Summer is All The Mess

Y'all look at this picture. This child is a hot mess. He has chalk, dirt, chocolate, and popsicle all over him. But look at that smile! I got this shirt at the start of summer and it has been permanently stained. There is a soda stain on the back as well. Messy is happy! 

My bestie had her first baby at 37 and isn't her baby girl just gorgeous! Her name is Phoebe and the name matches her wild personality. They are such amazing parents and Phoebe has them wrapped around her sweet little finger. 

Here are a couple of photos from 4th of July. I wanted to get a photo of him before he got all dirty but as soon as he got outside he rolled around in the dirt. I just wish this child would learn how to swing himself. Pushing is getting old. 

These two cousins have spent every single day together this summer. There are huge fights but also some sweet moments. Here is one of these. They sat together in this wagon and shared a root beer. 

Y'all bless this child's soul. We shot a few fireworks in the backyard. Basically my sister's husband shot them off and we sat in the bed of the truck and watched. We did let the kids do a sparkler. My kid put the hot end to his lip. He never cried. He just said "I hurt my lip". This is it the next day. It is looking better each day. He learned a life lesson so I guess it all worked out. 

This weekend we are doing a family vacation to Hot Springs with my sister's family. We are renting a house close to a nice lake. We have plans to visit a museum, a water park, a go cart park, an amusement park, and also do some boating. It will be lots of chaos and mess so basically the kiddos will have the best time and all the adults will be needing a vacation after the vacation. 

Summer Fun

This week has been nothing but fun for the boys (my son Jack and his cousin Bennett). This Mama is exhausted though because making things fun is hard when you still have all the adult things to still do.

These boys have had swimming lessons all week. Bennett has done fabulous! Jack has made huge strides and I think I'll get him swimming lessons again in about a month. Let me tell you why. On Monday he was diagnosed with ADHD. I already knew he had it because as a teacher I know the signs. He will start a medication next week and we will have the rest of the summer to evaluate him in case we need to make any changes. 

We have been doing a lot of cooking. Both boys love to cook and it is an activity that keeps us busy and we end up with a treat we get to share with others. We have baked cookies, made banana pudding, made Oreo pudding,  bakes brownies, and I taught the boys how to make French toast. 

We also took an ice cream break. We went to Sonic and actually got out and sat outside. The kids thought that was so cool. The kids are loving summer!

Cleaning has also been made fun this week. I've had the boys help with the chores and they have loved it. I've let them do chores that they wouldn't normally get to do like vacuuming and mopping. I've had them help me clean each day and it has been so nice having the house be so clean.

Every Wednesday for a month our public library is having a reading program. The boys got to make homemade ice cream in plastic bags. They thought it was neat and loved getting to eat their own ice cream. 

Next week I have three days of professional development and Saturday I get to volunteer at a coding camp for girls in grades 8th through 12th. I'm looking forward to the 4th of July since we will be hosting a huge family get together. It's the weekend and we have no plans so I'm going to chill and read Crazy Rich Asians. Have a great weekend!

Unplugged: Teaching Coding with Storybooks

This week I'm spending my time at a computer science workshop. Before this class, I only thought of coding for middle and high school students and maybe upper elementary. Now I see that even pre-kindergarten kids can handle basic coding.

There is a wonderful blog called JDaniel4smom. She has a list of storybooks that is occupied by a printable. A group in my class presented this as a lesson to do with kindergarten. Since Jack is starting school in August I thought I would give it a try with him. The most important skill your child will need for this lesson is the ability to draw an arrow. Jack's arrows are not perfect by any means but I can tell which direction he is pointing. 

The first time we did this activity we did the coding activity using the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Jack loved it so much that he asked to do another so we did The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Here is what The Very Hungry Caterpillar printable looks like:

Here is what Jack's paper looks like (you will notice some mistakes and it probably wasn't the best idea to let him use a marker but it made him happy).

It's never too early to start teaching following steps (algorithms), directional words (up, down, left, right), and sequencing. This activity is a great way to blend literacy, math, and computer science.