Planning for Summer 2013

I've just started trying to "plan" for this summer. Jay's learned so much at school this year and has new skill sets--it just recently occurred to me that maybe I should have some goals for us to work toward this summer instead of just doing whatever comes to mind.

The toughest part seems to be how to incorporate some structure but also include Lizzy since she does not yet have some of the skills that come with completing your 1st year of preschool.

Instead of learning scripture (as in verses), I thought it might be best to just work on a few Bible stories. I've prayed about it and think we'll continue to work on Creation (as he's already learned about it in school), Noah's Ark (learning about obedience and listening to God), and the Good Samaritan (learning about helping, mercy and awareness of others).

I'm not totally sure how much or how involved our "lessons" will be. I'm going to start by reading these stories often from our different kid's Bibles, and just keeping these stories in my thoughts so when teaching opportunities arise we can talk about them.

I went to Hobby Lobby while Jay was at his last day of school and picked up some new art supplies, animal stamps and some things Lizzy can begin to do with us. (I've also been picking up more summer stuff along the way--bubbles, balls, sidewalk chalk, etc. just for fun)

Jay asks to make something almost every day so I hope to come up with some (or google some) crafts that will incorporate our stories we're working on this summer.

I also hope to help him with writing and pencil grasp this summer and maybe we can get a few letters mastered over the next 12 weeks.

This is one of those areas where I'm just trying to figure it out as I go....wait, I think I do that with everything....anyway, I've never taught children anything but swimming lessons (which Jay talks about daily and says "I don't want to go"-awesome.) so, I'll be happy to learn from others who have "been there done that" with their little ones and listening to Jay to guide us.

Of course, list-maker that I am I've made notes in my calendar with 3 or 4 fun things for us to try to work in each month over the summer like catching lightning bugs, camping out, baseball games and more. Going to Target for aisle wandering is not on the list in an effort to prevent that from happening too often.