Summer Fun and Homework

We've spent our first few days of summer vacation . . .

. . . selecting and sharing end-of-school-year treats . . .

. . . swimming at the YMCA . . .

. . . enjoying free ice cream at Chick-fil-A, courtesy of the library's summer reading program . . .

. . . building a train track . . .

. . . and doing homework.  Wait, what?  

I told my three school-age kids that I wanted to help them keep their minds sharp and improve their writing skills this summer, so I'm giving them a writing assignment each weekday.  Anna asked to write emails to family members, and Daniel and Joy requested that I come up with daily writing prompts for them, such as "Research why Maryland is called The Old Line State" and "Imagine you are attacked by a giant pizza; how do you defeat it?"  That last one was inspired by a dream I had in college.  Tip: Don't stab a pizza because it doesn't have a heart.  Your best bet is to slice it in half, rendering it immobile.

Joy and Daniel also asked me to give them a math problem every day.  I found lots of geometry problems online for Joy, but Daniel prefers word problems and I've ended up making those up myself.  You know, things like "How many hours are there in a week?" and "Multiply Joy's age by Anna's age, then subtract three and divide by Daniel's age."

All of this is probably more work for me than them, but I hope it will at least help Daniel with his writing assignments once school starts again, since he tends to find writing intimidating.