summertime

Oh goodness, I don't know where the time has gone! We are having such a nice summer in our neck of the woods. There have been many wonderful sunny moments at the swimming pool, city parks, neighborhood library and tennis lessons. God has brought other homeschooling families into our lives, while sitting on the sidelines of the tennis court or all places. But this particular post is about what we've been up to at home this summer. I think every parent has a brief moment of panic at the beginning of summer vacation, wondering, how will I keep the kids busy and happy all day long?

Well, this is a given. Am I right or am I right?

Henry has build half a dozen models of his favorite rides from Disneyland. Exhibit A: Splash Mountain. I wish I had a picture of the inside...it looks quite a bit like the inside of the ride!

We've been doing lots of reading. One of my favorite homeschooling blogs, Life in Grace, suggested that when the days get long, and the kids get crabby, read aloud. It centers everybody. Great advice.

Our kitchen table has been taken over by art supplies. And you know what? I'm okay with that. The kids are so much more likely to sit and create when it's all at their fingertips.
Here is Henry's homemade drum and robot:

We love to play Hangman. Most of the time we play while we are waiting at a restaurant for our food to come. Henry likes to play too, without anyone helping him with his spelling. I was loving his inventive spelling on this particular game of hangman. 10 points to anyone who figures it out...


There have been lots and lots of board games this summer. I have played hundreds of games of Uno. Hundreds. Good lessons in sportsmanship going on over here. Ahem.

Picasso-esque Mickey Mouse by Henry

I had to include this book that Henry made, because it absolutely cracks me up. It's a field guide for Jedi Knights, in case he (or she) needs to quickly look up his opponent's Light Saber, to see if his opponent is good or evil. Observe:

blue=gud

purple=gud

double red=men (mean)

green=bad and gud. Ooof. That's a tricky one.

single red=bad. So helpful.

Havah and I have designated Monday as our official baking day. One day this summer we made cupcakes, using the recipe for dark chocolate frosting from Sprinkles Cupcakes. Warning: super delicious. The lollipop cake topper recipe came from the Science of Candy website. Lots of fun stuff over there.

A few months ago, we picked up wool roving at a natural toy store. Last week, Havalah and I sat down and hand felted the wool into long strips.. Then we cut the strips into little pieces and threaded them with stretchy thread...

...and made bracelets. The felting process was actually harder than I thought it would be, and will be something that I won't pull out again for awhile. Has anyone done any felting with their kids?

They turned out pretty, though!

We recently bought our first containers of Stockmar paint, which is very concentrated, vibrant and best of all, I've been told, will last me for over a year. We bought blue, red and yellow, so I decided that the kids needed a lesson on mixing their paints to make secondary and complimentary colors. A color wheel lesson! We found this video on eHow which gave simple directions on creating a color wheel.

And lastly, I leave you with videos of Henry's Lego "water stirer", patent pending, and Havalah's end of school year memorization, just cause she's so cute. :) Happy summer, everybody.