I know it has been a LONG time since the Car Full of Harmony was up and running. My apologies! I got a bit involved in some school projects and trying to make some meaningful lessons for my students, and by the time I was done with that each day, I was all technology-ed out.
However, it’s SUMMER! After taking a week or two off of online learning and just enjoying life getting up when we wanted and playing when we wanted, we are now getting into a schedule again. We tend to operate best on schedules. Since this will be a long summer without our usual swimming lessons, summer classes, camps, vacations, and other fun adventures, I’ve decided to create “Mommy Camp.” However, instead of spending 8 hours or more a day doing the same types of activities, I’m creating more of an hour of activities for each day on each idea.
Our first ‘camp’ has been Newspaper camp. The girls are going to be creating a (small) newspaper each week with the news from our house. They are responsible for brainstorming story ideas each week, writing their article, and adding photos to support their story. They have been super excited about this. We discussed how each story has to have a “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How” to it. We have practiced interviewing to put in direct quotes whenever possible to enhance our story telling. We’re just getting started, but as their editor, I am rather proud of their enthusiasm and work on it. I have not heard a groan yet, which is rare for a multi-day project!
Obviously with a 4th grader (oops, I mean going-into-fifth-grader) and a Kindergartner (oops, soon-to-be-first-grader), their writing styles will differ greatly. It has not been too hard to let them work at their level. It has been a great way for Wormy (my youngest) to get practice writing and forming ideas in a structured manner, and it has given Squid the opportunity to embellish her dramatic flair. I used Adobe Spark Post to create the paper itself, as I’m trying to learn a new skill as well.
The next camp we will be adding to our fun will be “Movie Camp.” I’m going to have the girls create different kinds of movies – YouTube demonstrations/reviews, TikTok, stopped animation, puppet shows, acting out their own story, and those crazy animation things you do on a pad of Post-it notes when you’re bored! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Since I don’t like to include the girls’ real names and works in my blog, here’s a picture of our cat eating the Cat Grass that was featured in Squid’s article!
Car Full of Harmony 
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