Friday, August 29, 2014

The Missing One

Where have you gone?
Why so soon?
I barely got to enjoy your presence.
Your softness. Your comfort and support.
Why did you disappear, leaving me so desperate?
I've searched for you, high and low.
To no avail.
You cannot be replaced. You have left me incomplete, desolate.
My drawer pines for you, the match.
One lone sock.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Camp Lavitt

This summer, we have 2 full weeks between camp and school. My 4 children are home with me while I attempt to work. We are going to go away the second week, but the first week is a real challenge because I have work to do. So I invented a strict but flexible schedule of activities to keep the children busy each day.
Each activity lasts for one hour and all the children must participate. If there is any fighting, the culprits will sit out for the remainder of that activity, Lunch and swim are a major part of the day!
We might have spent more money buying the toys, games, crafts and equipment for Camp Lavitt than it would have cost to send them to an after camp program!
I appreciate that the kids understand that they can entertain themselves at home, together (with supervision of course!) and without fighting.
We have activities that each of the children enjoy. When I say the schedule is flexible, I mean that if the kids are enjoying one activity, they can continue into the next hour, or if they choose to switch one day's plan with another, no problem, as long as they all agree.

Here is the sample schedule for Camp Lavitt:


On Friday, during baking, we were very productive! I of course supervised each child's recipe and Tzvi (5yo) and I worked together. In just one hour, we made 24 carrot muffins, 18 zucchini muffins from our home-grown zucchini, 2 pans of blonde brownies and 4 children's challah rolls. They were such a help with my Shabbos preparations!

Here are our baking results!


Looking forward to the rest of the week! I hope it goes smoothly!

TELL ME: What have you done to keep children entertained over the summer?
Come again!