But wait, there's more! I've been planning for the summer. As in Planning. As in 6 hours of thought and work. I ordered a blank gameboard (treetop.com, under $3 if I remember correctly) and I made a game out of our daily activities so we can all keep track of what we're doing. Each time the kids complete the game course, they get a "Q" Buck, named for Quassy Amusement Park http://www.quassy.com/. When they get 25 Q Bucks, they can go to Quassy. Even better, tickets for Quassy are discounted through our local parks and rec department because of the tough economic times. So tickets are less than $15.
There are two tracks through the game. You can start at the top left or bottom left. You can choose to cross up at block #6 or stay on the bottom half of the board, or, if starting from the top you can go down at #6 or stay on the top half of the board. This way you don't do the same chores every single day. And with the math, reading, writing and music, hopefully I can figure out a way to keep both kids busy at the same time while being able to help them both. Flash cards, math books, mad minute pages, etc...and we'll be visiting the library for lots of books to read. I bought a couple blank books (they look a lot like Dr. Seuss books in terms of size) that the kids will be writing a story in. You can get them with or without lines - I got them with lines. The lines are only on part of the page on the right, and the page on the left is blank for a picture.
I also got a few blank puzzles -- they were 99 cents! I'm not exactly sure what we'll do for that yet...I do have some backup activities for days where I'm just too busy/tired/skadoodled to do anything - things like building a peacock puzzle that I found at Goodwill, watching a couple videos from the library, etc. But I'm most looking forward to the learning projects we'll be doing. As a scientist at heart (and as a parent of scientific children who think like I do), of course I have all KINDS of ideas for our science time. I listed about 15 kinds of science ("ologies") and we'll be doing activities for each one. Some include travel around the state and some don't. For example, we'll be going to Fort Griswold and learning about the Revolutionary War during the first week of July http://www.revwar.com/ftgriswold/. We'll go on a hike and learn to identify some different leaves. We'll build a barometer, make a magnet and make paper mache dinosaur eggs. We'll take a trip to Dinosaur State Park http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org and we'll go blueberry picking. We'll (of course!!) go to the beach.
Last year I meant to do a lot of this kind of thing but nothing ever happened. I didn't plan anything. I had an insight this year: If you don't plan it, it won't happen. So I guess that things don't just magically happen without planning. Like, if I don't plan to eat breakfast, I don't eat. Weird, huh. People who don't know me can just imagine some serious tongue-in-cheek here. (Speaking of which, isn't that a strange expression??!). One of the things that I think will be fun is that we'll make a poster map of Connecticut on the first day and then whenever we go somewhere, we'll put something on the map (a picture, postcard, leaf, etc.). And, I truly hope that my energy can be sustained so that this happens for more than one or two weeks!
But wait, there's more! I've been planning for the summer. As in Planning. As in 6 hours of thought and work. I ordered a blank gameboard (treetop.com, under $3 if I remember correctly) and I made a game out of our daily activities so we can all keep track of what we're doing. Each time the kids complete the game course, they get a "Q" Buck, named for Quassy Amusement Park http://www.quassy.com/. When they get 25 Q Bucks, they can go to Quassy. Even better, tickets for Quassy are discounted through our local parks and rec department because of the tough economic times. So tickets are less than $15.
There are two tracks through the game. You can start at the top left or bottom left. You can choose to cross up at block #6 or stay on the bottom half of the board, or, if starting from the top you can go down at #6 or stay on the top half of the board. This way you don't do the same chores every single day. And with the math, reading, writing and music, hopefully I can figure out a way to keep both kids busy at the same time while being able to help them both. Flash cards, math books, mad minute pages, etc...and we'll be visiting the library for lots of books to read. I bought a couple blank books (they look a lot like Dr. Seuss books in terms of size) that the kids will be writing a story in. You can get them with or without lines - I got them with lines. The lines are only on part of the page on the right, and the page on the left is blank for a picture. 
I also got a few blank puzzles -- they were 99 cents! I'm not exactly sure what we'll do for that yet...I do have some backup activities for days where I'm just too busy/tired/skadoodled to do anything - things like building a peacock puzzle that I found at Goodwill, watching a couple videos from the library, etc. But I'm most looking forward to the learning projects we'll be doing. As a scientist at heart (and as a parent of scientific children who think like I do), of course I have all KINDS of ideas for our science time. I listed about 15 kinds of science ("ologies") and we'll be doing activities for each one. Some include travel around the state and some don't. For example, we'll be going to Fort Griswold and learning about the Revolutionary War during the first week of July http://www.revwar.com/ftgriswold/. We'll go on a hike and learn to identify some different leaves. We'll build a barometer, make a magnet and make paper mache dinosaur eggs. We'll take a trip to Dinosaur State Park http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org and we'll go blueberry picking. We'll (of course!!) go to the beach. 
Last year I meant to do a lot of this kind of thing but nothing ever happened. I didn't plan anything. I had an insight this year: If you don't plan it, it won't happen. So I guess that things don't just magically happen without planning. Like, if I don't plan to eat breakfast, I don't eat. Weird, huh. People who don't know me can just imagine some serious tongue-in-cheek here. (Speaking of which, isn't that a strange expression??!). One of the things that I think will be fun is that we'll make a poster map of Connecticut on the first day and then whenever we go somewhere, we'll put something on the map (a picture, postcard, leaf, etc.). And, I truly hope that my energy can be sustained so that this happens for more than one or two weeks!
2 comments:
wow-i am tired just reading all that stuff. I have good intentions to do stuff like that but I guess I don't plan. . .
I'm wondering if I could just go ahead and hire you as my planner and game board maker?
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