It’s been busier than a one armed paper hanger, but it’s been fun. We are moving constantly trying to make every day count. Some of the kids are really tired; that’s why Thursdays are quiet catch up days. No stress today.

We are making great progress with our swimming. We are beginning to graduate children from the shallow end to the swimming end. This week we saw the following kids move up: Kamden, William, David, Emma, Kanin, Ian, Cole, Addie, and Bryce. These kids are learning to swim in deep water. They jump into deep water to a teacher, and they swim back to the wall. It is all very supervised and all very safe, and the kids love it and they are really swimming.

Our youngest board jumper is Alex H. He flies off the board at supper sonic speed and swims anywhere in the pool and is four. Cole is going to be our next board swimmer. He’s a fish.

In school we are moving closer to our goal of actually knitting something we can use. The kids are having trouble with the yarn and getting it twisted and knotted all over their work, so Monday was a de-tangle day. We have some new additions to our knitting things today; I think the kids will find this amusing. We have a couple of new projects to do as well. We will be sewing t-shirts and decorating flip flops in the next two weeks.

Mrs. St. Louis is teaching a lot of painting techniques to the kids twice a week. They seem to really enjoy it. They are experimenting with colors and the mix of colors. So far we have used tempera paint, finger paint and water colors.

Miss Amy is directing our reading program for the summer. She is using the idea of superhero and comic books to sustain the children’s interest. The children will invent their own superhero and design a story to go around him or her. It’s all very read-exciting!

We’ve been baking as time allows with the bigger girls. We’ve made chocolate health cake, banana cake, brownies, and something else that eludes me. The kids are learning about what makes what happen in the baked product. We are talking about healthy choices and why one ingredient is a better choice than another. Today we will talk about spices.

Last week’s trip to St. Louis was one of our best field trips. It was very long, but well orchestrated and the kids seemed to see a lot and enjoy it. We were able to see some animals we had not seen before, and one of the most enjoyable things was the hippo pen. It can be viewed from three different points. The interior point – under the cover – was the best. There was a glass partition you could see through, and the fish were viewable through the glass. Apparently, the fish love hippo poop, so the kids got a big charge out of that. The hippo swam right by us, and if it were not for the glass, we could have touched him. He was only inches away. I never realized how pink they are! This hippo seemed to love to entertain, because he swam by several times.

We got to see a baby elephant who is still nursing. The elephant was really cute.

The zoo is set up like a walk through the jungle and then by chance, you see or don’t see the animals. It’s the best zoo I’ve ever been to.

This week – Friday – we are off to see WallE. We have traded this for some of the Freedom Festival because there is so little for our little kids to do down there on Friday morning. They wait and wait and wait and see a few planes. We thought on a very hot day, WallE would be a better choice. Then we will picnic, and then go out to the air port to see the planes, provided there is something to see.