Summer Learning At Home

So...I started a blog.  I cannot believe it.  I have never been much of a blog follower, on account of the fact that all of the teacher bloggers I know are AMAZINGLY creative teachers, and I just steal all of their ideas off of Pinterest.  And all of the mom bloggers I've seen are AMAZINGLY patient and creative, and I just steal all of their ideas off of Pinterest. And I pray for their patience. 
As I began counting down the days to summer vacation, I started thinking about my goals at home for the summer with the kids.  Both boys (and me, probably even more) really appreciate having a structured routine in place for days at home.  I wanted some flexibility and downtime, since I don't have much of that during the school year, but I also wanted a good schedule and some productive learning time.  My goal for this summer is just a 30 minute block of "school time" each day that we are home.  (This will be for my 4 year-old, Jack.  for the 2 year-old, it'll be whatever time he is up for.)  I set up a little "homeschool" area in our dining room.  It is nothing fancy--just a little IKEA lack table and a couple of stools.  I set up a dry-erase board with some command Velcro and used two organizing shelves that we had but no longer needed to house materials.  It's a cute little space, and I am sure when we begin testing its functionality next week, we will end up using the much larger dining room table behind it.  I wanted an organized space for them to work, though, and so far they have loved the unstructured time there testing some things out. 
After talking to a couple of other moms, I decided to start this little blog about my adventures in teaching my own kiddos over this summer.  It won't be anything fancy.  It is, after all, my time off from "work", but I love looking for creative and authentic ways to get kids excited about learning, and I'm looking forward to sharing what I try and how it worked (or, more likely, didn't work!)  I hope you enjoy following along with us!

Our little school area