Family meeting

Last night my wife and I sat down with the kids to review the outline of the summer program. I think they are excited. Actually, I know that the idea of regular prizes makes them excited. I hope that the other aspects of the summer program make them excited as well. I told them that we could have sent them to some boring summer camp arranged by someone else but we thought they might want to have fun, so we came up with our own instead. A few years ago, I was an Assistant Coordinator for a summer program for children with Autism. So at least I have a little experience. There are five area's we plan to focus on for this years summer program. First-reading. There will be an expectation for the kids to read at their level for the summer to keep practicing the skills they have learned and improve their reading level. Second-writing. Each child will have opportunities to write daily journal entries as well as the option to do book reports and movie reviews. For the younger kids who don't know how to write, pictures depicting their activities will suffice. Third-physical activity. Everyone will be physically active for at least 1/2 hour. No sedentary lifestyle here. Fourth-household work. We already have a system of chores that seems to be working well so we will continue with that. This keeps the house clean and teaches good work ethic and respect for things we have. Fifth-web based learning. There will be age appropriate web sites designed for education such as dream box that will keep the kids actively thinking and working on multiple skills during the summer so they don't lose everything they learned. If nothing else, it should take away from the lazy days that are often summer and give some structure to our summer. There are also some awesome outings planned as well as 3 weeks of vacation and several camping trips. 4 days left of school, then the fun will begin.