Monday, June 7, 2021

June 1 - June 6: Another Injury

The first day of June (Tuesday) the kids all signed up for the library's summer reading program and got a bag with crafty nature projects to work on this month, too. At home there was Lego building and dress up, baking and painting, and lots of relaxing. My middle boys had their last activity evening at the church before summer break.

We always choose a few basics to keep our brains engaged and avoid the summer slide. It has been documented that in countries like the US where students have an extended break from school, students lose on average 20% of the gains in reading and 27% of the gains in mathematics they made during the school year. It is one reason why the first 4+ weeks of many curricula and the first month of classes is spent reviewing past concepts the students learned the year before, but have often forgotten. One way to combat the summer slide and the wasted time spent re-teaching concepts at the beginning of each new school year is to maintain some academic practice during the summer. In our homeschool that looks like this:
  • 20 minutes of reading daily - many of my kids choose to read more than this, but this is the minimum.
  • Math Mondays - everyone does a math practice page, game, or activity on Mondays.
  • Writing Wednesdays - everyone writes something on this day. For my high schoolers this is usually writing to an essay prompt, while middle and elementary school kids have different options according to age and ability. Again, I have some kids who write much more often than this. One teen is working on a second novel, while another is deep into writing fan fiction currently. One child likes to write poetry.
Wednesday was our first Writing Wednesday of the summer. I printed out the June writing prompt calendar from Write Shop for some of the kids, and the June essay prompts from Write Shop for my three teens. I received a variety of writing papers back through the morning. 
  • Samuel wrote about what he would do with $500 just to spend on himself.
  • Mason chose an unusual pet and wrote why it would be a great pet.
  • Caleb described his favorite time of the day and what he likes to do then.
  • Oliver explained why he would choose a castle to live in over a houseboat or jungle hut.
  • Daniel wrote an argumentative essay about why he did or did not think we should develop robots to replace human jobs in factories, warehouses, and fast food restaurants.
  • Emma also chose the argumentative essay prompt about robots replacing human workers. 
  • Joseph wrote an expository essay on why he would build a house in a peaceful valley, instead of building on the beach or in the mountains.
The day was quiet, lots of playing, building, and painting. The four teens went to the church for youth group in the evening. 

Thursday dawned with lots of rain that hung around all day. The kids voted on our Tulip tie dye kits for the summer and I ordered them on Amazon. Most of the kids chose the Celestial colors, with a smaller group choosing the Shark Island colors. (Those are affiliate links to Amazon, as usual.)

The washer was repaired today for just under $200 and it is so nice to not need to hand wring out the clothes. 

Friday sunshine. Young women smores night at our house. 
Saturday was our first swim of the summer. 
Sunday Caleb had an accident involving a paddle ball and his eye that landed him in the Urgent Care. The eye is scratched and we're not sure yet just what to expect. Supposedly it will heal well, but as of Monday evening he's still very uncomfortable, light sensitive, and has taken several naps - which is very unnerving with a 10 year old who quit napping many years ago. 

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

May 22 - May 31: Finishing May

Water Play outside

 The weekend was a large helping of running errands and a dash of family time. Sunday we had another day of church in person, and yet again, I was grateful for the lack of meltdowns by my little kids. I really had no idea how Rebekah would do when we started back in person for Sacrament meeting, because she was not quite 2 years old when church closed because of COVID. She's still figuring out whispering, but she's been a champ at staying relatively quiet and not trying to run around. It makes me so happy to be there with familiar and new faces to sing and partake of the sacrament together. 

Monday we dropped Makayla's car off at the mechanic, had a contractor come get details of the work we want done in the bathroom and a few other smaller projects, and did a family project with the boys going through their personal bins of toys and things. It never ceases to amaze me how many random bits of paper they toss in their bin instead of taking a minute to throw them away! 

More Water Play

This week on our meal plan we ended up with several new recipes, all from the Six Sisters Stuff website. I will link them as we do them. Tonight was the first one, Instant Pot Easy Sesame Chicken. Everyone tried it, and had very strong opinions as to whether they liked it or not. I felt like it needed a bit less of something in the sauce, probably less soy sauce. 

Tuesday was an ice cream adventure day. It was hot (90F) and a reminder that summer is nearly here. Spring is never long enough for me! 

Wednesday's lunch was another of the new to us recipes: Instant Pot Chicken Gyros. This one was delicious. I even made the homemade tzatziki sauce in the recipe. The only change to the gyros recipe I made was skipping the onions, because I wanted my kids to try this, and chopped onions would be an instant no from most of them. 

Thursday the washer started making unexpected noises. Unfortunately, as a family of 12, we wear out appliances faster than a smaller family, because we use them three times as much. I called the repair man, who won't be here until late next week. 

Reading

Friday the washer stopped spinning all the water out of clothing. So now I'm wringing them out by hand before popping them into the dryer. I will have to do smaller loads than usual so they dry easier. I'm hoping the repair is the same part we needed replaced once before on this washer - of course it is no longer under warranty. Dinner on Friday was another new to us recipe: Easy Lemon Garlic Shrimp over Angel Hair Pasta. A couple of the kids liked it, a couple didn't, and a couple refused to even try the shrimp. Pretty typical for a new recipe attempt here!

The weekend was family time, including a cookout with extended family. Lots of laughs and fun!