Challenger Sports Soccer Camp

Last Winter I had a really fun opportunity presented to me for a soccer camp during the summertime. Summer is 7 and she loves soccer! I knew this would be perfect for her and I jumped at the chance to do this for her! She loves being active and being around other people and the hot weather. I knew everything about this experience would put her in her element!

Originally scheduled the June session, for 1 week and chose half days. I wasn't sure if a full day would be too long for my 7 year old and just decided to stick with a three-hour session. Obviously, this darn pandemic had different plans for all of us and I didn't know how this would impact soccer camp, but a short time later we got an update that the first session was cancelled and we got switched to the August session. Luckily that worked for us as far as our schedule, because our schedule was pretty empty, other than going to the lake!

Before our session, Challenger Sports sent Summer this super cool jersey and she was excited to wear it the first day of camp! She also got a t-shirt and a ball on the first day when she met her coaches, Callie and Elise.

Challenger Sports, the largest soccer camp company in North America is coming to a community near you and bringing over 30 years of coaching experience. Their international staff will work with your players to teach a fun, technical and tactical curriculum that's filled with training sessions from five of the world's leading soccer nations.

Challenger's International Soccer Camp offers instructional camp programs for all age and ability levels! The TinyTykes program, ages 2-5, provides fundamental soccer activities, games, and stories; designed to enhance technical skills along with physical and social development.

The Half-Day Camp, ages 5-16, is the most popular program and will provide 3 hours of skill development, games, challenges and competitions each day. The Full-Day Camp, ages 8-18, is a 6-hour program filled with developmental practices, games, competitions and challenges.

Register now for Challenger's International Soccer camp and get a free international soccer ball, t-shirt, poster, player evaluation and access to TopYa!'s Juggling Club sampler! Register 30 days before camp and qualify for a free International Game Jersey! https://www.challengersports.com/international_soccer/ #ChallengerSports #ChallengerSoccerCamps

They started the day by exercising, doing drills, games and had so much fun! It was a super hot week! They gave time for tons of water breaks to make sure the kids were well hydrated!

Because of the pandemic they had markers on the ground so the kids knew which area was theirs. That way they keep their distance from one another. They wore masks when they were in a closer range group. But mostly they were distanced and playing soccer and just having fun!

My girl loved her time with Challenger Internation soccer camp and will definitely do it again! She learned so much while having fun, which is the most important thing when you are 7!

And her coach, Elise, was awesome! She was so nice, knowledgable, and so easy for the kids to get along with! Summer just adored her! Elise had tons for drills and games for the kids to do to work on their soccer skills!

If you are in need of a soccer camp for your kiddos, check out Challenger International Soccer camps. I am so happy with how they managed everything and would definitely use them again!

The Graduate

I feel like just yesterday I was sharing your birth story. But now, here we are.  You've been preparing for this for the past 12 years. It's finally your year. So many fun things to come such as senior sunrise, homecoming, senior sunset, Prom, end of year bbq, signing the rock, the senior all-nighter, your Navy swear-in at MEPS, your 18th birthday and graduation. This is for you. You're the graduate.

We should have probably known that something was up last fall when you crawled out of bed at 5 am to go watch the sunrise with the rest of the class of 2020 and the clouds didn't let it happen. No senior sunrise? Bummer, but that's okay. So many more events to come.

I will never forget the day the governor announced that classes were cancelled. I was helping in Tyler's class, doing an art project, and his teacher pulled the press conference up on his laptop.  We listened as we were told that after Monday there would be no classes. I remember him and I looking at each other, and saying, What does this mean for all these kids? He also had a senior at the rivalry high school, and what will happen with graduation? What will happen with the Navy swear in? So many unanswered questions.

That next week we navigated into new unchartered waters. Thankfully you had a pretty laid back schedule your senior year, but if I never have to smell the smell of clay in your bedroom again, that will be okay with me. Watching you build your clay statue in your bedroom is something I never thought would happen. But here I am watching Freddy Kreuger come to life.

The day you left for MEPS was one of the longest days of my life. Not hearing from you for over 24 hours had happened before. You've stayed with friends and family plenty of times. But this time was different. Today a life-altering plan was being made and I was not there to see or hear what was happening.  When you came through the door it was such a relief and the moment you told me you got the rate you wanted made me so incredibly proud of you. I really don't know if I have had a prouder moment than that.

Two weeks after MEPS you turned 18. Of course, we had plans for a party that had already been long ago shot down, but that doesn't mean we aren't celebrating! It was just a little bit of a smaller celebration with Bailey and Grandpa.

Now we are down to the last month of the school year. What is going to happen with Graduation? Do we send out announcements? Do we plan a graduation party? Will we be able to celebrate at all? Thankfully we live in the school district that we do because they did everything they could to make sure you and your classmates felt celebrated. Which honestly, isn't easy with 400 students!

A sign was added to our front yard and you waited for 5 hours in line to get free Krispy Kreme donuts:

All the senior's names were added to the field:

You still got to sign the rock:

And have your senior alumni breakfast, sort of....

They made sure that not only did you have an in-person graduation: 

And your friends got to ride along as you did for theirs: 

But one that was broadcasted for friends and family to see as well: 

And if you'd like to watch graduation over again, find it HERE

Finally, after things hadn't really settled down, we decided to just do a graduation party. Because you need to be celebrated. Sure, fewer people came and it wasn't spent hugging and standing in close quarters. But we are thankful for those that came to show you they care and are proud of you.

After all, you are The Graduate.

3rd Grade Art A Spring Path

It's been a little while since I have stopped by to say hi. You'd think right now I'd have all the time in the world to work on my blog when in reality, life is pretty busy.  So I wanted to finally share this project, 3rd Grade Art - A Spring Path, that I helped Tyler's class with.

It's bittersweet because this actually ended up being the last project I got to do with Tyler's class. I am really grateful that his teacher let me come into the class and do some paintings with them. We did some fun paintings this year and I hope the kids enjoyed it! And as always, DecoArt made it all possible as they supplied ALL of the paint I needed to do these projects with 23 kids!

I found this 3rd grade art A Spring Path on Pinterest.  StepByStepPainting.net provides an easy breakdown to help kids (and adults!) make a beautiful picture. I did change up the colors a little bit so I didn't have quite so many shades, as that gets more complicated than we need it to be with 23 kids!

And as you can see from my picture below I still used quite a few colors. But the kids do great at following directions and then also making it there own.

I started with sketching out a small part for the sun, adding the bright background and creating the path. After I added one layer for the path I went over it with another shade of grey to add some dimension. Then I added green for grass. It isn't very easy to tell, but there is a second green that I added as well so it gives it a pop of color in the grass.

Next, I added the black for the trees. Once the trees were mostly dry I wanted to add some extra color. I decided to add brown into them to create some bark on the trees.

Last, I used three different pinks to create the leaves. I added leaves all over trees and then mixed some of the colors for fun to make additional colored flowers.

As you can see below the kids made it their own by added some birds and a tree stump.

I think they all did a great job!

This was some fun 3rd grade art! A Spring Path was a great way to end of year!

It really was a fun day and a fun project to work on with a group of 3rd graders! They are super fun and creative!

If you like these, check out a few of our other projects from the year! Winter's Night, Tree Ornaments, Fall Leaves

Perspective Landscape - 3rd grade Art

For February's 3rd grade art project I decided to change it up a little. This time I decided to skip the paint and use colored pencils, which just made the project a little quicker because we weren't waiting for any paint to dry. But the kids still all had a lot of fun and seemed to enjoy this perspective landscape.

Teaching kids perspective can be interesting because they get it, but getting them to actually put it onto paper is a little confusing. Why would we want the lines to be close together at the top but nowhere close at the bottom? Some kids struggled just a little to get it, But I think in the end it all came together.

One thing I do when I am preparing these art days is make a picture ahead of time. I like to take a finished picture with me that day because it gets them excited for the project. But then I also use a second piece of paper and walk through it with them step by step. I used the picture above to walk through step by step.

We started with making the line going across the paper from left to right. Then we made the road, drew the mountains, added trees and clouds.

You can see that the kids really make it their own by adding the sun, faces to their clouds, deer. Some even added birds and a river.

Several of the pictures I have done with the kids this year I found on Pinterest, yet they actually came from artprojectsforkids.org

They have a lot of really awesome projects that kids will love to do!

I think the kids all did a great job with their perspective landscape drawings!

If you want to see some of the other projects the kids have worked on, check out Winter's Night, Tree Ornaments, Fall Leaves and Witches Feet.

Winter's Night - 3rd Grade Art Project

This past Friday I spent a couple of hours in Tyler's class helping with another art project. I have really enjoyed helping each month and this month, with all of the snow we have gotten I felt that this Winter's Night - 3rd Grade Art project was perfect.

When I first found my inspiration on Pinterest I showed Tyler and asked if he thought it would be a good one. He said it looked hard, but I really have confidence in these kids and felt like they could do it!

I turned to my trusty DecoArt paint for the win! They were so amazing and provided me with all the paint I needed to do monthly paintings in Tyler's class this year, which was awesome!!

I also got a super cool product because I knew I wanted to do some sort of "snow" project over the winter, and this SNO-TEX was so fun!

We started with making a curved line across the bottom area that would end up being our snowy hills, and a circle in the middle that would be the moon. I then used the blue to paint the rest of the background. And next, I added a very thin layer of the sno-tex using a popsicle stick.

One tip I would have for the sno-tex is to drop a pile of it onto your project and spread it around a bit thick, but then use the edge of your popsicle stick to scrape off the excess until just a thin layer is left.

I used mainly white for the moon, however, I did add a small amount of grey around the edges of the moon. I also used only white for the trees and snowflakes.

With the snowflakes, I used the edge of my foam brush to make the snowflakes. This proved to be harder for the kids as they tend to push down on the brushes rather than be light as a feather.

The snow texture is so much fun and gives the picture an extra fun dimension. The kids seemed to struggle with spreading is a little, but it wasn't too bad. And the drying time was pretty fast- within a half-hour or so.

I think this was the hardest painting the kids have done so far, and we had a few struggles, but I think they still did really great! You can check out our Witches Feet, Fall Leaves and Ornaments to see the other projects we've done.

What do you think? How did they do?

Winter's Night - 3rd Grade Art Project

Tree Ornaments - 3rd Grade Art

The holidays may have come and gone but I still wanted to share this super cute project that I did with Tyler's grade class just before the holiday break.  Tree Ornaments were the perfect thing for these third graders to take home to their parents for Christmas and they really had fun making them.

I started by heading to my dad's house. He always has tree limbs around and he let me know he had a few he thought would be the perfect size for what I was wanting to make. And he was right. Two different branches that were going to work great.

Next, I turned to my trusty DecoArt paint. They have been great to me this year, providing all the paint I have used in our projects this year. If you haven't, check out our Fall Leaves project and the Witches Feet we've already made. Between the paint and the paint markers, DecoArt had me covered!

Next, I did a quick, thin coat of paint. These are both super basic and simple for the kiddos! Once the paint was dry,  you can then add the face. That took a little bit with the kids because their coat of paint was thicker than mine.

After the paint was dry the kids each picked either the twine or the string, then I cut off small sections and tied knots for them to add to their ornaments.

I inserted the string, unknotted side first and just pulled it through the loop to tie it around the wood.

The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun making the tree ornaments! Only one of the kids made the Santa ornament and the rest all chose snowmen and they turned out really cute!

Tree ornaments turned out to be a great third-grade art project!

How cute did they turn out?

What are some of your favorite projects to do with your kids?