Well, I have not been posting much because May has just been a crazy month. I didn't expect it to be but it has turned out that way. Here are a few highlights:
- I was on the board of a small non profit for 8 years and this spring we closed our doors. Our final meeting was at the beginning of the month and now it's just a few details. Our dedicated staff trained over 300 HVAC techs that helped their families lead better lives - we also ran a day care at one point but that closed it's doors a while ago. I did spend one crazy summer running their elementary summer day camp!
- One of my favorite local non profits is gearing up for their summer program and they are building character using the acronym GROW (Grit, Responsibility, Optimism and Wonder) with their elementary and middle school students. They asked me to pull together some short stories that help display these characteristics. I will be doing a quick training on reading aloud with the staff and then handing over some type of read aloud packet for them to use with our inner city friends over the summer.
Please let me know in the comments if you have suggestions for short (5 - 7 minute) read aloud stories. So far I am pulling from 50 Famous Stories, 30 More Famous Stories, The Little House Series and probably some of the Bill Bennett compilations! I am looking for more stories about wonder -that's kind of a tough one.
- We are finishing off our school year. Honestly, we just have a week of the "academic work" left but a lot more reading aloud to do. That's fine though - we enjoy reading aloud and will finish up D'Aulaire's Norse Myths (my hubby and I are watching The Vikings - so it's come in really handy) and Robin Hood. We also have lots of car trips planned this summer so I am trying to figure out what we should listen to on tape (I can't read in a car). Any suggestions for a 7 and 4 yo who are GREAT book listeners? It's also been reasonable temperatures outside - mid 80s to low 90s - so we have been making excuses to get outdoors!
- Our church is moving into a permanent building over the next two weeks - in the middle of downtown! I am so excited! I am part of the team that is trying to get to know our neighbors through neighborhood walks and we're throwing a "welcome" party at the end of the month. A small affair with bouncy's, a petting zoo, food, a fire truck and mailers sent to 3000 homes - it should be fun. Pray for us!
- On top of that I am also co-registrar for Vacation Bible School (in early June). This weekend was our first day and 29 kids signed up. I think it's going to be a packed house.
- You might recall that I inherited an elementary school library. Well, it is homeschool book sale time around here so I am trying to organize everything for an upcoming sale on June 2nd at our CC location. If you are local - PLEASE come look at all the books. After getting about 6 boxes out of storage (I still need to pull the ones out of the garage) we are starting to get a grip on what we have (again).
Honestly, that isn't even everything - those are just the big things! If you are local and interested in any of these events they are all free and open to the public (well, free to browse the books - it will cost if you buy 'em). So, I haven't given up blogging - I just need to get some real world stuff done around here. Plus, we are in the midst of watching a season of Psyche - which is one of my favorite shows. Don't tell me about the ending - no spoilers! (We probably should be watching the Spurs - but we just don't). All of these things should be done by June 13th - so just a month to push through some crazy times.
James Herriot's Treasury for Children is wonderful and there's a great audio recording of it published by Macmillan audio. We have also really been enjoying listening to a recording of a collection of A.A. Milne's Pooh stories. The readers are superb and we've been listening over and over. Since you've been reading Norse myths, you might enjoy listening to the librivox recording of The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum. We had a great time with that here. (To give you some perspective the ages of my listening children are 8, 6 and 4.)
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