Summer 2026

Summer break is coming up. The last day of school will be June 18; the next school year will start on August 24. No school for 9 weeks and a day, so we are trying to come up with some plans of what to do during this time.

These are the weeks of summer break and what we know about them so far:

June 22-26: Mélani has driving school
June 29-July 3: Mélani has driving school
July 6-10
July 13-17: Potential road trip
July 20-24: Potential road trip
July 27-31
August 3-7
August 10-14: Potential sports try-out for Mélani or Katerin?
August 17-21: Potential sports try-out for Mélani or Katerin?

General

Heads up: we are going to keep some semblance of a schedule. That means no sleeping until 11 or 12. Wake up time will be 8:30 on Monday through Friday, unless you have to be up earlier for activities.

The phones will not be turning off at night, as long as you get up on time. If you are grumpy in the morning, we are assuming you didn’t get enough sleep, and turn night time on again.

Road Trip

We are planning a road trip with the six of us, taking about a week and a half in July. Details are here.

Activities

There are a bunch of activities that will be taking place over the summer.

Mélani has two weeks of mandatory driving school end of June, start of July.
If Katerin or Mélani want to sign up for sports in high school next year, they may have try-outs in August (not sure about exact dates yet).
Anderson wants to possibly do a football skills camp, or continue with the football club that is supposed to start for real next week.

In addition, we can do some fun things, but we need you guys to come up with ideas for that. I will be collecting the ideas here, and we see what we can do.

Baltimore Inner Harbor, do the paddle boats, $25 (first come, first serve) with four seats; 12 years and below must be accompanied by an adult
Titanic exhibition at the Inner Harbor, tickets available for April and May so not sure if it runs over the summer, $22 per person (Nicoline $25, Jeferson $19). See here
Amusement park, if we're not going to an amusement park on the road trip.

Summer Camps and Sports

To be determined.

Chores and Other Boring Stuff

Unfortunately, summer break can’t be only fun and games. Some things still need to happen. Here is a list of what we are expecting for Summer Break:

You will continue to do your laundry on your laundry days, in the morning (you know how we hate you doing things at the last minute). Laundry must be in the washing machine before 12:00 noon, must be hung out within half an hour of the machine being done, and must be put away before 9:00 PM. In addition, we expect you to vacuum your room, empty your trash can, and do any tidying up of your room as needed once a week.
Help with the yard. The weeds are growing like crazy, and we need your help to keep them in check.
Like last year you are going to work on the practical skill of preparing a nutritious lunch. See Food Preparation below.
You will continue to go to your dads / family / boyfriend on the weekends and on holidays, and live with us during the week. A few times, there may be some extra time with your family, but mostly you will live with us.
Quiet time will continue to start at 9:00 PM. If you don’t wake up earlier, we will wake you by 8:30 AM and expect you to have finished breakfast by 9:00 AM. Lunch, dinner, and snacks continue to be at the regular times. On activity days, we may expect you to be up earlier.
Some exercise every week. You can choose to exercise by yourself, or together. You can take a walk, go for a run, go play at the basketball court at the school, or do other things. If we go to the pool or the beach and play in the water for hours, you may not need extra exercise, but otherwise, we want to make sure you get some physical activity in.

Food Preparation

Food prep is back, like last year!

The food preparation exercise is about learning about food, what is healthy and what not, and how to make choices in what to eat. And then, of course, how to then actually make the healthy and yet tasty lunch.

Everyone will have to do two food preparation exercises in July, that’s all. You will select “your” food preparation days on the July in advance, to make sure they are spread out a bit over the whole month.

You will need to:

Prepare: decide what kind of healthy lunch you want to prepare, and then discuss with Ms. Nicoline. Find a recipe. Explain why you think this is a reasonably healthy lunch and who all will want to eat it.
Prepare: discuss with Ms. Nicoline what the necessary ingredients are going to be, so she can buy them if necessary. If you want to use things we already have, that’s fine too.
Make the lunch, share it with the others. Everyone tries at least a little bit. Were you right on who likes it and who doesn’t?
Evaluate while you made. Read the ingredients, look at how much of everything goes into the lunch. What does this do to the healthiness of the lunch. How much work is it to make it? Is this something you would want in your lunch box next year?

With these skills, you will be able to make your own lunch next school year, if you don’t like what Ms. Nicoline is planning for you. In other words: no more complaining that you don’t like the lunch!