Weekly Wrap-Up: Third and Fourth Grades, Check!

We wrapped up our school year this week, sort of.  I say "sort of" because we didn't complete everything I'd originally planned for, but that's okay.  Summer swung into session without consulting my schedule, and we got caught up in the (fun) fray.

Swim team practices switched to mornings this week; my neighborhood's summertime-women's-Tuesday-morning Bible study began; Tiny Girl had two riding lessons, also switched to a much earlier time (at the barn by 7:45 AM); there was a mock swim meet one morning, which also began early; the girls read their books every day; the piano recital on Tuesday evening, which went very well (yippee!); and we were in the thick of things with playdates and pooldates.  Whew!

We did, however, manage to complete our story of Theseus from Kingsley's The Heroes; and we are almost finished with Dinae Stanley's biography of Leonardo da Vinci.  We did not finish all of the chapter on spinning machines from Great Inventors and their Inventions, but I don't know if we will.  Neither of my children enjoyed this selection very much, which is unusual for our Ambleside Online books.  I'll re-visit this in the fall and see what inventors we should really not miss, e.g., Eli Whitney.

Our garden continues to flourish.  I guess.  I'm not such a green thumb.  Here's what it looks like now:

Himself and the girls installed the chicken wire barrier after Jasper leapt into the garden and trampled several carrot and tomato seedlings.  The carrots recovered, somewhat; only two tomato seedlings survived.  So I broke down and purchased two tomato plants for our garden, since our two seedlings are so tiny I doubt will enjoy any produce from them.  We already have two small tomatoes growing, much to the girls' delight.

We now have twelve cucumber plants thriving:

And eight or nine watermelon plants:

I've made plans with a friend to share our plants, since our small space can't hold all these!  Miss Priss asked that I include a photo of the flowers she selected for the garden, so here 'tis:

The basil, zinnias, and hollyhocks have taken off, too.  Perhaps we'll share those as well.  I also spent quite some time deadheading and gently pruning our Knockout rosebushes.  Those things are so prolific that deadheading is a major project!  The mophead hydrangeas are blooming, too.  When I'm out walking in the neighborhood, I admire other folks' flowers and make plans for what I'd like to plant in the fall.  I'd better write these down or I'm sure to forget!

Happy summer!