So, About August.....

It's August already. What did we do this summer? I have no idea.

Last week, I had the kids brainstorm a list of activities they would like to do before we really knuckled down to school. Mind you, I'm planning on starting our core lessons next week, if the OLS is up and running. (Core being phonics and math for Toa of Boy and Lit, Algebra, Vocab and Grammar for Sweetling.)

Here's our list, with my contributions in there as well:

--go to acorn land. This was Toa of Boy's first contribution to the process. "Acorn" and "coconut" remain very funny words to say. We're going to interpret this suggestion by going on a nature hunt through the woods to look for acorn caps.)

--revisit Pig Island. Sweetling spent Tuesday morning crafting the Pig Island flag to plant. Sadly, it rained Wednesday and Thursday, so the planned expedition has yet to happen.

--see G-Force in the theater. This is Mommy's suggestion. Spy guinea pigs in 3-D? Oh yeah, bring it!

--park playground. We're going to combine this with another park trip.

--Parcours Trail with the Incredibles. We have to wait till after the county fair in August for the Incredibles to be available.

--cash in our library bookmarks. Did this. Still need to plant the library superstar sign in the front yard.

--work out our school schedule. Yeah, this was another Mommy suggestion. It wasn't met with any enthusiasm.

--Hold a Webkinz VBS. This was accomplished last week. The Webkinz attended the VBS in piles all over the house, where the different stations were thoughtfully set up and decorated. Sweetling worked out a schedule for the stations and the different groups of Webkinz in Excell prior to the event. The VBS had a Mario theme of course. One decorative sign taped up in the living room read "Mushroom Kingdom Christians."

--visit the art museum with Tia Smurf. *cough cough* Tia Smurf *cough cough* Call me.

--make a leaf collection and identify the type of trees the leaves came from. Another Mommy suggestion, but the kids think it sounds way cool.

--build fairy houses. All summer long, there has been great discussion about finding a good location for our fairy houses. This activity will likely wait until September, cause fairies just don't go looking for houses until the start of fall. You have to understand the fairy housing market.

--have an overnight with Pinkie and Violet.

--set up a lemonade stand. Mommy isn't keen on this project, but I told Sweetling that if she and Pinkie and Violet wanted to do it during their overnight, knock themselves out.

--have Mango teach me how to use my camera properly. The kids are fine with this, since it really means a playdate with the Incredibles for them.

--have a pj party for Toa of Boy. Sweetling gets to have an overnight, and Toa would like one too. Toa and his friends aren't quite old enough for an overnight, but I'm fine with a pj party where parents pick up kids before its actually time to go to sleep.

Call me crazy, but I sat down to post because I wanted to brainstorm some ideas for other academic endeavors in August. Somehow, before I started to write, our list seemed sparse.

So, other ideas:

--Sweetling wants to know where aardvarks live.

--Sweetling wants to know what animals live in different types of habitats.

--Mommy wants to study the different states and what sorts of things can be found in some of the states. Sort of like a virtual vacation. oooo...look at the list of links I found on Wierd, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

--Toa of Boy wants to play wii.

So, we could make lapbooks for different types of habitats. We could make a virtual travel scrapbook of the states.

Ok, now I'm happy. Thanks for joining me on this little planning session.