Summer Planning...

So as usual I have a lot of lofty goals for the summer for both me personally and our family/kids.  I'm sharing with you all because maybe then I will follow through on a few of them.

Personal- so you have heard it before, but summer goal would be to train for both Chicago and the mini-sprint triathlon in Oswego (August 7th), try to up my reading and avoid  watching all the reality crap t/v shows I do ( no real housewives of NY for me :)), and lastly try to enjoy the outdoors more (gardening, eating out side, entertaining outside and going places that require you to be outside- see below under fam).

Kids- Mason: READ, READ, READ.  he loves being read too, but is not as keen on reading out loud or learning how to read on his own.  I have asked for advice from one friend who is a teacher and is getting certification as reading specialist ( i think that's the title), my mother in-law the elementary school principal who has access to many resources, and Mason's Elementary school librarian.  I'm creating a work book of pages with writing exercises and now in the process of finding some math pages to tuck in with the reading and writing. Kate and Mason both have activities for the two of them I've found on the Color with leo site (colorwithleo.com) that's leonardo davinci .  They are activities that involve art in relation to different themes and artists. 

Family- I.C. park and Rec summer catalog has a page with all the iowa city park facilities around I.C.  I would like to make it a goal to try to get to as many of these parks as possible.  It would be fun to bike to as many of them as we could.  I would like to go camping, just the four of us, for our first time and possibly squeeze in a second outing before school starts.  Matt and I liked camping pre kids, but have really dropped off with camping since having Mason 6 years ago.  To go along with my theme in avoiding unnecessary junk TV I too would like to avoid junk tv for our family, now that doesn't include watching a good family movie with each other once in awhile :). 

We'll see how the above goes and what I really get accomplished.  In my search for summer reading ideas for the kids I came upon this blog  that seems right up my alley so I share it with you: http://readingyear.blogspot.com/  It has some great reading ideas that some of you who read my blog may be interested in.  Also, I recently wrote about the book Run Like a Mother.  One of my friends told me the two authors have a blog so check that one out too:  http://anothermotherrunner.com/.  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!