Summer Park Adventures- an intro

Well hello dear friends...here I am, actually writing a blog.

As the school year came to an end, I realized that I needed a sneaky way to get my now almost-Grade-1-er to keep practising his printing and drawing over the summer. Enter the "Scientific Examination of Abbotsfords Parks" project. My 5 year old, Caius, is so scientifically bent that I can sell almost anything by putting a 'scientific' spin on it. Doesn't want to eat something new? I tell him to experiment by taking a bite and using his senses to describe how it compares to other things he's eaten. Wants to give up when he's learning something new and can't figure it out? I tell him some scientists spend their whole lives working on theories and inventions and they never give up. So it seemed like a good idea to try it here too, as fine motor skills present a challenge to a boy who otherwise loooooves school. 'We' decided that we would try and get to as many of Abbotsford's Parks as we could this summer, and after each visit, we would record our findings in our Park Journals, including an illustration, the date, the name of the park, and a rank out of 10. (this is proving to be tricky. Today he wanted to give a park a bad mark and gave it a 1/1. Yeah, we're working on that concept).  At the end of the summer we're planning on charting out our 'data' and ranking the parks, etc.
Quick note:  If he finds out my intentions, not only is the gig totally up, but I'm gonna have a lotta 'splainin to do...:) So, yeah, don't tell him. Ha ha.