Summer School: Week 1

Have your printed out your Summer Fun Schedule yet?

Here's a peek at what our first week looked like:

MAKE SOMETHING MONDAY

A couple years ago a friend gave me a Thankful Journal, along with the book entitled "One Thousand Gifts" by Anne Voskamp. That book really was a life-changer. And I've been wanting to help grow my kids with hearts of gratitude & joy. So they each decorated their own Thankful Journal. I picked up inexpensive composition books & then pulled out all my stickers & crafty doo-dads & tid-bits while they made a happy crazy mess decorating the covers & adding things on scattered pages inside. Finding thankfulness in everything makes the heart extremely happy.

TIME TO READ TUESDAY

Tuesdays are almost like a free day for me. Nothing to plan or organize. It's our "Go to the library" day.  The library is less than a mile walk from our house. So we've added some physical exercise by walking there every Tuesday. I think I'm really gonna like our Tuesday walks. We bring backpacks & library cards-- & we are set!

WHAT'S COOKIN' WEDNESDAY

I am SUPER excited about Wednesdays. I love to cook & bake. And I'm thrilled that the girls will be learning (without realize they're learning) basic stuff that will help them as they get older. We made a breakfast casserole. They are so easy to put together. And they sit in the fridge overnight so you can pop them in the oven for breakfast the next morning. We actually had ours for dinner the next day. And how proud they were that THEY made it! I swapped dish duty with them on that night. The recipe we used is HERE &, though we went basic with just turkey sausage & cheese, you can add things like feta cheese & artichoke hearts. YUM!

THINKING THURSDAY

I have a sheet of paper with a giant question mark in the center hanging in the girls' bedroom. Whatever they have been or are curious about, I ask that they jot it down on that paper. This helps me come up with themes for Thursday. I took the reins this first week though & chose the topic of "Composting". We have a compost heap in the backyard, which we share with my parents. We read about composting & I found some fun infographics on Pinterest to show them. We also made a countertop compost bin out of a coffee can. Making two of them cost me $5.00. It beats our sad little bowl filled with scraps staring at us all day. (Why must my children argue about who drilled more holes in the top of the coffee lid?!) I also found a 25-minute video called "Perfect Compost" via http://hoopladigital.com I'm not gonna lie. Zoey & I couldn't stop laughing about how the Master Gardener in the video uses animal parts to prepare certain biodynamic processes of compost---which made us think of animal sacrifice, which made us think of demonic rituals, which had us not paying attention. I know, we are horrible.

SOMEWHERE FUN FRIDAY

The girls LOVE going to Farmer's Market. We made an early afternoon visit of it, each choosing a treat. Zoey chose a half-dozen freshly made mini powdered sugar donuts, Pazely (who was being very selfie-self-conscious in the photo) picked a giant chocolate chip cookie, & I purchased a miniature bundle of sweet peas to put in a vase at home. We even brought home a gyro to share for lunch. We hardly ever come home from Farmer's Market with actual produce. Haha!

So that's our first week all wrapped up! Zoey said her favorite thing was walking to the library. Pazely loved decorating the journals best. I especially liked the compost bin craft.

To view all posts in our 2016 Summer School series, follow along HERE.

♥