On Fridays Aaron goes to after school program. It allows Ryan and I, to get a few hours of homework done in peace. Aaron has fun at after school, and he has activities, and heck, it costs me all of $5. Ryan and I pick Aaron up and we walk to karate. Tonight I noticed while we walked to karate it was light out till after 6pm. These lengthening days have my thoughts on our summer plans. I have two VERY active and thinking boys. They like to be busy from the moment they wake up till they pass out asleep for the night.
I have been very concerned that there is no summer school in the city this year. Last summer it helped Ryan get ahead in reading, it was till noon everyday, and we had the month of August off all together. I found out about an academic camp for kids on the spectrum and was considering it. I mentioned the camp to Ryan and he came back at me, Mom I really don’t want to go to camp, I want to be with you, and if I have to, can we have home school summer school? I was taken aback. This is a kid who has begged to go to camp every summer. I told him I would figure out activities and school for him to do from home for three months.
Typical camp for both boys is incredibly expensive, heck one day of camp a week at the pool for the boys is more than I make on a Thursday night at the bar. A pool membership with swim team, swim lessons, and tennis lessons, a Philadelphia Zoo membership, a Franklin Institute membership, and the Please Touch Membership we already have, will be cheaper than any camp.
Swim Team, swim lessons, and tennis lessons will take about three hours a morning, so I could work from the pool and for a couple of hours and after the kids go to bed when I need it. I am thinking about finding a “mothers helper” at the pool to keep an eye on the boys if I have more work than I can deal with. I’d like to have my very favorite in home caregiver Ms M. to take the boys on Friday mornings so I can sleep after working late Thursday night. She tends to get them to the park if the weather is nice and last summer had a few nine and under boys as well as a baby or two. I’d like to get some scrap lumber for the boys to build with their tools, and maybe a few broken electronics to take apart “Phineas and Ferb” style.
A part of creating a summer routine has to be academics. I am going to start researching curriculum for the boys so that we can maintain our academic gains this year. I’d love to do home-school a few hours a day, three days a week over the summer so that the boys can have a summer vacation and academics. So homeschoolers, yeah I am looking at you J in Maine. Do you have curriculum preferences? Does anyone have any idea on curriculum?
I am getting kind of excited about this. I think that I can work from home, or the pool, do summer school, and give my kids the summer they want. Help, oh dear people on the interwebs!
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