" everytime he finished ten books from the list :). 

 Now, this is not a list of ALL of the books that ds8 read during the 09-10 schoolyear...but rather a list of all of the books that I required him to read for "schooltime".  He has read many others of his own choosing this past year. 

Greg's Microscope
Hill of Fire
Pompeii Buried Alive
The Sword in the Tree
Titanic: Lost and Found
Wagon Wheels
The Night the Bells Rang
The Chalk Box Kid
Clara and the Bookwagon
Cora Frear
The House on Walenska Street
Balto and the Great Race
Jake Drake Bully Buster
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
Barry the Bravest St. Bernard
Absolutely Lucy
The Littles
The Long Way to a New Land
The Long Way Westward
The Paint Brush Kid
The Last Little Cat
Eleanor
Prairie School
A Question of Yams
Riding the Pony Express
The Secret Valley
Owls in the Family
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
Third Grade Detectives #1
Third Grade Detectives #2
Third Grade Detectives #4
Third Grade Detectives #10
Tippey Lemmey
Tornado
Viking Adventure
Lessons from the Farmyard
Ben and Me
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
The King of the Golden River
Tom Sawyer, Detective
The Hundred Penny Box
Charlotte's Web
St. George and the Dragon
How to Eat Fried Worms
Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Twisted Kitty
Hank the Cowdog: Slim's Goodbye
Kneeknock Rise

Not only did ds8 end up reading all of the books that *I* wanted him to read during this past schoolyear...I also have a handy dandy chart of all of the books that he read (with the dates he completed them) to add to his 2nd grade portfolio (which our state requires us to keep).

Park Day

Last year I was intentional about visiting some of our favorite local parks during our summer break.  This year I want to continue that practice...I hope to make Fridays our official "park day" and park days are best when shared with friends, don't you agree? 

(I tried not to include pics of our friends...not sure they want to be featured on a blog, but they were there:)