summer learning

It is almost July and we have already nodded our heads to summer solstice, but I am only now catching up with the last month or two of spring and the fullness of the end of the year. Ours is not the typical fullness, although it had some aspects of your mainstream end-of-year wildness, including a ballet performance. Mostly, tiredness and a lack of desire to be online has caused my absence. Here is a post to bring me up-to-date!

Following our Alaska trip, Little Brown Mouse made a model of a glacier. This was self initiated and completed.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful at the end of May.

Lala Bug really wanted to make flower decorated cupcakes. So she did.

Above, Little Brown Mouse finished up his homemade go-cart, so he brought it to the last soccer class so all his friends (and tall big sister) could have a ride. 

We have just passed through the time of year when homeschoolers start asking one another "Do you school through summer?" For us, it is a grey area.

We school through a charter that supports homeschoolers. As a result, our "school" has a scheduled beginning and end time. Sort of. We are required to report to our charter school during the months school is in session and we do not receive money for activities when school is on summer break. Otherwise, I can be flexible with our schedule. For example, as long as we have work samples to submit for August, I can keep us on a "summer schedule." And, of course, I can keep schooling into June, despite our charter year ending before Memorial Day.

The kids asked if we could bike ride to a local historic site to do the Junior Ranger Program. Umm...yes!

Annual blueberry picking with our friends in the (California) central valley. Delicious!

Holy cow, we had a lot of plums again. So many another massive branch broke. We spent a day picking, pruning, cutting, freezing, and jamming.

Hay ride, anyone? Yes, but it comes at the cost of loading and unloading the hay from the wagon!

 

This girl has been reading a ton. On this day, above, she read 4 books, at least.

Sunset on Summer Solstice (a solstice alliteration) 

We didn't cover all that I had hoped to cover during the official school year, so we will continue to cover those topics, but it will be in a less pressured (self-inflicted as teacher) way. We will read stories and books, but might not do any extensive writing or other project, for example. We will do math and writing regularly, but they won't be long or deep assignments. (Lala Bug has taken to doing Beast Academy for fun, for example, and any writing counts right now.) Today, for example, we had a schooling day, complete with a walk, verses, writing, math, and then the kids got sucked into Mystery Science, which is fabulous hands-on learning fun (that we pay for). It felt like a pay day!

Learning happens all. the. time. (I.e., officially schooling or not, your kids (and you!) are still taking in, learning about, and processing the world around them.)

Summer reading! There are a number of reading programs and we invest happily in the library summer reading program available locally. There are rewards for the kids and, honestly, my kids are motivated just by the sticker sheet involved!

Life lessons. This is a favorite season to practice non-academic skills. I have a long list of skills we want to address with our kids before they grow up and move away on their own. They range from cooking to laundry to keeping a budget to changing a car tire. It is clear when they are or are not ready for a skill. Both kids were heavily involved in picking, cutting, cooking, and canning plum jam this week. They weren't ready to help with this last year.

And then there is the break. We need it. Actually, I think I need it more than they need it. I need the time and space and respite to unwind a little so I can re-center before starting to think about what needs to come next.

Happy summering!