Busy summer fun…

These past two weeks have been busy, but fun.  We have had cousins visit, camping trips, and a trip to Maine.

FIRST camping with Grandma and Grandpa and his cousin.


Working together to build a fire…
Some play time…  When I saw this, I couldn’t resist taking a picture.
Noah laughed and laughed – quite a few kids gathered around.  Noah and his cousin wanted to sell tickets to this “attraction”

After camping, was our day trip to Maine…

This water was FREEZING.  It felt like ice cubes, but Noah declares it as his “best day ever!”
In fact, this is the look he gives me when I tell it it is time to go. 


Cape Neddick Lighthouse!
What a fun past two weeks he had!

Time’s getting away from me

I wish I could say that I have everything done for this coming school year.  I. do. not.  And it’s driving me crazy.  I mean I have scheduled in that we are starting on AUGUST 15th. 
On top of that I made the mistake of checking  -- just to see – how much I had left.  Umm, quite a bit of it…
I like to have the whole year, put into folders, schedules, and notebooks BEFORE we start.  So far, it is slow going.  I do, however, finally have all of his books bought.  So, we are getting somewhere…
This past few weeks kinda got away from me.  {summer fun}
I tell myself, that IT WILL BE OK IF I DON”T HAVE IT ALL FINISHED

And it will be okay. 
On the bright side our summer activities are going great, and Noah is having lots of fun with his cousin who has come up for a visit!  (pics to come in the next few days)

Notable Noah – Doing his part…

So, I am SO GLAD that Noah can mow the lawn this summer.  I taught him, and he can actually keep a straight line pretty good.  Now, I like to mow the lawn, (when it is not hot out), BUT when it is that’s when it is Noah turn.  He does a really good job.


I know… he’s kinda far away, but I was sitting under the shade tree!  :)
and no, he doesn’t have to mow all that grass. 

Collecting the grass for the garden. 
He seriously likes mowing… he doesn’t even ask for money!

Notable Noah – At the Lake!

As he told me today on our way down to the lake for swimming.  “He waits all year for this!”  He loves swimming.  I would have to say it is his #1 sport, baseball 2nd. 
Today is OPENING DAY.  And we were there bright. and. early. 

Trying to walk with all that stuff on!

Going…

Going….

GONE!

NOW FOR SAND TIME -
He is building a chair.
Trying to get comfy in that chair.
Instead decided to make a bed…

Since it was opening day, the BEACH had snacks/drinks available.


And why not just drink your popcorn from a cup?


the quick wink he gives me after he ask me to post the lake pictures on the blog.  :)

Notable Noah – Summer school

I love how Noah is doing his work!  He has not complained one time that I am making him do SCHOOL WORK in the summer. 
That just tells me that he must be growing up.


He is doing Daily Summer Activities by Evan-moor

Yum… Chocolate~

Summer time always gets me to thinking about nighttime campfires, and roasting s’mores.  Well, believe it or not, we can make even s’more-making educational!  With the help of Amanda Bennett’s unit study on Chocolate. {if you choose to get her unit study on chocolate} Yum!!!!

What originally caught my eye was this
   I am all about something giving me ideas for summer activities, and a CALENDAR of monthly activities looked right up my alley. 
If you decide to download it (click on the image), you will see it starts off with this week being the week for Chocolate Challenge. One of the days suggestions is to make s’mores.  (But, before you do watch this video on how chocolate is made)

How to make a smore… outside
     Gather around a warm campfire with friends or family.
     Break a graham cracker into two halves. Place one quarter of a chocolate bar on one half of a graham cracker.  
     Stick one large marshmallow on the end of a wire or clean stick. An unwound wire hanger works well.
     Hold your marshmallow several inches over the hot embers of the fire.
     Rotate the wire as the marshmallow cooks, allowing the marshmallow to become lightly browned all over.
     Place the browned marshmallow on top of the graham cracker and chocolate.
     Place the other half of the graham cracker on top of the marshmallow, creating a sandwich.
     While firmly holding the two graham crackers together, pull the wire out of the marshmallow.
     Wait about 30 seconds for the warm marshmallow to melt the chocolate.
     Eat the s'more after allowing it to cool. You'll want some more - so return to step two.
 
Enjoy your s’mores and the time with your family!    

Catch the Reading Bug

The month of May is "Get Caught Reading" month. 

To celebrate this we are going to take a day, to read our favorite books, and I might even read some to him.  Actually, we do a lot of read-alouds.   (though mostly in the evening)

BUT... don't let the reading stop after May is over, and summer is getting ready to begin.  I have found several "reading incentives" for summer reading. 

Check out the ones that interest you, just click on the images for details: 

For Education:  you know...when you just need to kids to sit quietly for a while and rest.  



This site has all ages of books suggestions/worksheets



Scholastic has a bunch of ideas for books suggestions, and contest for kids.

Click the image for more info

For fun:  summer contest for kids

Barnes and Noble

Chuck E. Cheese has a reading rewards chart for free 10 tokens.

They actually have a lot of rewards charts for free tokens for just about every behavior you could think of.

I'll post more if I find out more.  I'd also love to hear if you know of any I hadn't found yet!

Almost the end

I cannot believe that we are coming to the end of his 3rd grade year!  We started this year the second week in August, and time has really flown by!




We have a few things planned for summer, though!

This book, plus the summer reading program at our library.  We have a deal, Noah and I, where if he reads 10 books before our start of school date, he gets a "reasonable" prize of his choosing.   As part of my trying to get him to be more independant, I do not remind him to be reading his books.  He has a chart with stickers all labeled -- that is his reminder.  Believe me, as his mother, it is hard for me to not be reminding him.  

This year I will be adventurous and make his an ice cream cone for his wall --- for each book he finishes he may put on a flavor, similar to THIS.

And, of course, LOTS and LOTS of swimming at the lake!