Friday Feature: Summer Journaling

It's hard to believe that June is almost over; just like every year, the long summer days go by in the blink of an eye. Around here, though, we're all starting to get very excited about our upcoming epic summer vacation, which I hope to share day by day on my blog once we hit the road.

I read an article once that said one of the ways to make an upcoming vacation better is to enjoy the anticipation. With the kids getting older and better able to conceptualize time, we told them not long after we made our plans in the spring about the summer vacation. The first few weeks of the summer curriculum have been focused on subjects that have helped us get excited, too - the Presidents on Mt. Rushmore, books about the western states we'll be visiting.

The journaling topics helped them both use their imaginations, too. One of the recent journaling topics was:

"What do you most hope we'll see on our trip?"

Caroline's narrative

John's illustrated answer

Summer's Coming, and so is Coussoule Curriculum 2014

Despite the lengthening of the school year by a week due to the crazy number of snow days we had this year, it is, in fact, only three weeks until the final bell rings and Caroline and John are home for the carefree, sunny, lazy days of summer.

Well, sunny at least. While the kids will have plenty of time to have fun, play with friends, go to the pool, and generally goof off, just like last year they'll also have summer curriculum courtesy of Mom. Add in the worksheets with Dad, the summer reading program at the Fayetteville Public Library, swim lessons and tennis camp, and it should be a jam packed ten weeks.

Last year, we had weekly Bible verses to memorize, three journaling prompts per week, an art project, a science topic with hands on learning, and a recipe for Mommy to try. We were triumphantly successful in Bible verse memorization; the journaling results were priceless; the art projects were fun but toward the end of the summer got a little bit overwhelming; and the science projects were hit or miss, at best. I managed to get all but one of the recipes made, learning along the way that the cookbook I had identified for my life list effort was less than gourmet (or less than edible, a couple of times), so I'm giving myself a break this summer until I find a more reliable source of new family meals.

I have had it on my list for weeks now to get this year's summer curriculum written, but for reasons ranging from legitimate (job transition took most of my excess mental capacity for several weeks) to really lousy (I still have three Candy Crush lives left!) it was left undone, a blank slate, until this morning. Thanks to the early-spring-like weather we are having, my morning bike ride plans got pushed to this afternoon, so I sat down at the computer to knock it out:

Given the hit-or-miss nature of some of the pillars of last summer's curriculum, and with another year of the kids' learning and growing behind us, I tweaked the pillars of study this summer to give us more flexibility and to make it a little bit different and challenging. The Bible verses are still there; in fact, they're already written and ready to go for each week:

The journaling prompts are a staple for every summer to come - last summer I came up with probably half of the ideas myself, but this year I asked The Google for some help, and found a fantastic website that has me thinking this could be a year-round possibility for us.

Gone are the art projects; gone are the science experiments. In their place are the combined History, Science, Geography lessons, and a new pillar on Money Management. My dearest wish is that by the end of the summer, Caroline and John never again say "well we can just go buy one!" about whatever toy or object their fickle hearts desire at the moment.

While not a formal part of the 12 weeks of 2013 summer learning, we also read several children's classics together last year, and I hope to do the same again this summer. We need to finish up one book that we started last year, but there are a few new ones on the list, too. Good readers make good writers, and good writers are hard to find, so I hope to equip my children to stand out with their ability to punctuate, capitalize, use appropriate verb tenses, write complete sentences, and all of the other things that this English nerd Mom loves to see.

The biggest difference between last summer and the one to come is the two week summer vacation we're taking out west. I can't WAIT - there are sights to be seen and natural wonders to behold and Rocky Mountain states to be explored. There will be plenty of fun learning on that trip, including (I hope) Mark Twain audiobooks along the way. Those western states are awfully big, and there will be a lot of driving, and there are only so many movies I can responsibly let them watch in the back of the van. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they like Audible as much as I do!

It's an ambitious curriculum, but I hope it's a balance between keeping the kids inside too much and preventing "I'm bored!" by the third week of June. Summer isn't here yet, but we're ready to hit the ground running when it arrives, barefoot, in our shorts, and ready to learn all at the same time.

Friday Feature: Caroline's journaling

The natives are restless... Caroline's journaling for the week starts out just fine, but takes a turn toward revolt with the rant about the worksheets!!

Maybe it's a good thing school starts a week from Monday. The summer Coussoule Curriculum seems to have lost its novelty appeal!!

Friday Feature: John's journaling

A couple of my favorites from the last two weeks:

Topic: Write about a time when you were brave.

Translation: "I was brave when I went on a roller coaster in the dark with creepy mannequin people! I thought they were creept! Very creept!!!!! I had to close my eyes. At the end it was water spraying. Fun!!!"

Topic: What is your favorite thing to help around the house with? What is your least favorite thing to help with?

Translation: "My favorite thing to help around the house is washing the dishes. My least favorite is sweep. My favorite is because it is easy and sort of fun. My least favorite is because I don't like finding the crumbs!!!"

Friday Feature: Journaling Homework

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

When I was a kid, that was an almost unfathomable amount of money. Now that I'm a grown up, working on a business managing almost half a billion in retail sales and over $60 million in trade funds (that's right - over the course of a year I write checks for $60 million dollars - not bad for an English major), a million dollars doesn't really seem like all that much money.

But then again, maybe it's because those $60 million dollars aren't my dollars.

When our office pool won $10,000 in the lottery, I was straight up giddy. And that's a couple of zeros short of a million dollars. So when I really, truly think about it, there's still that little kid in side of me saying - A MILLION DOLLARS!!! WOWEEWOWOW!!!!

Since I want the kids to have fun as much as I want them to learn this summer, several of the journaling topics are intended to be just that: fun. And in a world where your allowance is only about $2 (and that comes sporadically when Mommy remembers), what's more fun than thinking about how to spend a million dollars?

If I had a million dollars... I'd be rich.

Friday Feature: Caroline's summer journaling

The twelve weeks of Coussoule Curriculum have begun! Today's journaling topic: List 10 things you love about your sibling. Unfortunately, the two were at each other's throats apparently since about 9:00 this morning, so they weren't in a great frame of mind for this particular topic.

That periodically observed behavior, of course, is exactly why this topic was on the list. It was an epic intellectual struggle with much moaning and groaning, but the ultimate result isn't bad. John's needed quite a bit more effort - maybe next week he'll get closer to the mark. 

As much as I love her reasons she loves John, my favorite part of the journaling isn't the words: it's the picture. The way she drew them, they look more grown up than a 6 and 7 year old. Perfect way to illustrate that they really are Forever Friends.