Summer! It's the time of year all teachers look forward to. A time to delete the alarms, recharge, and go on vacation. It can also be a time when families get on each other's nerves. This summer, I've tried to combat that with three things.
1. A summer to do list.
2. Summer camps for both kids
3. Vacation
The plan was for everyone in the family to make a To Do list for the summer. Peyton made his and I've made mine. Kaleb is a little harder to nail down, and Eric doesn't exactly get a summer. Peyton's list includes: going to the beach, splash pad, mountains, park, movie theater, and water park as well as taking a giant bubble bath, playing on the slip n slide, making a fire and roasting hot dogs & marshmallows, and doing a movie night/pallet night. I'd say all of these are accomplishable. My list includes: read 5 books, plan out how to teach writing next year, go to 5 places (beach, mountains, New Orleans, Global Wildlife, and one other), eat snow cones, teach the boys to swim, update one room of the house, and get my weight into the 130s. *Mostly* accomplishable, I hope.
The kids have never really done summer camps before. We've done VBS every year forever and will continue to do that, but this summer we've scheduled two camps for each kid. Basically all of June is filled with camp, which I think the kids will love. Peyton is doing an art sculpture camp and Astro Camp. Kaleb is doing an art camp and church camp. We're going to try to sneak in a couple of soccer lessons throughout the summer, too. He says he wants to play again in the fall and we definitely encourage that.
Vacation this year has been sort of back and forth. We've gone between San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, and finally landed on Chattanooga. The boys have always gone to the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area with my family, so this will be something new for them with the Satterwhites. We're planning on going to Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, and of course, playing in creeks and waterfalls. That'll be the last week in July. Like, we get back the day before I go to my first work day. But I think it'll be fun.