Summer School Report Card

It is September 1^st…the official end to Riley’s “Summer Fun”! At this point school is looking mighty good to R. Little does he know that all the fun stuff we did at home over the summer is going to continue for-ev-ah. 

So how did we make out??? Well the first thing on our list was taking out the garbage. This was a family affair sans J2 as apparently he is allergic to chores of any kind. Considering our elaborate storage system, proximity to wildlife (did I mention we have had more than the occasional bear) and R’s strong aversion to getting his hands dirty or wet, I am going to give all of us a final grade of A+!  Call me easy but we went from demonstration mode => direct supervision => overseeing => operating independently with only what I would consider your typical teenage grumbling. I am calling this one a total success! GO Riley!!!

Next on the list was laundry. The plan was to master the general operations of the washer and dryer, sorting by colour followed by clothing specific optional drying. I know what you’re thinking…I aimed a liiiiiittle bit high on this one and that’s OK. We did run across a few minor glitches in the beginning stages. For example liquid detergent that requires pouring…not an easy task for R. So instead we opted for powder detergent which could be scooped and tossed into the washer with relative ease and the likelihood of getting his hands wet were minimized. You can watch this short video clip of his progress which occurred during his mid-term evaluation. We are in a holding pattern for sorting and optional drying as I realized these tasks may require an instructional video and/or laminated step-by-step posters. 

Also additional equipment labelled and with visuals attached would be helpful. I am going to give Riley an Excellent rating for his efforts as he has mastered the transportation and folding of his laundry thus far. Yes I realize it is only his socks and underwear. Did your mother never warn you about wearing clean underwear in case of an accident??? Just sayin’.

The final item on our summer agenda was washing rice. During the demonstration session I realized we were going to get an Incomplete on this task. With Riley’s tactile defensiveness it would have been so stressful for me him and hardly a required life skill so we withdrew from this class much to R’s relief. 


All in all a pretty successful summer. We both came away relatively unscathed and Riley is on his way on the domestic front. On Wednesday Riley will begin his final year of high school. Yup yup yup...this is it! 

How did you make out with your summer plans?