In 52 days, our first little girl is due to arrive. She will be greeted by four big brothers, The Climber, who is 5, The General who is 4, Little Roo who will be three, and The Badger who is almost 18 months.
In just a measley 99 days, The Climber will begin his first day of Kindergarten. Five days later, I go back to a long fall semester as a Junior in the Secondary Education program at UMKC.
Memorial Day isn't even here yet and I'm feeling the tug of the end of Summer, of life changing transitions for all of us. I've tried a thousand times (give or take a few hundred), to document parts of our lives with a blog. My success rate is zero. I make no promises this time but I'm eager to trace our path through this last summer before life is no longer just sippy cups and snuggles.
This Summer we are letting the little men drive the learning. I've got things up my sleeve to keep us going when we stall but mostly, it's their ship to steer.
We started this week with Ponds and Frogs. Daddy loves to take his boys to our neighborhood ponds to catch fish and chase other slimy critters. The boys love it as much as Daddy does. They're there right now. The best part is when they come home with their treasures, muddy and smelling of pond life. I've never seen anyone so excited to share their adventures. They love to learn new things and see the wonders of our world.
Yesterday, we read some books on Wetlands and frogs. We traced pond words and learned about the plants and animals that thrive in freshwater environments. Then we made Origami frogs. The Climber and The General LOVED those frogs and begged me to make them some more today. So, four more frogs and a discussion about Origami ensued this morning. I jumped on the chance and immediately ordered some Origami paper and a beginner book. Then it was off to the library site to hold all the cute books I could find on Japan, Ninjas, Origami and Japanese Folktales. Tomorrow we'll see where our stop in Japan leads.
Who knew that a study of Ponds would lead us halfway around the world.
Off on the adventure we go in Our Summer of Learning!
The Mama
