JULY!!

It's July! That means summer is almost over, right? RIGHT? Ok I confess. I do not like the summer. It's just too hot. You walk outside and your breath is taken away (and not in a good way!). You get sweaty from the house to the car. Three steps! But it is a torture I will endure... I suppose! :)

Our July is jam packed with fun, sun, excitment! We are probably staying home for the fourth of July. We might go to the beach with family, but that is our big plans.
July 11 and 12th is our local homeschool convention. On the 13th we leave to go to Orlando for the week. We are staying in my mom's condo. We don't do much down there. See my above thoughts on the heat. :) We try to do one or two cheap or free things while we are there. Last year we went to Downtown Disney. That was awesome. They have a Lego store there and the kids spent lots of time while it rained under the covered area where the lego tables were. They also had this cool toy store. You could dress My Little Pony or design a Mr. Potato Head. All for free. It was fun and free! LOL
We also went to Wonderworks last year. That was fun and fairly cheap. Handicap people get in free. They let my mom in free. They also had a book that you could use for educational purposes.
One year we did a dinner theatre. That was pricey but fun.
On my mom's condo site they have free putt-putt and they are supposed to have a free water park this year. They also have crafts in the activity area for $1 or $2 dollars. You can rent paddleboats or bicycles. There are pools all over the place. All in all it's not a bad vacay.

We are planning some fun family stuff this month as well. We are going to try to take a weekly trip to the beach for a picnic and a little fun before the sun goes down. It's a lot less crowded on weekdays. Our church is going to a water park in St. Marys, Georgia later on in the month.

I am also thinking we will get Museum passes again this year. We do zoo passes for about October to April, maybe May, sometimes June. Museum passes from June through September. Remember, the heat?

I am taking July off from academics. We will be doing Bible study this month. I got How to Study Your Bible for Kids by Kay Arthur. I have already studied the first week and it looks great. I will have to modify it a little for the younger kids but the older ones should get it just fine.

We have been reading through Matthew and the kids illustrate it so we will continue doing that. We are memorizing Proverbs and will continue with that. We are still on chapter 1. I checked out a lot of books from the library to read to the kids. I got some ABC books for Jonathan and Tamara and Adrian. I will read one a day to them. I also got some fun math books to read through. Its all on the preschool/kindergarten level. With a story book or two my kids are ready. I am also upping my teaching them to read. God has impressed it on my heart lately that reading is one of the most important things I can give my kids. When they can read they can read the Bible.

Kelsie has to finish up some of her work from June but for once Karly is all caught up and loving it. She got some drawing books from the library and has been having fun with that.

At night we are going to be working on History/Science, Latin, Bible and catechism, studying Martin Luther, and reading. Rotating nights and weeks.

Tonight for instance we have Bible, catechism, and science. I am using Christian Kids Explore Biology and a lot of living books. This week is the creation so I have a bunch of books about the creation ready to read. I'm also going to read some Dinosaur books I got from Answers In Genesis. The only place I get my dinosaur books. :)

We decided to pick a different Hero of our faith to study every quarter. Dh picked Martin Luther for this quarter. We have had a lot of fun reading through his stuff and learning about him. I found quiet a few reasonably priced kids books from CBD about him and ordered those.

For catechism I found A Baptist Catechism For Boys and Girls online that we have been using. It works perfectly for us. We are reading through a story Bible right now. I think once we get through the Gospels we are going to lay it aside and work on a book that teaches salvation and the true meaning of it to little ones. It's called Leading Little Ones To God. We have one or two who are ready to make the decision and we want to make sure they know what they are committing to.

I am excited about all the things going on this summer. I am hoping we will make it more of a routine. And it will continue on past summer. That's my prayer at least.

Speaking of routines, I have been working on mine since I posted about wanting to. I will show you my notebook so far. Slow and steady. Right now I am working on my morning routine and menu planning. I have some great ideas I'm implementing to save me time and money. I will share it all with you this week.

We are having Home Ec day this week so be on the lookout.

Be Blessed!