Whatcha Doin'?

Vicky over at Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After had a linky party a few weeks ago wondering what her teacher friends had been up to. You can check out her blog here: http://traditionslaughterandhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com  The link is closed but I thought it would be fun to post on some of the things I have been up to this summer. Mostly, I have been working on crossing items off my summer bucket list. At the end of the school year I had the kiddo's make a list of things they wanted to do over the summer. I tried to encourage them to be as creative and cheap as possible, thinking that their parents would be more likely to play games every Tuesday than take a spur of the moment trip to Disney World. :)

Well, while they were working on their list I was working on making my own. I have actually checked quite a few items ,or am coming close to being able to check items, off my list.

1. One of the items on the list was to go to the John Ball Zoo. My sister in law and I wanted to get to the zoo last summer and we just never made it happen. We started this summer off with a bang because LITERALLY the day after school was done for the summer we went. I try not to put a bunch of pictures of my kid out there for all the world to see. Thats why this one is of the kid's backs. No faces, no having to try to blur it out. :) My brother, my ( very soon to be) sister in law and their kids, another brother's girlfriend and her little sister, my parents, my grandma, my aunt, my cousin, my husband, daughter and I all went. We had quite the entourage and, even though it was disgusting hot when we were there, it was alot of fun.

2. This wasn't actually on my bucket list but it was an important event. My brother ( the one who went to the zoo with us) got married. My husband, my daughter, and I were all in the wedding. To say we had a blast would seriously be the understatement of the year. It was soooooooooooooooo much fun. This isn't the best picture of the hubs and I ,but thats what I get for taking pictures with a camera phone in a dark hall.

3. Probably one of the biggest things I am working on this summer is redoing my daughters room. I never really took a before photo of the room because we moved her from her little nursery into another room for her " big girl room". The room had this really ugly wallpaper all over the walls and I spent my spring break removing all of said wallpaper. When I was taking off a socket cover to paint I realized there was still a little bit of wallpaper left ,so I took a photo so everyone could see how truly ugly it was. :)

Other items on the list include going to see Madagascar 3 and Brave at the theater as a family. Saw M3 a couple weekends ago and Brave is on the agenda for tomorrow. Should be fun! I also want to get in at least one day at the beach and organize my home office yet this summer. I've also been tutoring one of my students from last year in reading. I am using the method's laid out in the book Why Our Children Can't Read And What We Can Do About It by Diane McGuinness. You can check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Children-Cant-Read-What-About/dp/0684853566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343531514&sr=8-1&keywords=why+our+children+can%27t+read+and+what+we+can+do+about+it.
So far it's helped I think. We've only been meeting 2 times a week since the very end of June/begining of July but he has increased his words per minute from 38 to 51! I will do a post on that book and what I learned from it and tutoring at another time. I will say its DEFINITELY worth a read. It's changed my reading and spelling instruction thats for sure.

Well friends, thats what I have been spending my time with this summer. What have you been up to? :)