Well, we hit that point of Summer break a little earlier than I had expected… You know that point, it’s the one where all the kiddos are bored and completely sick of one another… Oh yes, one week in, and we hit it. This is going to be one very long Summer.
I know this post is a little late. Like I’ve said before May was a blur, and I’m just now catching up.
Thade made me a sweet card, a coupon book, and flowers too.
Dylan made an adorable card, and had a few flowers for me too. I love those boys.
Agnes sang “Happy Birthday” to me all day, which was really cute.
The kids woke me up extra early with another gift. They got me the Hunger Games trilogy, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I love my little family.
After the school year was finished, and all of the required reading programs had ended, Thade was burned out… I want to keep him reading this Summer, but to keep him interested, I have to be a bit creative.
I have a few tips that have worked for me so far.
I’ve started reading more… This is good for both of us. When he catches me reading, he has a million questions about what I’m reading, what characters are involved, how many more chapters I have, and so on. It usually peaks his interest, and he’ll go choose a book to read too. Right now he is reading through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series at night, and I’m reading the Hunger Games.
I have stashed books all over the house. I have bins of books all over the living room, and shelves covered in their room. I’ve started a collection for Agnes too. I encourage him to take a minute and read a quick book to his siblings. He’ll pick a short one, but it doesn’t matter. His brother and sister love to listen, and seeing a cool big kid read encourages them to want to read too.
I also encourage him to read beyond his school grade… Thade is an advanced reader, and I’m really proud of him for his accomplishment. This also leads him to become bored easily when he is assigned something that he can breeze through. Last school year he would get in trouble with the librarian for trying to check out a book that was above his grade level. I say read what is required at school, and read what you love on you own free time. This rebellious attitude towards reading makes him want to read longer chapter books, and he keeps pushing himself to jump up another level in reading too.
One of my favorites is to let him read all of the menus, junk mail, magazines, coupons, and fliers that come our way. He loves to properly enunciate the punctuation marks, and scream when it is in all caps. It is hilarious, but his enthusiasm is adorable. The local fliers are much more entertaining when you have an eight year old reading them to you. It sneaks in everyday reading and understanding too, and he thinks it is just fun.
Do you have any tips to help keep kids motivated with their Summer reading?
We have several little seedlings making an appearance in the garden this week.
The Sweet Corn is just starting to sprout. I’m giving corn another shot this Summer, I’ve yet to have any success with it. This year I’ve planted it in blocks, instead of rows, so we’ll see if it works. I love Sweet Corn, it is delicious.
The Okra has started sprouting too. Last year I didn’t plant enough Okra, and this year I think I planted too much. Oh well, I don’t think my family will complain if we have Okra with every meal.
With the school year all wrapped up, I thought I would recap a few moments from the last month of school.
Dylan was sad that preschool was coming to an end. He really, truly loved preschool. He has been attending Sunbeam for two years, and the teaching staff there is amazing. You can really tell that they love their job, and all of the kiddos too. It is hard to say good-bye to preschool, but my little guy will be a kindergartner this Fall…
He is excited about the journey into big kid school, but he misses preschool already.
May was especially busy for Thade. There were a lot of school activities going on. He had something on the calendar every day. He finished up the blooming reader program early in the month. He also got to participate in two parties, and a trip to the movies because he read so many books.
He and two of his very best buddies were in a choir. They preformed several songs at a retirement party for the Superintendent of our school district. Thade had a lot of fun, he doesn’t have stage-fright at all.
We got to visit school on another afternoon, Thade was performing in the Talent Show.
He did a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, and he did great. He was really happy that he earned his green belt before the Talent Show too.
Thade won three awards at the 2nd Grade awards assembly. He was really excited that two of those awards came with coupons to Taco Bell.
It was hard wrapping up the year. There will be lots of changes next year.
Thade sat under his favorite tree one last time. It has been our meeting place for quite a while. Next year he will be at a different Attendance Center (3rd-5th grade). He will have a new school to go to, but his friends will be there.
Dylan will be attending a separate Attendance Center. Luckily he is already really familiar with the building (it’s Thade’s old school). I’ll have to make some changes with our morning routine and afternoon pick-up with both boys in different schools. I’m already a little concerned about it, but I’m trying my best to remain positive.
I am really happy that the lazy days of Summer have arrived. We all are in need of a break.