Haiku

We had dinner with our good friends, the Athertons, the other night. Their kids are a few years older than ours and I always learn something from them.

Their kids get a list of chores every day during the summer and are required to do a little bit of school work every week day. To keep the brain working and give some structure to their day. Then, the rest of their day is free to do whatever. Love this idea!

I've found that when we are busy, the kids are happy--but when they have a whole day of free time, they get grouchy and don't know what to do.

So, yesterday I started a list of chores (empty the dishwasher, feed the frogs, etc.) and gave them each a writing assignment. Madison's assignment was to write a poem about summertime. She wrote a haiku--no doubt because it's the shortest poem. Here it is:

Summer vacation
Kids have a lot of freedom
There is no homework