The Joys of Summer....?

Ahhh....the glorious days of summer.

Lazy days lounging in the sun, catching up on my reading, watching the kids dash through the sprinkler, listening to the joyous sounds of their laughter.

ERRR.....(screeching brakes)....REALITY!!

This happens every year--and each year I swear will be different.

We begin the summer with high hopes and boundless energy, with lists of things we will do "for sure" and plans to never waste a moment.

The month of June is always great--it truly is. The weather is warm and sunny, and the nights get cool enough to enjoy sitting outside. We still have the ambition to actually get out and do much of what we want. The 4th of July is always a fun time; this year we even braved sitting on the roof with all three kids, where we had a gorgeous clear shot of the downtown fireworks.

Then, somehow, almost as if on cue, the heat becomes almost intolerable to do anything but stay indoors. Finally, around 7:00, it cools off enough to head outside to once again feel like it's summer...for about a half hour. Because as soon as the sun starts to sink, the mosquitoes rise out from wherever they hide, and attack. If you want to stay out and "enjoy" the evening, copious amounts of gag-inducing bug spray must be applied.

After days indoors, that joyful laughter turns to sibling bickering; whining over who gets what and fighting over who did what, and ultimately crying over who hit what. As for my reading, the only reason I've managed to tackle the books I have is because I've resorted to staying awake until 2 a.m. to ensure that if none of my other summer dreams come true, I at least have made a dent in my bookshelf!

Water Wednesdays

 

 Water Wednesdays have proven to be one of the easiest days to organize. It doesn't take much more than a hose, a sprinkler, or a blow-up pool to keep little ones entertained for hours. Even the hottest days are enjoyable to be outside in when you add water to the mix. I think my little guy's favorite day so far, though, was the day we had a bike wash. The smile on his face above comes from the fact that he learned how to whip his sisters with a wet towel....wow, that starts young!

 

 



 

 

   My daughters' favorite day was when we met their aunt and cousins at the beach. We went early and had the beach almost entirely to ourselves! 



 

   What I find most interesting is how every time the hose is out, the girls like to also bring out their umbrellas. :)

 

 

 

This summer is speeding by so quickly. Here's to slowing it down and making it last as long as possible....enjoy!

ARTISTIC Tuesday # 1 and 2

I had planned to get these up a lot closer to the days we were actually doing these projects, but now is as good a time as ever, I guess! It's amazing how quickly that lazy summer mentality seeps into routine.

Our first Artistic Tuesday was a very simple one. On our pre-summer dollar store shopping trip, the girls found little cross-stitch kits they wanted to try out, so we got one for each of them. They came with a plastic needle and "fabric" and several colors of yarn. I believe the intention was to make the design on the cover, but the plastic fabric had no outline for it and it seemed too complicated so the girls made simple outlines instead to follow. It was a fun way to introduce them to the idea of cross-stitch, and it made them feel grown up to be "sewing," but I wouldn't recommend buying the kit at the dollar store. The yarn is too thick to work with and about halfway through, their needles looked like they came out of the "There was a crooked little man" story. That being said, it was a great $2 spent because it kept them occupied for hours!

Artistic Tuesday # 2 was also a simple project. Once again our materials came from the dollar store. We found five different colored packages of "foam dough," which is basically just sticky little balls of foam that you squish into different shapes. I found this to be just as fun of a material to work with as the kids did. My little guy loved it as well, even though he kept saying, "eeeww" as it stuck to his hands. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him working with it. :(

So far these cheap materials are proving to be quite the success around here!

MAD SCIENCE Monday # 1

For our very first themed day, I chose something simple, but that I knew would hold their attention at least for a little while. I always loved playing with GOOP as a child, so I knew the kids would too. I've also heard this called oobleck. All that you need are cornstarch, water, and food coloring if you're feeling brave.

To make this seem like more of a science experiment, I gave each of the kids their own plastic bin, a box of cornstarch and filled up a pitcher of water for them to share. This way, they could each attempt to make their own goop, testing out different mixtures to see what made the best goop.

Amazingly, this kept all of their attention (including my not-quite-two-year-old AND my 9 year old!) for at least an hour. This makes such a fun consistency; is it a solid or a liquid? They had fun trying to figure it out between bouts of mad scientist laughter and cries from my 6 year old that she is "going to take over the world!"

This little project carried them well into the afternoon as I had the girls spray off the patio (it easily rinses away), which turned into the first water fight of the season. Now it really feels like summer!

Summer Schedule

 

My year serving with AmeriCorps is basically over as I have completed all of my required hours. In order to continue my living stipend for the next month I just have to log 5 hours a week of volunteer time. So that means I am now officially home with my kids again! I took the summer semester off from college courses, so I went from working 40 hours a week and having additional homework, to being able to focus on my beautiful children and (unfortunately) housework.

So now that I am home, after used to being on a go-go-go schedule, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a plan to keep our summer going smoothly. Past summers have gone by so quickly, much of the time in front of the TV, leaving most of us feeling that we missed out on a lot of opportunities. So, for starters, we decided to extend our screen time rule to the summer with a bit of a change. During the school week, we would allow a half hour of screen time for each child, with weekends essentially being free, within reason. This summer we are allowing one half hour of computer and one half hour of television time, but they may be combined either way. We do this only Mondays through Thursdays and the rest of the weekend is free. What I love is how much time this opens up, and since it is a concrete rule, they don't even try to weasel more time out of me! Amazing....

Our summer schedule, as seemingly opposite as those two words seem to be, consists of very loose "themed" days that basically just the kids get excited about something to look forward to. My girls helped me name them; they are as follows:

Mad Science Mondays.....these started out as Magic of Science Mondays, but after our first experiment of messy goop and crazy kids, we all decided MAD was much more fitting!!

Artistic Tuesdays

Water Wednesdays

Take-a-Trip Thursdays

Free Fridays....which basically means that I just don't want to plan something for every day of the week.....kids need to be bored sometimes, right?

Before school was out for the year, I had the girls help me brainstorm and searched the internet for lots of ideas we could use and categorized them for the different days. I bought most of the materials ahead of time, much at the dollar store, so it would be ready in advance; because after all, I want this to be EASY and enjoyable for ALL of us! Now, on those days, we decide in the morning which project we feel like doing and have at it. We are halfway into our second week, and I'm still going and not even feeling sick of it, so that's a huge success for me!

I will post some of our activities very soon so you can see what we've been up to. In the meantime, here is the link to my Pinterest board that has some of the ideas we'll be getting to soon.
http://pinterest.com/traciedawnlee/this-summer/

Enjoy!

 

Responsibility....

This is a poem I wrote awhile back. I was feeling like we needed a break from the fast pace of everyday life and was longing for relaxed summer months. This doesn't seem as fitting now that we have been enjoying the laid-back schedule of later bedtimes and sleeping in (if 8:30 counts as sleeping in), but it's certainly a reminder of why lazy summers are so important.

Responsibility; like a five-ton bag of bricks

 

 Hits you over the head

 

Sneaking up like mist on a lake on a cool night

 

Slowly adding up

 

Accumulating until you can hardly look out

 

From between the mass of to-do's

 

and the dont's

 

From the must's and the should's

 

From the demands and the needs

 

Until you can hardly breathe

 

Suffocating amidst the rules and the expectations

 

And discover a way to just let us be

 

To love and to laugh

 

and to finally

 

BE FREE!

An Experience of a Lifetime

 My year serving with the Minnesota Reading Corps has provided me with so many benefits that I could not have foreseen before I began this journey:

 I have gained a growing knowledge base in reading strategies from the wealth of information provided daily by my internal coach and reading specialist.

I have learned so many discipline strategies I never would have thought of; practical application is so much different than reading about them in class!

My heart has grown ten times larger! I was able to form wonderful one-on-one relationships with amazing children who have taught me so much.

 I was given the ability to pass on my love of reading; to see the growth these students have made since the beginning of the year is almost incomprehensible. What is even better is that so many have gone on to find books that they enjoy and are going out of their way to share them with me! I of course wanted to help these students get to be better readers, but more importantly, I wanted them to learn to ENJOY reading!

 The ability to meet so many diverse, yet like-minded people has been such an added bonus. I have formed so many friendships through Reading Corps that I know will last a lifetime.

 I was expecting this would be a big year for me; I was not expecting how much of an impact it would truly have in my life. This year has clarified my thoughts on the future. Before, I was sure I wanted to go into education and I was sure that I wanted to work with kids. Now, I am absolutely certain that I want to do this and that I can do this…..and also that I need to do this. There are so many students out there who need someone on their side; someone who can find their individual uniqueness and draw that out of them to help them succeed.

As the end of my year as a literacy tutor is quickly approaching, my students have begun to ask if they will get to read with me next year. With a sad heart, I tell them that no, I will not be back next year, but that another great person will take my place. Someone else who is ready to be the difference in dozens of children’s lives, willing to provide essential reading skills while remaining a bright spot in many of their days. Please take the time to consider a truly rewarding year of service with the Minnesota Reading Corps. You will change so many lives, and in the process, you will forever change your own.

 

Six Months In

Obviously the past six months have been a busy time around here. It has been a strong mixture of exhausting, guilt-ridden, freeing, fulfilling and ultimately rewarding feelings! I have barely kept my head above the water with so many challenges we have faced this year, yet somehow I've managed to extract so much happiness along the way.

I have never felt such a purpose as I have this year helping students become better readers. There have been so many moments that have caused me to pause and think this is what I'm meant to do....this is what it's all about! My goal for myself this year was to not only help kids advance their reading skills, but also to teach them to LOVE reading. There have been so many ah-ha! moments with different students who have made that shift to truly enjoy reading. There is no better feeling!

As for the challenges: I think we're finally coming out of our roughest patch....knock on wood.

Our little boy, who is 18 months old now has suffered from severe asthma; he was hospitalized six times in the past year for respiratory distress, each time for a couple nights. Looking back through his notes, his doctor averaged it out to a hospitalization every six weeks. There is nothing scarier than your precious baby not being able to get enough oxygen. Our world ceased to exist each time the skin around his ribs began to suck in. In fact, he had a partial lung collapse on two separate occasions. We grew fearful of public places and anywhere germs gathered; wiping down shopping carts, never allowing anyone over with the slightest of colds, hardly ever going anywhere. Add in that I have been working full time and along with our daughters, carrying incessant germs home from the cesspool that is school.

My little guy was also officially diagnosed with a milk allergy this year....on a 0 to 5 scale, 5 being severe, his severity rolled in at 4.96. This has led to a total shift in food shopping, food preparation, eating out and expectations. We were steamrolled at how much of our common foods contain some kind of milk ingredients. It has taken time and is still a process, but we have found some good substitutions. There is hope that he may outgrow it by the time he is 6-8 years old; we will have him tested once a year until we have a definitive answer. For now, we always carry his epi-pen and our routine involves a lot of label reading and packing safe foods anytime we go anywhere.

Finally, after his last hospitalization, we were referred to a pulminologist, a lung specialist. After listening to the cutie drinking his coconut milk he began asking a lot of questions about his gurgling sounds after eating and drinking. He felt a test to check for reflux would be a good idea. Turns out he doesn't have reflux, but he has dysphagia, which just means that he has trouble swallowing properly and he was aspirating every time he drank something. So this whole time he had been inhaling liquids into his lungs! No wonder he kept getting respiratory infections. No wonder he cried so much as a baby. No wonder he was so small. 

So now he is on a daily corticosteroid inhaler, a completely milk-free diet, and thickened liquids. After we started using the thickener, the gurgling stopped, he has gained weight, and has even gone through a cold with only nebulizer use at home. We have not visited the hospital since Thanksgiving! It is amazing the sanity that is slowly creeping its way back into our household. We still have a long way to go, but with the end of my 11-month commitment looming ever closer, it seems there is hope for us after all!

This school year has left me feeling drained yet superbly fulfilled, as both a tutor and especially as a mom. I will end this year with a bittersweet concoction of relief and sadness. I am truly going to miss my students and they will always have a special place in my heart. I am so looking forward to being home with my little man next year, and to have the ability to help in my girls' classrooms will be such a blessing! I have come to know so many amazing people over the past year that I would never have had the opportunity to know without my service with the Minnesota Reading Corps. I will forever be grateful.