Our Summer

It has been a busy summer here at The Vanderhoof House.  Actually to be quite honest at times we were too busy.  We plan to not overdo it so much next year.  We chose this busy summer as next summer seems like it will be a summer of more grown up things for Caleb.  He will do overnight camps such as church camp next year.  He is also moving further into areas of interest for him so we wanted to have a summer full of experience for him.  We did 2 different Cub Scout day camps, an overnight Webelos camp, Rain Gutter Regatta, Cub Scout Kite Flying, 2 different library reading programs, several special programs that taught us about different countries (our favorite was Cookies From Around The World), swimming lessons, puppet bootcamp, gardening, birthdays, and the list just goes on.  Now we are filling our freezer and pantry, getting our house back in order, and preparing for our upcoming home school year.  This year we will be using My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures, working through an Usborne Math book, learning sign language, doing more art work, doing Right Brain Phonics, for PE Caleb will ride his bike while Simeon and I run, and in addition reading many, many books outloud.  I have a myriad of sensory diet things for Simeon to do and Caleb will be doing Dianne Craft's Brain Integration Therapy.  I have not been faithful about our homeschool sight Vanderhoof School of Excellence but this year I plan to be much more faithful.  After a summer full of activity it may be difficult to buckle down, but as we have talked we are all ready for the schedule and the structure.  I think it is going to be a fun school year this year.  Here is a sampling of our summer in pictures.