Summer is in full swing

So it is literally day #3 of Summer break and already Caleb is ready to go back to school. I seriously don't blame him, but I thought we would take the rest of the week off from doing anything and start up our summer routine on Monday. You know, not to overwhelm and overschedule kids when they are on break. Shame on me, because my kids evidently do not function that way. They crave business and routine.

I have been neglecting the housework for the last two weeks because we have just been too busy to do anything about it. So I vowed to spend this morning cleaning and doing laundry while the kids played and watched a movie. The best part was, Pops came by to take them to breakfast at 8, so I had about an hour to clean in uninterrupted musical madness. By 11, I was mostly finished, and the kids were already bored.

My plans for the boys for summer had been MWF-school work in the mornings, outings in the afternoons, Summer Jamboree for Caleb on Tues/Thurs, VBS for a week for Jansen, and Summer reading program in between. All this wasn't supposed to start for about another week...but now, we must move up the school work part.

Caleb, who will be going into 2nd grade in the fall is heavily into math. He wants to measure things, do math problems, etc all the time. So in 2 hours, I have taught the child to multiple single digit numbers using visual cues. He is just so smart, he is sure to pass me up in a few years. I even was able to teach him some precursors to algebra....If x=2, what is 3 + x? and If 4 + x = 9, what is x? We even started If 2x=4, what is x?

Anyway, ramble aside, we have enacted the power of the Summer Fun Jar. Caleb and I took turns writing activities on strips of paper, folded them up, and put them in a jar. When he gets bored, he is to pick a stip of paper from the jar, and we will do whatever is on that strip. Same goes for Jansen. Behold...the Summer Fun Jar (basically a Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane glass). I know, it is awesome...

We already had to dip into it this afternoon after the boys came in from playing outside. The activity for today....Make your own crayons! This turned out to be a great little lesson. We talked about the meaning of recycling, using old things to make new things. Caleb came home with a ton of broken crayons from his school year, so they were the perfect crayons to use. I hate to throw away bits of crayons. We talked about the process of melting old, hard to use pieces into new, easy to use crayons. Unfortunately, I only had heart molds, which prompted me to want some silicone molds in other shapes, but I digress. We talked about doing things the GREEN way, the importance of doing things to help our planet, and power of being creative.

Cost for this project...FREE. Time spent on this project....45 minutes to an hour. And the kids loved it!