Zoo Boy's summer

I've been getting a lot of questions about Zoo Boy -- folks are curious as to what The Boy has been doing while J has been so absorbed with the musical and dance camp.

Other than perfecting his one-eyebrow-raised expression (as seen here), he has had a pretty fun Boy-centric time during dance camp going to places that his brother no longer has much interest in, such as playgrounds and children's museums. He's also spent a lot of time at the library, and eating lunch out at the local diner (one of his very favorite things to do). During the weeks of Oliver! he helped out quite a bit, running lines with J every day, singing the 2nd part of duets for him, and painting set pieces as needed.


However, mostly he's been doing this. A lot of nothing. Which is exactly as it should be when you're 7. He's having the classic "Huck Finn" type summer, running barefoot and wild, doing whatever he feels inspired to do. He and Joy (one of our Collies) have become real good friends this summer. And he's developed a sense of independence that he's not had up until now. Prior to this summer he needed to be with somebody else to feel comfortable. Now he's happy striking out on his own, enjoying his own company, discovering the freedom of doing things his own way. Again, exactly what you should be doing when you're 7.

Meanwhile, he's also been working on OT goals and small motor skills, as usual. We've kept up our therapy schedule for the summer, and he continues to make strides with that. I've also had him working a bit on coin recognition and counting skills, after having discovered that he didn't know the difference between the coins (and it was bothering him, so he wanted help with it).

He discovered a series of Scooby Doo chapter books at the library and has been working his way through those at rest time. Every several days we go back to exchange them for some he hasn't read yet. He'll be through them all by the end of the summer.

Here he is decoding a secret message. There's been a lovely natural blend of imaginative play and contracted/concentrated play from him this summer. It's cool to see him be totally absorbed in a project for a period of time, then watch him transition seamlessly to something expansive like jumping around the house pretending he's a ninja warrior.

One thing we've fallen behind on during the past two weeks is handwriting -- he's not had any handwriting practice at all while J was in dance camp, because I knew that he would be majorly resistant to doing anything associated with "school work" while J was off having fun (and honestly, I don't blame him!). It may have been a mistake, he tends to forget how to make certain letters without regular practice, but I guess we'll see what happens when we sit down to it today!

And of course, we've gone to the lake every day after dance camp (when the weather has been agreeable, which has been the vast majority of the time). That darned beach closes in just a couple of week, it's hard to imagine that the summer is that close to being over....

We're set to start back to our full school rhythms the day after labor day. In the meantime, we've got our summer rhythms to keep us grounded, and a lot of socialization time planned with friends that we just haven't seemed to be able to find time to see this summer. And The Map Man has another week of vacation to take the week before we start back up again, which for us will be just one great big week full of nothing before we pull up our bootstraps and get cracking again!

Quick computer update: it's touch and go. Some days I don't seem to have much trouble. Some days I do. It seems the hotter and more humid the day, the more troublesome it is. I'm limping along with it as best as I can for now. But if I suddenly disappear for an extended period, you know why.