Last glimpses of summer, Goodbye August

School started this week, but before I can post about all that excitement, I need to wrap up our summer.

Here are some glimpses of our August experiences:

We've enjoyed swimming at our neighborhood pool with friends. The pool is planted in the middle of a large neighborhood park that no one really visits, since it's nestled deep in the country. It's always very quiet and peaceful. The pool is under several ancient oak trees, so there is always plenty of shade for these hot summer days. We pack along snacks and spend hours enjoying the company of our good friends. I am so grateful for the blessing of good friends, the type of friends that always inspire us to improve. It's such a treasured friendship!

Sarah and Matthew and Daniel have spent many days this summer building up biking stamina. Each day they eagerly packed sunscreen, ice water, snacks, and my cell phone into a bag and would head to the park. Sarah's goal was to ride 10 miles per day, and she met that goal almost every day for the last 2 weeks of summer. She was quite proud of her accomplishment.

Each week Nathan has been teaching the Big Kids an electronics class. He's always been blessed with a gift for teaching well, and I love listening in on the lessons.

He teaches them a simple concept about electricity each week then they play with a hands-on illustration of the concept. Earlier when they learned about magnetic fields and electron movement, he let them experiment with a huge tub of iron filings and magnets to explore the direction and power of magnetic fields.

This month they built a motor together after learning the principles of electricity generation with magnets. They really enjoyed playing with the motor afterwards. I LOVE the fact that they get to learn such neat subjects from their dad! What neat memories.

Another week Nathan brought home a bag full of old hard drives that were being discarded at work. The kids eagerly explored them as they dismantled each one piece by piece. As each new part was revealed, Nathan taught them what it was and how it worked. They were so interested with the design and function of each part. They really enjoyed harvesting out the most fascinating pieces and begged him to bring home more.

They collected all the powerful hard drive magnets and combined them with scrap wood to create a large marble run that mounts on the fridge. I'll post pictures of it later.

Our Destination Imagination team is up and running again. We started meeting a couple weeks before school started. This year our team named themselves the Fire Phoenixes, and they've chosen to compete in the service-based challenge for the first time. They are to design and carry out a service project that meets a community need. So they decided to do a fundraiser for the Liberty Hill Public Library to help raise funds for a new building. Their fundraiser is a community event they call the Fairy Tale Fest, and we are in the planning stages right now. Sarah and Matthew appeared before the Park Board to answer questions from board members and get approval for the event.

They'll be learning a lot this year about community relations and marketing as they work on this project. It'll be an adventure full of new experiences!

We also had a month filled with doctor's appointments for Sarah, which usually means an hour of driving each way to the downtown office. We pack a picnic lunch and make a day of it. The specialists are located less than a mile from the Children's Museum, so we spent a few afternoons playing and exploring the Thinkery when her appointments were over.

This is a really fun Water Piano, where each water spout plays a different note when you block the hole. Sarah and Matthew worked together to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It's VERY messy and we always get drenched playing this thing, but it's irresistible.

We relished the last few days of summer, lazily drifting on the tire swing with good books for companions or quietly sitting in the pasture petting goats who are eager for a good rub. There was a flurry of activity hunting down the last school supplies on our lists, meeting new teachers, and preparing for a new school year. The three Big Kids are all attending a charter school this year, called Founder's Classical Academy. It's located in a different town and is quite a long drive to reach, but I'm very hopeful that it will be a good year for them. (Except I'm very skeptical about any benefit from learning Latin- I think dead languages aren't useful unless one majors in Ancient Texts or a few Fine Arts majors, which is highly unlikely anyway. I'd much rather they learned a living language like Spanish, German, or Mandarin. But Latin? When will they EVER use that? End rant.)

We also enjoyed our traditional Back-To-School feast the night before the first day of school, and I'll post about that next. It's rather like a  holiday in our house, and it was such fun to prepare for it!

Tonight after the kids were in bed I sang hymns to them for a lullaby. The house was still as they listened to my voice, and I enjoyed singing for them very much. They took turns requesting their favorite hymns, then I picked some of my personal favorites. It was such a wonderful way to end the day, and I love inviting the Spirit into my home with uplifting music. I cherish the feeling of peace it brings, and welcome it.