Summer Learning

I had great goals for summer learning (for the children)!  Some fizzled.  And some that I didn't plan for were reached.  What matters is that we all kept learning & growing. :)

At the beginning of the summer, LM taught herself to pump on the swings!  She learned to get started all by herself, too, so she can independently go outside and swing.  Hooray!

Then she learned to take her feet off the ground while she's on the balance bike!  She probably is ready for a two-wheeler!  Such great gross motor progress!

She became a puzzle whiz!  I put on both of their daily dockets to do a puzzle every day and play a game every day.  (Spoiler: that didn't happen, but it happened a lot more than if I hadn't put it on their docket.)  9-piece puzzles were excruciating to do with her at the beginning of the summer, but she quickly mastered them, and moved on to 12- and 24-piece puzzles, and then 48-piece floor puzzles.  I think working puzzles has become as comforting to her as reading books is to LG. 

She will tell you that she can read now, too, but that just means that she looks at books and tells what's happening. ;)  It's a step!

We signed LM up for 6 one-on-one swim lessons again this summer.  She missed two, due to our trip to Tennessee, but really learned a lot in the four she took.  (Kudos to some great girls on the high school swim team who are entrepreneurs and great teachers!)

Both children learned to swallow pills mid-June.  That was one of my two main goals (along with tying shoes).  We were going to practice one or the other every day until they got it.  We only practiced with sprinkles a couple days.  When we moved up to mini M&Ms, they both got it within 5 minutes.  That evening, LM tried to swallow her chewable iron pill, and was successful!!  She was so very proud of herself!!  And we were impressed and thankful!

As for LG, in addition to learning to swallow pills, he learned a lot about baseball (basically started at zero).  He is great in the outfield, getting players out at 3rd on multiple occasions.  

LG often sets out on the mile loop when we go to "the big park."  Sometimes he runs, sometimes he bikes, sometimes we all three do it (all walking or a combination), sometimes he asks me to time him.  I'd prefer a chart, a regular schedule, and trying to beat his PR.  But this is more self-motivated, and he experienced the pride and satisfaction of a job well done.

I signed LG up for the school's summer program (weekly assignments on the classroom app).  It didn't take him long each week, but it kept him engaged with math & literacy. 

LG will be trialing typing (rather than writing) this fall at school, and I asked if we could get started learning it over the summer, so (some days) he did 15 minutes a day of typing practice. 

His biggest achievement was going to summer camp and all the learning that goes with that, including being fully responsible for his hearing aids!

Both children gained soccer skills in a 4-day soccer clinic (10 minutes from home!).  And LM started learning Spanish (with LeapFrog Learning Friends 100 Words Book)!  She "speaks" Spanish frequently, and now she can learn real Spanish. :)

What did you learn this summer?