Summer: Part 2

Spending a whole day at the beach and trampolining -- two activities that Tiger has consistently done in the past two summers.  Now that we have been to the beach for a second time this summer, and Tiger has bounced to his heart's content at two trampolining sessions, I think we have pretty much ticked all our boxes for summer!


I am planning an 'official' start of Year 2 in the first week of September, so we have been easing into the mentality of more structured lessons gradually.  A short transition period is good for a number of reasons:
1) it give us both time to get used to the idea of structure;
2) it gives me time to test out a slightly revised schedule, and to make any changes to it as necessary;
3) it gives me time to test-run a few new resources that I hope to use in the new academic year, and make changes to them as necessary (which happens quite often, as veteran homeschoolers will no doubt understand).

So, what have we been doing so far:

At the beginning of August, we continued our own little 'summer school' at home.  It was soap-making week, so we bought the necessary kit and made it!  Tiger chose the type of soap base he liked, as well as the ingredients and the mold, bearing in mind a limited budget set by me.  Soap making using a ready soap base turned out to be easier than I had imagined.

Tiger had wanted to make soap since last summer, so I am glad we finally got round to doing it.

Spending time outdoors, especially in the summer, is another must for us.  This summer we have been going on longer (approximately 4 or 5 miles) nature walks frequently.  It has been amazing for us to find some very interesting sights just by walking down a previously-unexplored country lane.

When the weather permits, Tiger spends most of his days in the back garden, specifically living in his cardboard house.  The cardboard boxes are very versatile -- at different times, they have been used as a fortress, a castle keep, a bird-hide and a two-bedroom house.

Tiger also attended a weeklong karate summer school, from which he passed his grading examination and is now an orange belt.  In the particular karate system that he is learning from, an orange belt is 4 grades up from the beginner (no-belt) grade.

A personal milestone this summer is that Tiger is starting to have wobbly teeth!  We are all very excited about it.  You can see from the photograph that the new teeth have already started to grow.  Wow, I guess losing his baby teeth marks the end of the period we call "early childhood"!

This post is linked up to the All Year Round Blog Carnival: Summer edition, and has been featured in the All Year Round Blog Carnival Week 28: 7 Blogs in Summer.