Summer School, Mama Style!

It's summertime!  If you are a Mom, you don't have to be told that.  Chances are your kids are out too and already sitting under your feet saying, "I'm BORED"!

My father's typical response to that is, "Well poke your eye with a stick then!"  I guess we're lucky all the grandkids are too smart to listen to him.

One of my cousins and my daughter are nearly the same age and when they spent the weekends together, if they told my Aunt that they were bored, she made them go take a nap.

I've been known, on occasion to tell the boys, "Go play with your brother.  That's why I had two of you!"

Btw, have you ever noticed they are never bored when it comes time to help clean the house?

In order to expand the boys' world, and get them away from their TV and books, I've decided to teach them a few things over the summer.  So on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, we have class after lunch.  I never got to be the teacher I played school as a kid, this is finally my chance!

Mondays, we have drawing class. Neither one has great penmanship.  That is the only area in school that they do not excel.  I'm not too worried because everything is done on computers now days BUT I know they need to be able to write fairly legibly on a few occasions.  I figured drawing would help with that and besides, I think most of us wish we could draw something besides smiley faces.

I love Mark Kistler.


I used to watch him on PBS and learned some of the basics of drawing by following along.

  I have a couple of his books but they are packed up and in the storage unit, so I borrowed this one from the library.

They are great for teaching kids how to draw in 3D





This was Rabbit's and Horse's first drawing lesson.  They are still a little heavy handed but at least they are recognizable.  They actually did better than I expected and it will be great to see how they progress from here.

Rabbit's on this side | Horse's on this side

Wednesday is music appreciation day.  I'm sure The Greek would appreciate our music much better if we took it out of the house.

I recently purchased these...

I'm teaching the boys (and learning along with them) how to play the ukulele!  My extended family are all taking lessons and it's becoming popular worldwide.  It's an easy instrument to play.  They teach it in elementary schools in Hawaii, or used to before budget cuts.  If we ever get to the point that we can play together without causing your ears to bleed, I may post a YouTube.  Until then, reading about it is safer than listening.

My boys are great readers but hate to write.  I think the penmanship thing has something to do with it.  I made them start blogs when they were here for spring break and so Fridays will be blogging day.  They have all week to take pictures and find something to blog about.  Their first attempts were one sentence each.  After a little prodding we got up to 4, I think.  Fridays should be interesting days around here.

If they say anything especially profound...or really stupid...I'll post excerpts.

Of course, we can't neglect physical activities.  That's why we have Nerf guns!  That's a whole 'nother ball of wax.