According to my calendar, today is the first official day of summer.
Is that right? I get confused. (And me my children’s teacher. Sigh.)
As if that isn’t cause enough for celebration, we are also—my soon-to-be 5th grade son and I—tying up the one last loose end of his schoolwork THIS MORNING.
A book review on Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
And then he’s done.
My handsome, 4th grade graduate.
WOO-HOO!!! (If you need us we’ll be at the lake.)
Yet…and this is a big “yet” for an organizer bunny wanna-be like myself…I find myself wanting to FILL the remainder of these gorgeous days with fun and learning. I have a list a Minnesota mile long:
- A unit on the United States and their Capitals (thank you, Laura, for the lyrics to that song!)
- A unit and lap book on Minnesota
- A unit on Laura Ingalls Wilder
- A unit on Greece (my sons’ suggestion, but I think they just really want to watch the movie Troy)
- Art
- The Arboretum
- History
- Science
- Swimming
- Woodcarving…
….and with luck, a ride (or two) on Steel Venom. (Stephen has been measuring his height all month! Will the kid be tall enough?! Stay tuned!)
Should I sneak a peek at the calendar I find that there’s maybe not as much summer as I thought.
I peek; I see lots of writing.
I grow anxious.
I sip my coffee and push away my planner.
“Breathe, dear girl!” I tell myself. “Slow down and smell the roses!”
Sufficient this day is the swimming thereof.
One last story and then it’s off to pack the cooler for our day trip. Stephen and I were reading a section from Little House on the Prairie. We were at the end of the scene where Pa and Ma were discussing their drive across the frozen lake:
“It’s lucky we crossed yesterday, Caroline. Wouldn’t wonder if the ice broke up today. We made a late crossing and we’re lucky it didn’t start breaking up while we were out in the middle of it.”
“I thought about that yesterday, Charles,” Ma replied gently.
Laura hadn’t thought about it before, but now she thought about what would have happened if the ice had cracked under the wagon wheels and they had all gone down into the cold water in the middle of that vast lake.
I stopped and peered over at Stephen.
“Can you imagine if that had happened?!” I said, incredulous.
“Well,” he replied mildly, “That’d be the end of that series.”
Hahahahaha! I almost choked on my coffee, laughing over that last line 🙂 Nothing compares to a pragmatic boy’s mind!
I don’t think teachers can ever turn off the learning. And if it makes you feel any better, we’ll be homeschooling all summer. I don’t think we had a week all year that we worked everyday on school. But, I’m blaming it on the twins and moving. And we’re just going to see how far we get. Have a good day!
ROFLOL!
That is so funny – priceless.
Great last line!
That last line was great, thanks for the great laugh this morning! Have fun at the lake, we, too, are going to the lake today!
I loved the last line. LOL.
I have been finding that I also want to fill all these summer days with something. It’s hard to stop and smell the roses. But you have those beautiful ones in your Mary garden so no excuses missy! LOL!
Can’t ever imagine homeschooling!
i was a former teacher for 12 years ages 11-18..but to teach my own! Yikes!
God bless
My little fourth grader, soon-to-be fifth grader is working on his St. Martin de Porres book report. Gotta love those 4th quarter book reports.
Love that last comment by your son. 🙂
I also got a kick out of the Minnesota quiz (being a former Minnesotan). Even back in my fourth grade class when we learned states and capitals, my own Minnesota classmates consistently thought Minneapolis was the capital. But, my St. Paul native husband said the St. Paul kids never made that mistake. 🙂
LOL about Stephen and the Little House story!