Last week we took a family vacation to Toronto. We all loaded up our luggage into Berta’s new car and hit the road.
We spent the weekend in Johnstown so that Berta’s family could celebrate Abby’s graduation. There was a nice cake and pizza dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday, we stayed for dinner then headed out to Toronto.
The kids had a lot of summer vacation. I think it was pretty filled this year. We had a couple of project weeks, where we organized some activities and research for the kids each week at a time. These weeks were occasionally interrupted by holidays, trips to the beach with the grandparents, organized day camps, and play dates with friends.
In the beginning of August, I shuttered my consulting practice and took on a full-time position with ownCloud. I spent a week in Berlin at the yearly developer conference, and got to meet a lot of my remote co-workers. So far, the work has been constant, interesting, and rewarding.
The kids are basically home on their own this summer. Nana is there to keep them out of my hair three days a week, but apart from that, they're on their own to figure out what they're going to do all day, be it outside or playing games indoors. But this undirected summer "activity" selection more often than not ends up with the kids on the couch staring at the screen, with or without a game controller in hand.
This summer, we wanted to give them something to focus on, maybe attract their attention and learn something. We wanted to provide them a direction for discovery, and not necessarily some mandatory activities to try to force them to enjoy. Obviously, there are chores to complete. And there are some activities that are mandatory for this discovery, but I think we've worked out a good plan.