Summer Goals Recap

 So now that school is back in session I'm calling it the end of our Summer Goals. Here is how we did:

-Garden and Walls "glow up": Done! I realized we could have bought more for our front garden, but the front is definitely cleaned up. Larry even had time to do the side of the garage and the back yard rock areas. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I'm excited to do even more next year. We also hung up some wall décor. I still have to get pictures printed, but we have stuff up on our walls now (not EVERYTHING I wanted to hang, but 90% of it)

-Swimming for all kids: Mostly done. Cara was able to pass off the first level of swimming. The second level she had to do twice and she passed some things, needed to work on others, but both times had different things marked as a pass so I feel she does well enough. Gwen passed the first level of the preschool class and is now obsessed with jumping in, on her own, without floaties. She loves putting her head under water and is so confident. I LOVE how much she progressed this Summer. Lucy passed off the first level of the preschool class as well. She loved doing the bobs, but I don't think they practiced jumping in enough. She now is confident in swimming on her own with her floaties, but she's too nervous to be in the pool without them. She isn't AS nervous to put her face in the water either, so that's a plus, but I wish she had learned more. Pierce just loves being in the water and will swim on his own with floaties ALL the time. I think he'll love doing lessons next year. We didn't get around to going to Cowabunga Bay (mostly because of my injury though). 

-Wheels goals: Done (mostly)! Cara is a rock star on her bike without training wheels. She caught onto it so quickly and has loved riding her bike any chance she can. She loved picking out her new bike. Gwen is definitely comfortable on the bike with training wheels now. She was too nervous to try without training wheels, but I completely understand and maybe next year we can try. Neither Lucy or Pierce ever had any interest in the balance bike and we didn't even attempt roller skating (that got moved to next year). I am happy with how this one ended.

-Cara's tying shoes and reading challenges: DONE! The reading 500 pages was almost too easy, she ended up doing this twice (so she read 1,000 pages). She had NO issue with that all. I told her maybe next summer we'll make it a 1,200 or 1,500 goal. The tying shoes one I wasn't sure we were going to accomplish, I kept working with her on the jump rope (I read that was easier to train on first because it's bigger and then once that was done you can move on to shoes). We tried over and over, she'd almost fully get it, but need help on little bits so I wasn't sure she was ready for shoes. One day I mentioned to Larry how we really needed to work on that one still so he grabbed the jump ropes and sat down with her. She figured it out after about 2 tries with him. So I congratulated her and made a comment about doing it on shoes. One day she brought shoes down and said "mom! I tied them all by myself!" So I had her untie them and try again, and she got it! She was so proud of herself and I was proud of her for trying it on all on her own.

-Gwen pumping on the swing: Done! She did this all on her own as well. Larry mentioned to me that he was out doing yard work and saw her doing it so the next time I went out I told her to show me and, yeah, she just had it down. No practice, nothing. She just knew.

-Lucy's bug phobia: Mostly done! She still gets a little nervous around bugs, but it's LIGHTYEARS better than how she used to be. I think Larry having the couple months off and being in the yard and showing them bugs really helped. We never got any books from the library or went to a museum, but it's good she didn't NEED those to help and she's feeling much better.

-My playground once a week goal: Kind of done. I didn't do this EVERY week. Turns out when it's REALLY hot the playground is the last place you want to go. I did take them to the splash pad a couple times. We did check out our new playground once that was done as well. August I couldn't do this at all with my injury, so I feel bad this one didn't work out as well, but the kids were happy the couple times we did go out and I felt I got some good time with the kids this Summer.

Overall, I'm glad we made these goals. Seasonal goals seem to be the way to go. When I find something I wish we did more of, I add it to the list and plan it for the next season it can be done and we crossed off SO much this year. I highly recommend doing this!