Our Summer Vacation Plans!

This is the face of summer vacation!  In this picture, The Free One had just finished his last spelling/phonics test of the year.  After this test he knew that we were officially on Summer Vacation.  For two more weeks the school busses continued to load the big brick school building across the street with hundreds of children morning after morning while we slept in, visited the zoo, played at the river, visited playgrounds etc.  Until finally, one day, the boys spotted their cousins running across the street from the school shouting, "We're done with school!  It's the last day!"  Screams of celebration erupted as all the cousins ran into our back yard with the chocolate chip cookies that Aunt Annie had prepared for them in their hands.  And with the sun miraculously shining here in the Great Northwest, it finally feels like Summer really has begun.

I have yet to tell my children that after the Fourth of July we will be starting a Summer School program.  Of course I will not call it "Summer School," but rather some euphemistic (is that a word) name such as "Summer Activity Schedule", or "Summer Break Projects."  Nothing too intimidating.  Just one hour or less lesson per day in addition to reading.

Art:  completing our Art projects we didn't finish
Science:  completing the Science experiments we didn't finish
Abacus:  I decided that Abacus Summer Camp would be too expensive and too far to drive to so I ordered three Soroban abacuses abaci, one Soroban abacus for each of us and a beginner abacus book.  We will be learning the ancient power of mental math.
Spanish:  Watching a Little Pim DVD and keeping a journal of the phrases we learn.  "Parte el queso," has become a common phrase in our household.  And the other day we were fishing on the lake when The Free One said he wanted to try to fish "una vez mas".  We're far from fluent, but at least they are picking up a few words and phrases.
Piano:  The Free One will continue his lessons and I think I will start The Anchor on piano too.  Oh, and The Free One has been wanting to learn to play the drums for a long time and I'm tired of him beating rhythms on everything in the house, so we were excited and thankful when we unexpectedly received a free drum set.  It's missing a couple of pieces, but it's a good start.  He may be starting lessons soon, but for now it's a secret so shhhhh! don't tell : )

So that's what our Summer School Schedule is going to look like in addition to the library Summer reading program and VBS, and Sports camp, and the beach etc.  I love Summer!!!

Another goal we have is to check out the cultural passes from our library and visit each place that is available for free.

So much to do, so little time.  We may need to start school a little late in the fall so we can get all of this done.  Until then, I'll try to post some of our Summer School adventures here.

What are your summer plans?  How do you keep the kids busy and learning throughout the summer?  Leave a comment...