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Friday, July 8, 2011

So Not Gonna Happen

On a scale from one to ten, one being disagree and ten being totally agree, I'd say I'm a four. The statement: I follow through on my plans.

The problem is I don't usually have a plan. I should. But I don't even have a "To Do" list. If I did, it would be on top - #01: Have a plan.

That's not to say I don't get things done. On any given day, I'd say a good forty percent of chores are completed - but it's the tasks that I think are important. Namely, eating and having clean clothes. Everything else, like vacuuming and emptying the dish washer are subject to my whim.

The other night, however, I planned out morning lessons for the boys for the month of August. Yeah, I know - ambitious. I mean, who am I kidding; they barely cooperate to do their assignments when it's due at school - what makes me think they're going to read, write and do their math during their Summer break?

I agree. It's so not gonna happen.

Then again...this first week of day camp, they've been getting their butts kicked. In a good way - in a good way. Two more weeks of fun, swimming, going on field trips and I'm sure they'll be exhausted little zombies.

Come August, when they're in Mommy camp because that's what we can afford - they may actually look forward to sitting down and having a quiet morning with books. And, Mommy camp offers air conditioning and snacks because the camp director is pre-menopausal.

As camp director, I realize it's less likely to go smooth if I don't plan it out. If every morning, I'm looking through their activity books saying, "Hmm, how can I torture you today," then they're not going to take me seriously.

The torture has to be planned.

Spelling test every day for the six-year old, letters, numbers and psychiatric art for the four-year old and math is a group lesson consisting of dice throwing with tally marks, Memory with a deck of cards and Math Bingo on my iPhone.

Have you noticed that the math themes revolve around casino paraphernelia?  I'm targeting the gambling DNA that they've hopefully inherited from their dad's side.

By the way, if you have an iPhone, iPod touch or an iPad, I highly recommend the Math Bingo app. It's .99 cents and you can find it under "Education" games. The "Easy" level is perfect for my six-year old to practice addition and subtraction. The four-year old benefits from it too for number recognition - I give him the answer and he hits the number. For fun, I play the "Hard" level and have my husband use his calculator when I'm stumped. Can't lower my overall score, know what I'm sayin'?

5 comments:

  1. I love it Mom camp sounds great .. Tyler will be spending the first 2 weeks of August with his grandparents I am going to be bored out of my gourd I think the math app sounds great we play on CoolMath.com a lot

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  2. Totally new here. Adrienne (above) sent me. I am looking for new blogs to read daily and she recommended yours. I don't have kids yet, but mommy camp sounds super fun lol. Air conditioning is a must! Neuffj @ The Neuff

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  3. Great plans! We are doing more of the wake up and try not to kill each other summer camp. It's been a little rough...I wish I had your determination!

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  4. Hey, welcome new folks! Thanks for stopping by and I'll have to thank Adrienne for sending you over.

    Your words are encouraging and it's exactly what's going to see me through this summer.

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  5. Good luck! Keep us posted on how Mommy camp goes. Haha.

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