It occurred to me recently that I haven’t been doing much to teach Liv in an academic sense. She attended preschool last year—incredibly helpful and instructional—but I wanted to do more organized activities with her this summer. The true challenge, at least in my head, was whether I would make a worthy instructor. This, my friends, is a ridiculous challenge because my child performs for no man. She has read precisely one word (she sight read “book” back in January) and only recites the alphabet on random occasions. In fact, if you ask her what comes after E-F-G-H-I, she’ll say with a laugh, “joe” or “blueberry,” just to be funny. We discovered she could count to 20 last week while going for a walk on the University campus. Who knew?! She counts!

Enter thematic units. The idea was to create a week’s worth of activities around a central theme and incorporate math, reading, science, etc. The one week we’ve accomplished so far is Strawberry Week. It might be the only one we do the entire summer, but I hope I persevere and carry out a few more units before all is said and done. Liv and I spent time making a Strawberry Pretzel Salad the first day, then followed it up by a craft project the next. We thumbed through a book all about berries during the 2 hour+ of tornado warnings on evening, and then painted old t-shirts with strawberries the day after. The highlight of the week was a trip to Roca Berry Farm where we picked a large flat full of delightful and delicious berries—and Livia sampled half the number she picked. Only in this present day of germ phobia would one hear a child say (while pointing at mine), “Mom, LOOK! She’s eating the strawberries and they haven’t been washed!” Poor kid. He was probably the only child that day who wasn’t munching in the fields!

I suppose Strawberry Week still lives on. I finally made strawberry ice cream tonight, my first homemade batch of the summer, and it was all the more sweet because Liv and I made a fun memory together two weeks ago.