This has to go down as one of the strangest Fourth of July holiday weeks ever.
Between Anna being gone for the week (more on that later) and there being copious amounts of pouring RAIN, things just feeling off kilter. It hasn't been much like other Fourth of July holidays.
We've tried to make the best of it.
At the time of this writing (Wednesday - because I am not opening my computer on the holiday to write a blog post!) it is looking very much like our planned outing to see The Atlanta Braves play on the 4th of July will be wet... but we have our ponchos and our patience and we are going to see what happens!
Our local parade has been cancelled (the first time in 34 years that has happened) and I'm hearing all sorts of other cancellations in our area due to rain.
Well - Collage Friday isn't rained out, so here goes (short and sweet):
Anna's First Time Flying Alone
Anna left Tuesday morning for upstate NY to spend the week with my sister and her family.
{I got her one of my all time favorite books for the trip - The Book Thief. She's almost finished it and loves it, which I knew she would.}
She's flown a lot in her life, but never by herself. The only person who was apprehensive about the fact was ME.
I had a very proud mom moment as I watched her walk confidently onto that plane. She looked so mature and conducted herself so nicely.
As the plane pulled away from the gate I couldn't help but wonder what exciting adventures she will go on in her life.
I'm so glad she isn't scared to do new things - in fact, I think she rather likes the challenge.
She is having a great time with my sister. So far I've heard about pedicures, The Cheesecake Factory, a museum with a piano exhibit, and my sister's cat (and she's only been gone a day!).
Meanwhile, in soggy Georgia...
We've been making the best of a VERY soggy week.
My husband was off a couple of days, so he and Grant (of course) watched a lot of baseball and threw the ball during the dry moments.
Right now Grant is loving his DK Eyewitness World Series book. He literally sleeps with it.
The boys also watched Knuckleball, a documentary about this very interesting pitch. Grant was happy to demonstrate it for me all. week. long.
Of course there was a lot of LEGO building, and we started a new read-aloud (which at the time of this writing is FREE for Kindle), The 4th of July Spies.
It was nice to have some extended alone time with Grant, and while I miss Anna - I know she is having a great time.
Music Camp
Next week we will be in downtown Atlanta at music camp.
Do you remember when we did this last year?
I have been teaching at this camp in some capacity for the past 16 years, and my kids have been going for the past three years.
It is always one of the highlights of our summer.
We leave our house at 7:15 each morning and don't return home until 5:00 each afternoon... to say we're all tired is an understatement.
This year the theme is "Sailing the High Seas" and the kids are working on a pirate musical all week and will perform it next Friday night.
My class is "Music Explorers" and we will be using SQUILT as the framework for exploring music with water themes. I'm so excited!
Long story short: I probably won't be around much online next week!
Planning for Next Year
I hope to put our curriculum plans on the blog very soon. After music camp we are home for a bit, and then we are on vacation for a week - then it's just a couple of short weeks until we have the official start to our school year.
This summer has been glorious because we have done ZERO SCHOOLWORK. Really. ZERO.
I needed the break.
I had breakfast with a good friend this week - I consider her a very important mentor in this homeschool journey. When I asked her about school she just looked at me and said, "Oh Mary, I'm just so TIRED."
I told her I felt EXACTLY the same way, which is why I'm just giving myself some grace this summer.
Have you ever felt like that?
I hope you had a wonderful 4th and am looking forward to seeing everyone's collages this week.
Please join me for Collage Friday! Share your photo collages from your homeschool week. I will delete any links that do not contain photo collages.
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