Summer 2019: USA Week

Of course the week of the fourth needed to be USA week. We didn't have any field trips planned for this week, but we did learn a lot of random things about US history. Our week started, as is our routine now, with a trip to the library on Monday. We got books about states, presidents, first ladies, the civil war, the revolutionary war, the Hamilton vs. Burr duel, the flag, the star spangled banner, and everything in between.




I've done much better this summer with forcing everyone to read and with our weekly themes we've gotten a lot of books about various subjects that we have read together. Through last weeks reading we learned about Betsy Ross making the first flag. We had a great book that talked about the battle where the Star Spangle Banner was written. It talked about the flag that Francis Scott Key was looking at, how the flag was made, and described the meaning of the words of the song on a level kids could understand. Of course we talked about presidents, who had been assassinated, who was the president longest, who was president for the shortest period of time, all sorts of presidential trivia. This was followed by my insisting on learning about some important first ladies and learning there have been fifty two first ladies, which I found interesting. We learned the smallest state, the first state (Delaware), the largest state, and the last state. To be honest Rowan is still trying to grasp what a state vs a city is, so who know if any of that stuck with him. I was pleasantly surprised about how much American history and general facts they had learned in school as well.

Last week the boys started swim lessons, nothing to do with America, but it's what we were doing. Zane is great swimmer and doesn't need lessons. His level is really just working on various strokes and really just a way for him to get some exercise and get to swim while Rowan is learning how to actually swim. Both boys did great, through Rowan is still struggling to tread water. I feel like if he could just have a little bit more body fat it might help.

 Thatcher was by far the most stylish brother poolside and was none to happy with not being able to get in the water.

Swim lessons were called off due to rain on Tuesday so we went to the book store instead. We got the brand new Mo Willems book which I didn't even know was coming out. We got some a book about the statue of liberty and we got our Where in Edmond is Waldo cards. It's a city wide scavenger hunt for Waldo and if you find twenty of the twenty five Waldos you get entered into a drawing for prizes. It's also a fun way to find new local business, throw them some business, and have some outings on blazing hot days.





 First stop was our favorite cookie place for USA cookies!!

 The boys made volcanos one day, mainly because they wanted to do science experiments, but also because we had read about how Hawaii was formed and they thought this was a great American activity. Sure kids, whatever you want to think.

Is Waldo an American phenomenon? He's wearing red, white, and blue so I'm claiming him as our own. Here's our second Waldo location, at the bouncy house place.

If you were wondering if it took Thatcher a solid hour to get into a bouncy house, the answer is a resounding yes. It took an hour and lots of encouragement from his brothers, but we can do hard things, and he climbed right into a sharks mouth! USA USA USA!!!

Nothing is more American than baseball. We watch the Cardinals pretty  much every night and last week Zane got his third place trophy for the Lake Monster's spring season. They went from winning one game to a third place finish, which is amazing.

I had signed up to work on the 4th for holiday pay, but ended up getting cancelled. The big boys suited up in their Scout gear to go walk in the parade while T and I enjoyed the air conditioning. Turns out they were at the beginning of the parade and T and I could have probably gone and watched. Oh well!

Somewhere under this huge flag are my little scouts.

The evening of the 4th we had our second patriotic party of the summer. All the decorations from Zane's birthday were still up, we got the party hats and flags back out, turned on PBS's A Capital Fourth, ate the all American meal, and celebrated this beautiful country.

Of course we sang all our favorite patriotic songs, stood for the National Anthem, and whistled along to Stars and Stripes Forever.

In the evening we did a few of our own little fireworks out front then watched an amazing show of fireworks from our pirate ship in the backyard. This could not be farther from my 4th of July experience as a kid. Growing up we spent the day at the lake then went into Okeene, surrounded by cousins we only saw one a year, to watch a small town firework show. However, I loved it. I loved all the neighbors being outside, shooting off fireworks, doing sparklers, and being a part of neighborhood, which I never experienced as a child. I could do without the fireworks going on until 2 am and the almost burning down of our house that happened later that night, but yeah you can't win them all.

Zane is one hundred percent nine years old. He lit fireworks this year and could not get enough of it. Time is going by so fast.

 USA week was full of lots of celebrations and not so many learning activities, but yeah it was a good time.