Summer Forever!

Oh I wish summer could last forever. I love everything about it (minus the mosquitoes).  We are well into summer up here in the great north and are probably going to have our hottest day of the year today as it is supposed to hit 80 degrees.  We spend a couple hours on almost every hot day at a park just up the road from us that has a wide and shallow creek with a great swimming area. My little Minnie Mouse gets braver and braver in her pink life preserver, venturing out into the deeper water and swimming around.  Duke makes a new friend nearly every day. Surprisingly to both of us. He struggled a lot with relating to his peers when he first came home and would typically alienate them quite quickly.  The funny thing is he seems a little perplexed with these new kids that want to play with him and join his fun adventures, almost like he's not sure what to do with them.  He has taken to catching tiny fish with a little net and putting them in a bucket to swim around in. He has gotten very quick at it and can scoop them up in no time.  Of course they are safely released when he is finished.  Junior doesn't care much for the water and prefers to spend his time playing in the sand and constructing castles.  I usually join the two oldest in the water for a while and then relax in my camp chair watching the fun antics of all the kids in the creek.

Duke catching fish.

The boys having a float.

Minnie helping her fisherman brother. It's so beautiful here.

It's so nice to have all the kids home. Even when the boys won't stop bickering. I almost don't want to send them back to school. But Duke needs the expert help in reading for sure. His learning disability is quite baffling to me. I just can't figure out how his brain is processing words and letter sounds.  I'm on the fence about sending Minnie back to school or homeschooling her. She has learned so much this past year at school but not all of it is good.  She can actually write her name which I am quite shocked about. Probably no one who doesn't know what it is could read it but the fact she can do it at all just amazes me.  She knows most letters or their sounds and can count to 10 easily. Almost to 20 with a little help. I am so happy with her progress. However, she has also come home with some not nice behaviors and words. And I admit I send her into the clutches of virtual strangers with much trepidation in my heart. While I loved her teacher last year and I know she has a female aid with her most of the time, she would be the perfect victim for those who take advantage of children and the thought of her being somewhere that I can't protect her weighs heavily on my heart.  So we will see. Junior will continue in homeschool due to a variety of reasons. Perhaps I will delve deeper into those reasons in a later post.  And it's off to get ready for the day as Duke has a swimming lesson late this morning.