June

Since it is actually the end of August and we've already completed our first week of school, I figured now was as good a time as any to quickly report on our summer activities. We didn't do any home school, unless you could our extracurricular June activities - sports camp, swim lessons, and art classes. Here are some photos.

 Sports Camp: Joshua took part in a program put on by Spanish Fork City. It was two weeks long, 4 days a week, 2 hours a day. The learned the rules and some skills from a different sport each day, and then basically played P.E. games for the rest of the time. He had so much fun. And because he is such a good kid, he even received a free pass to the city swimming pool! 2 kids were chosen each day from each group and he got his voucher on day two. I was a proud mom because he didn't get a pass for being an outstanding athlete, but for helping clean up the basketballs when it was time and for sharing his ball with another kid.

That is Joshua in the front wearing a light blue shirt. He just got his voucher and he is running to his seat in the back of the group. Its kind of hard to see him, even though he is almost front and center because he's not looking at the camera.

Mom: First day of sports camp. Are you excited? Show me how you feel.

This was Joshua's "coach" for the week.

Swimming lessons: Joshua and Abigail both got to take swimming lessons this year. It was 2 weeks, 5 days a week, but for only 30 minutes. I was skeptical of how much they would learn, and I don't think they actually learned a whole lot, but their confidence level went up a ton and they are much, much better in the water. After a rocky start (they forgot to put Abby in a group and she missed all but 3 minutes of the first day, and they put Joshua in a group of kids who all already knew how to swim!) we had a great time. The last day was jumping off the diving board and going down the water slide!

Art Class: Since Joshua got sports camp, I signed Abby up for an art class. Joshua's kindergarten teacher (and one of the member's of our primary presidency) teaches a Kinderarts class every summer through the city. It is for kids 3 to 5 years old - so yes, technically I could have signed Lukas up too, but this was just for Abby. When Joshua was going to public school for kindergarten Abby would always ask, "when I'm in kindergarten can Mrs. Eckhardt be my teacher too?" and knowing she wouldn't "go' to kindergarten I always had to say no. But Abby did get to go to preschool AND she got to have Mrs. Eckhardt as her art class teacher!

At the end of the two weeks they hold a reception and showcase all the projects from all the different art classes. These are the mosaics Abby's class made. She is standing right under hers. It is a mosaic of a sun and some grass, flowers and the blue sky. Her teacher told me she was the only one to actually make a picture of her "tiles" instead of just glue them on the paper randomly.

Kaleb at the reception. Abby's teacher also told me that while all the other kids just dug right into the finger paint, and other messing things, Abby would just take the very tip of her finger and daintily make dots on her page before her teacher let her know it was ok to get messy.

Home School Conference: Early June brought the home school conference in Provo. I went last year and it was really good for me so I decided to go this year too. I enjoyed my classes but I think I will only go one more year before calling it quits for awhile. The conference was even bigger this year because every year there are more and more people home schooling, a lot due to the new federal regulations and national curriculum (its on it's way, they promised), so a lot of the classes are to help parents get their feet wet and get an idea of what home schooling can be like. Most of the women there are starting for the first time - they usually ask for a raise of hands how many people are brand new (like zero to 1 years of homeschooling) and at least 75% of the people raise their hands. I feel like, even though I've only been doing this technically for one year, my feet are plenty wet, so although I'll go to the conference next year, that might be my last time for a while.  This year, on the Saturday of the conference, I took Abby with me. It was extreme Mama/Abigail time. We went out to Kneaders for lunch. She still talks about it!

Princess Party: Grammy put on a princess party for all the little granddaughters. The girls dressed up in their favorite princess dresses and then some REAL princesses came to visit. Grammy had lots of activities and treats for the girls. It was a lot of fun.

One day I let the boys watch a movie and when I came to check on them, they looked like this!

Also, we tried TWICE to go to the Springville Hot Air Balloon festival (which involved getting all the kids out the door before 6:30 in the morning) but both days the atmospheric pressure was off so they could lift any balloons. It was super disappointing, especially because I got Derek to come with us one day, but at least we all got free donuts, juice, and faces painted.

And that was June.