Homeschool's Out, Homesummer's In

Three months of homeschool later and it was the last day of school! Carson's teacher had a camp-themed last day of school Zoom call where she encouraged them to make a tent and bring camping snacks. I loved the touch of the two trees Carson added to his campsite. 

I recognized and appreciated that school filled a good portion of each day March through May, so I was feeling nervous about how to occupy little boys' minds and time without the positive influence of daily learning as school drew to a close. Before the boys could even think about enjoying a carefree summer moment, I had a chore chart, schedule, and command station put together to help us succeed through summer. 

Come to find out, the boys weren't too keen on not even having a day to breathe before I was breathing down their necks with summer to-dos and to-don'ts. They let me know I had infringed upon their rights with my schedules and demands. I gave them a week off, learned from my mistake, and re-presented the summer plan after they were good and bored.

The schedule has been the least effective part of our command center, but we had a good month of filling out incentive charts for behavior that needed improving, and the chore wheel is still going strong. We move the chore wheel once a week, so each week the boy has one chore they help with. It's been so nice to not be responsible for EVERYTHING especially while we are all constantly home getting everything dirty all day. The yellow chores are their Saturday chore and the orange ones are the daily chores. They also have days assigned to them which are their days to be my kitchen helper and the prayer person at family dinner. It's been a good system!

As things started opening up again, we ventured over to Utah to wish David a happy birthday. Mary threw him a Golf Par-Tee and it was refreshing to see people again!

Jeff took the tractor for a spin. 

Like father, like son. 

 There we go.

One pair of gardening gloves later and Jonah was a full-blown motorcycle man.

What I need you to notice here is that Jonah's elbow is not resting on anything. 

Here are the little guys working on their weekly chore of dishes. How do they do it, you ask? By transforming into garbage trucks, of course. They position their arms at right angles and find each dish's correct home in a machine-like fashion with sound effects to match. It takes them a half hour, but it's a fun game and they get the job done!

Hiking is one of the few virus-friendly, out-of-the-house activities we've been able to enjoy. This one was a new one for us. 

Carson always, always, always has to lead the pack, whether it be on a hike, on our way home from school, or walking through the grocery store.

I took my ring off to work out and this is how I found it after my shower.

One Sunday Lincoln was frantically searching the house for his bow tie. When we asked why he couldn't wear one of the other ties we had, he said, "I have to wear a bow tie so I can look like the President." 

It took me a while to figure out how he got the idea that the President has to wear a bow tie, but I think I finally got to the bottom of it. Here's a book we have on presidents and look at Mr. Abraham Lincoln. 

Eli's birthday is always the first sign of summer fun. We had to get creative again for our third quarantine b-day. 

We did another present scavenger hunt. It requires flips to find under-the-couch gifts. 

All the goodies were found! Eli got two extra Nintendo64 remotes so we can play with four players now, a laser tag set, two book series (Percy Jackson and Warriors), a few Lego sets, and some G.I. Joe-ish army guys. 

There was no delaying testing out those extra N64 controllers. 

We had a pool party in the back. (I set the pool up all by MYSELF this time, thank you very much.)

Oreo Cream Pie for dessert (Potstickers for dinner). 

Then we ran across the street to use the landscaping as a COVID-friendly laser tag course. 

Eli is TEN! That seems so old! Eli LOVES reading. He can read a chapter book a day when he's really hooked on one. We often find him crazy-eyed, reading in his room, at 11:30 at night and have to sometimes rip books out of his clutched fists before he'll agree to go to sleep. Eli loves his family and loves making those around him happy. He is thoughtful and sweet and notices how to help when someone around him needs something. He gets along great with all of his brothers and rallies them together for games and activities. Eli is a joy and it's so fun to see who he's turning out to be.