last week of school

Wow! Summer break is here upon us once again. I am always excited to be able to sleep an extra hour, in the mornings, during the summer break. I rarely get it, but I am always excited for it.

This past week has been filled with end-of-year parties, field days, and swimming for the older children. They have enjoyed their kindergarten, 3rd, and 4th grade year of school. It has been a positive experience for my children. I hope that next school year will be just as great.

We are trying to keep the children busy this summer. I am having them read and write reports on what they read each day. We are also going to keep up with math. I plan on having them swim everyday, and going to bed really tired. We signed the older 3 up for swim team this year. We were approached by the coach, one afternoon, when we tried to go swimming. The pool was closed to the public, and the swim team was having their first practice. (We didn't know that the pool was closed to the public @ the time that we wanted to swim.) The coach talked to us about the program, as well as the pool manager. They gave us info about the program, for us to look over. Then we went swimming a few days later and the coach approached us once again. We thought about it and we decided to let them join. The price was very affordable, so we signed them up. Today was their first practice. However, once we got to the pool, it began to rain & thunder. So, Matt, their coach, cancelled their practice. Erin, Libby, and Josh weren't thrilled. We needed to go to the grocery store for an ingredient for dinner, & once we were out, the sun was up, so I took them back to the pool. Matt told them that they could join the older swimmers for their practice today. So, it all worked out fine. They were working on a freestyle stroke as well as the breaststroke. Josh was a good camper, because they had him swimming laps, in the shallow end of the pool. They came home, ate baguette pizza, showered, and I haven't heard any movement. This should work out great.

Jacob and Penny will have some adjusting to do, with the older 3 at home during the day. They have been excellent this school year as well. A friend of mine from church, Shena, and I did a lite preschool thing this spring. Her son was into it, while Jacob wanted to play. He is just now getting into coloring and drawing. Penny on the other hand is a budding artist. She loves to color on anything she can; walls, tables, herself. We have to hide the crayons & keep an eye on any writing utensil laying around. Jacob is doing better going to his Sunbeam class at church. We just adore his primary teacher. Penny screams going into nursery. A friend of mine, Karen, usually takes her into nursery for us & stays until Penny stops screaming & crying. She is cute when it is time to go too. She hops up from her chair, we pick her up and she immediately waves bye to everyone in the nursery. "I'm out!!"

Clyde is staying busy this summer. He has 4 summer school classes that he is taking on-line, to fulfill the electives requirement for graduation. We thought that he was done in May, once he passed his Polish equivalency test. To our surprise, he still needed 12 credit hours, to be finished. We were upset for a few hours, but he got back in the saddle and got into 4 classes. One history class, next session was full, so he went to the professor, in whom he'd had for several previous classes, and he let Clyde in. He said that 4 other people wanted into his class, but he liked Clyde and said, "well, Clyde's in." Then again, who doesn't like Clyde. He did great on that Polish test, by the way. This summer school session, he is taking a Society class and a short stories class. They are both working out great.