A recent storm.

The children are nearly finished with their two weeks of swimming lessons.  I confess to being on tenterhooks--waiting to know whether they pass their levels, and really wanting them to do well.  Belle did a first yesterday--swam across the pool on her own!  Today she swam across and most of the way back before she was simply too tired to go any further.  Boo is doing well, swimming with a noodle, and coming on with his floats.  He is still reluctant to put his face completely in the water.  I am not sure what all is required for him to pass his level.

We've had to travel to a nearby town for swimming, as our town pool developed a leak.  I have quite enjoyed it, surprisingly.  It is nice to drive by the farms and see the corn growing, and the drive there and back gives us a chance to unwind.  It hasn't been very nice to the gas tank--driving there and back every day.  Our van can sit in the driveway for a week or more without being driven normally.  It is really nice when I can go a whole month and only fill up once.  Unfortunately that doesn't happen much in the summer.

When I haven't been at swimming, I've been doing things around the house, and starting to think about lessons again.  I usually try to have some sort of schedule for lessons, but this year I'm having a bit of trouble deciding how to do things.  I think I may try more of a flow schedule than an organized one.  I am thinking of rearranging our subjects and am not sure how much time I will need for each subject, and when to make a break in things so we don't have our noses to the books all day.  I am also trying to decide what subjects I need to do every day and which ones can go on alternate days.  I am still planning a four-day heavy on the academics, with Friday continuing to be our foreign language, lapbook and home economics day.

I'm also trying to come up with an organized plan for doing chores, keeping the house clean and tidy, and some time for me to plan menus, do budget, and other necessities of life.  The children can do so much now, and I am trying to figure out which things no longer need my constant help and immediate supervision.  I don't want to schedule everything down to the minute so that if something gets out of line I get stressed, but we need to have a general flow so the right stuff gets done.

Boo is ready to give up the Little Tykes desk that was in his room.  In its place we plan to put a folding table for an additional space to do school.  Right now, all the books are stored downstairs in the living room and dining room, but we do most of the actual work in Belle's room.  Her table isn't huge, and if I am actively teaching one of them it is too distracting for the other to be working on something else beside their sibling.  So having a table in Boo's room for them to work at independently will be very good.  A folding table is something that can be put away when we have to put an air mattress up for visitors.  The children's bedrooms are not very big so we have to make the best use of the space we have.  It will be really nice not to have to send a child downstairs to do their independent work.  (What we are going to do for a chair is something I haven't thought about yet.)

I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up because they hurt, and now my battery is running down, so guess I'd better get this posted.