Summer is our favorite season. The weather is warm and wild and thus prohibitive of difficult endeavors. Freedom reigns.
Each person is free, like the wildflowers, to grow in any direction and to follow the sunshine of their dreams.
Happymess kids begin the summer with a trip to the zoo and a greenhouse.
The plastic gorilla is even more fun!
The Fourth of July was shared with friends and family. Watching shards of light sparkle and reflect across the ocean waves is spectacular.
This summer Scooter got his first set of wheels. He is finally able to ride to the library, church, candy store and beach with his brothers! This is surely the high point of Scooter’s summer.
For the first time, Truth and Quantum left home to spend a week living in the woods. We missed them, but loved coming up for the closing bonfire.
Athena traveled most of this summer. We did manage to catch up with her long enough to enjoy kayaking on the lake together.
Oddly, perhaps, most of our summer was spent reading.
We read long, complicated historical novels like Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and fun, short books like Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. We read intriguing children’s books like A Single Shard by Sue Parks and we read Bob Books as we struggled to teach Scooter some basic reading skills.
One of our favorite activities is the Library Summer Reading Program. Bounce and Scooter race to the library everyday to record the new number of hours they read. They average 2-3 hours per day.
We allow Scooter to count his pre-reading activities towards his reading total.
One of the fun aspects of summer is that everyone enjoys the whimsy. Here is the ceiling of our favorite summer diner.
Bounce loves art. I am not a big fan of scraping paint off the floor so summer and art and I are best friends. Bounce created an outdoor studio where he can paint whenever he likes.
As summer comes to its inevitable end, I begin organizing, arranging and planning for the unsentimental months ahead. Here we have all the un-owned shoes looking for new feet so they can attend school next month. I managed to find several pairs each for Bounce and Scooter.
And so the month of August draws to a close and we must finally say, “So long sweet summer.” What a wonderful interlude it has been.
Let Me Count the Days: Homeschooling is the freedom to dream, create and cherish the unscheduled and the free.
Filed under: Field Trips, Literature, Uncategorized | Tagged: boy scouts, classic children's literature, education, field trips, homeschool, homeschooling, kids, literature, reading, summer vacation | 5 Comments »
Homeschool Happymess: A Naturally Inspiring Approach to Education 