organizing summer ed

Our family meeting yesterday went well. A bit raucous, but what isn't around here. Discussed lots of family business. Got lots of food suggestions for putting together this week's menu plan. We even drew our names for the book assignments for the next family book club.

And we got our summer educational fun plans a bit more organized, with lots of possible suggestions for specific activities.

This is a look at our what we've got on slate:

Five days a week--
*at least 30 minutes silent reading
*workbook pages
*math facts practice
*push-ups (this is part of Gray's sensory diet, but all kiddos will do it)

Three days a week--
*writing in reading response journal
*20 minutes of flute practice (Annie)
*10 minutes of recorder practice (Gray)
*10 minutes of keyboarding practice (this is part of Gray's sensory diet, but both Gray and Max will do it)
*reading aloud as a family from A Young People's History of the United States

Once a week--
*family science activity
--some possibilities: control plant experiment, owl pellets, frog call outing, night hike, visit the Rochester Museum and Science Center, fuel efficiency activity, astronomy activity
*education video
--some possibilities: The 11th Hour, Life series (narrated by David Attenborough), The Ultimate Guide: Octopus
*art project
--some possibilities: tie-dying, pastel and water color paintings, nature collages, yarn sticks
*physical activity
--some possibilities: bike ride along Erie Canal, kickball, hiking
*cooking (each kiddo must cook with mom or dad)
--some possibilities: blueberry-banana smoothies, brownies, fruit salad, cookies, ice cream
*field trip
--some possibilities: Atlantic Ocean, American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art, Bronx Zoo, Genesee Country Museum, the Adirondacks, the Thousand Islands, the Catskills, Sterling Renaissance Festival, Niagara Falls, Chimney Bluffs

Now the big question remains...will all this planning and organizing pay off? Will we actually manage to get all these fun activities in? Or will we fall back into our disorganized ways and end up not remembering to do all the awesome things we want to do?