Day 2: Can I Mainline Red Bull?

Mmkay. I have NO IDEA how home school parents do it. We had a full day of active learning, and I am worn OUT.

We had friends with us today, and we started out with all four of them doing their five pages in their respective math workbooks. 

Then we moved onto science. We piled in the car and got the supplies we needed for our eggsperiment! We studied air pressure with the egg in a bottle trick! (All you need is a glass bottle with a medium sized opening, a peeled hard boiled egg and some wooden matches. Light 3 matches, drop them in the bottle, then immediately place the egg on top, skinny side down. The air in the bottle expands from the flame heat, then quickly cools, thus contracting, when the egg on the top snuffs out the oxygen for the fire, thus quickly dropping the air pressure inside the bottle. Then the external air pressure is greater than the air pressure in the bottle, so it pushes the egg inside! Pretty cool.) Then our little scientists wrote up what they observed.

Then we hit the KC Pool for lunch and a swim. After our friends went home, we worked on crafts (Ryan is making a floral mosaic and Zane wanted to make a cardboard "telescope."  Theb we got ready for Ryan's team soccer practice and Zane's baseball game. Whew! Long and fun day, but I am EXHAUSTED and very behind on housework. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. . . 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1

We made it through through Day 1 of summer nonscreen time, and nobody has strangled anybody yet! What did we do all day? Well, Ryan set up a perfume sale stand in our neighborhood (she makes her own essential oil roll-on perfumes) and earned $45! Both kids practiced their instruments (guitar for Ryan and piano for Zane) and completed five pages in their summer math workbooks. Zane built with legos and we played dinosaurs. Ryan finished reading The Hunger Games (Larry convinced her to try it, and she couldn't put it down!) Then we swam, practiced soccer and baseball and did some yard work. So far so good. Zane whined to watch TV this morning, but he quickly forgot about it. The kids are doing great, but I'm exhausted! 😂 In a show of solidarity, I'm swearing off weekday wine for the summer. This could be an interesting couple of months here at Camp Fogel!

 
 

Mission Impossible: Can we do it?

Meet Ryan and Zane. Ryan is 9, and Zane is 7. They are pretty awesome. Both kids are bright, athletic, social and a ton of fun. But we have noticed a trend over the past year or two: they increasingly gravitate toward screen time, and are increasingly belligerent when it is time to transition from screen time back to the real world.

We tried an experiment for the last month of the school year: no weekday screen time. Like, none. (Except what was required for homework). No playing games on their iPads, no using our iPhones, no TV. The works. This was met with bitter, albeit futile, resistance from both of them. And, internally, from me. The reality is that screen time for them equals time for me to get my own stuff done. It means no fighting. It means no whining. It means no interruptions.

It also means less time outdoors. Less creative play. Less original thoughts. Less conversation.  The days are long, but the years are short, as the saying goes, and their childhood years are zipping by with alarming speed. I want this summer to be one in which they enjoy the freedom of being a kid without electronic interruptions. I am all for technology. Truly. But not during summer weekdays. 

Can we do it? This remains to be seen! But wish us luck!