Aloha!

Hope you’re having a summer filled with plenty of fun and great reading. Even though the calendar says that summer will continue for months, once the smoke from the July 4th fireworks clears and the back-to-school ads start my brain shifts gears.

It has been an odd summer. Blogging is just about nil and reading has slowed down significantly, and shock-of-shocks, we haven’t gone to the library. The reasons?

1. The shelves are bulging. There are so many books on the shelves that I just can’t “justify” going to the library. We have plenty of outstanding requests to read/review, and at the beginning of summer a friend starting a new school gave us a full collection (about 150 books) of upper-elementary chapter books that she can’t use.

2. We are reading Harry Potter as a family. With that model, you’re not going to get through them quickly. I’m picking other books that aren’t close to the genre so I can avoid comparison, but I’m having a hard time getting into other books.

3. Consulting is busier. I’ve been spending more time with work-that-pays and balancing that with being Mom and swim-team parent. As I sit at the pool and watch the teens around us, I realize how few opportunities we have left to enjoy our “little girl.” And I don’t want to lose them.

4. I’m playing word games on my smartphone. I am hooked on Words with Friends and WordDrop, two free games I play on my Droid. When I want to play a scrabble-type game with a competitor, I head to Words with Friends. When I’m standing in line or want a game that I can play alone, then I start WordDrop. I liken it to an animated word-find game that scores points.

5. We’re trying new ways to sneak in literacy and math. We are doing more baking … and Catherine is responsible for reading the recipes. We work together on the daily crossword puzzle in our newspaper (synonyms and antonyms).

6. We’re spending more time off line. We’re doing more writing the “old fashioned way” – with pen and paper. We’ve got more family time, and we’ve also woven a few new activities into the schedule – basketball camp and horseback riding.  We’re also all learning to play chess with No Stress Chess. Miss C is loving them all, and they also help her development on several levels.

It seems like summer is jam-packed and moving quickly … and I’m in no hurry to wish it away. We’ve got six weeks to go before school resumes, and there are plenty of brownies to bake, Potter to read, and lazy days by the water.

We’d love to hear how your summer is going. What’s been your favorite thing so far?

PS – If you want to join me in a game with Words with Friends, just send me an Email. I’ll let you know my ID!

Image credit

Postcard by CoreDump on OpenClipart.org