June activities

Jaycie had swim lessons twice a week for the month of June and she loved it. Every lesson she advanced and I loved to see her excitement for learning. It really helped that there were only 2 in her class. Every one was like a private lesson. She just had her last class and she got her passing certificate to move on. It was fun, but I am excited to not have to try and keep the schedule. It took up our afternoons on my days off!

I loved that the Bethany YMCA was right next to the library. We went after almost every swim lesson. We have been doing the summer reading program at the library. The kids have enjoyed it, and I challenged myself by attempting to find all of the books on this list from READY for Kindergarten. There are 100 books on the list that all kids should hear before starting school. I figured that we had the summer until Jaycie starts Pre-K so we could do it. And we have. With the exception of 5 or 6 that I haven't found yet. It has been good for the kids to be excited about reading. It seems like we couldn't fit reading time in for a while and this little challenge sparked our interest again. Jaycie got to color the star of the books that we read. I learned that I need to read in the afternoon around "quiet time" instead of trying to squeeze it in to the bedtime routine. This list helped us find some really good books that we haven't come across before. (Many award winning books and authors). I also re-learned how to find specific books in the library. Thanks to Marilyn Barta, our parent educator with OPAT for getting us involved in the READY program. It has helped me so much stay focuses on education at home. We are done with OPAT now that Nathan is 3, but we loved Mrs. Marilyn's visits!!