Splash In The Summer

Sarah and Randy's last day of school was on Wednesday. They have been promoted to 4th grade with very good grades. We are so proud of them. Three years ago the City of Naples developed a beautiful park not too far from my home. It has several soccer fields, baseball fields, a wilderness walk path and a nice water park. When it first opened I invited Chris ( paternal grandmother) to bring the grandkids for a day in the park. Today will be our 3rd. annual water park day. It's a nice way for her and I to catch up on family stuff and spend time together with Sarah and Randy. The first year Randy was not tall enough to go on the high water slide but last year he was. This year they will be watched but are old enough to do some of the stuff by themselves. We do the lazy river together so they can really splash us as they push their grandmothers into the water traps. Gotta go.... Its time to have some fun.....

Ten Ground Rules at Grandma De's Summer Country Camp

I have written 10 Ground Rules that hopefully will help with some of the grandkids short comings or bad habits like yelling instead of speaking softly, not using their manners, eating in the bedroom etc. I have also added social rules : like Thou Shall compliment at least one person (more is better) everyday. It makes for a happy day for at least two people.

The rules will be posted in their bedroom. We shall see how it goes.

Randy's book idea

Karen and the kids came to visit yesterday. Randy taught me how to navigate a little around the powerpoint program. They went swimming for a little while and after swimming he decided he wanted to start writing a cook book using some of Papa De's recipes. He asked me for a binder, thank God I had a new one to give him. He then proceed to poke 3 holes to the side of a legal pad sheets of paper.

He started with Papa De's homemade Italian Salad dressing. It was so cute watching him asking papa questions and writing down the ingredients and instructions.

Writing a cook book might be a better idea for Randy instead of his autobiography. He is already interested in doing it for one and it is something that he can do with Papa while I work with Sarah on her autobiography.

I am going to cut food pictures out of some of our old cooking magazines to help Randy add a little color and interest to his cook book., or not, we shall see what he wants to do. I already explained to him that editing is an important part of writing a book. He has gotten off to a good start. He needs to develop it further. I am looking forward to working with him and Sarah on this project this summer.

Writing a book with the grandkids

I have been researching how I am going to get Sarah and Randy interested and excited about writing their autobiography. They are only 9 but they have a lot to write about. Both are very expressive and creative so it should not be so difficult.

I checked out a few websites about teaching kids to write and the best idea was to begin by developing a verbal story.

We are going to sit on the floor on pillows. ( They will have to help me get up later)
We will decide on a title. For example "My First Puppy"

To make it more fun I will have a basket with 9 items. We will each pick one item. The first person to begin the story will use the item chosen in some way in the story. When that person is finished, the person to the left will pick up the thread of the story using their selected item etc.

Since there is only 3 of us, and 9 items, we should complete the story in two rounds.

I am going to tape the exercise.

This exercise is just to stimulate their thinking and creative juices.

The autobiography will come later.