Ahhh, the joy of summer: free play, outdoor adventure and quiet reading. For some families this summer vacation paradise comes to an end too soon. For homeschooling families it is a way of life. We are a homeschooling family year round, but as the school supply sales take over the stores and children get ready to go back to school, I am reminded how blessed I am to enjoy this lifestyle the other nine months of the year.
The explorations so familiar to summer, continue to fill our life in the winter, spring and fall. Remember for a moment the joys of summer from your youth. Can you smell the earth? Isn’t the freedom almost tangible? I remember wandering our local creek for hours examining, contemplating. Now imagine a life based on that feeling.
Free Play
Summer is filled with exploration, but those explorations don’t have to end just because the school bell rings. The amount of school we are legally required to do each day as homeschoolers is similar to the amount of homework often brought home by school children. Homeschoolers fill their extra free hours with free exploration of creeks, back yards and kitchens. Baking using special recipes such as 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup baking soda, while not creating anything edible provides hours of entertainment and a fair amount of learning. Building forts in the back yard takes determination, focus and a growing knowledge of basic engineering, but don’t tell my kids that. Free play offers children a chance to get to know themselves, their siblings and friends, and also their tremendously interesting world.
Quiet Reading to Your Heart’s Content. . . Or Pursue Your Own Passion
I’m a reader! I love books and the quiet solitude spent with dusty smelling pages turning in my fingers. For me, summer was a time when I could read to my heart’s content. Nobody told me what to read or when. I was just free to explore (there’s that explore word again) whatever books tickled my fancy.
My daughter loves to read. She was recently baffled when she heard from a school kid that they did not have free-reading time in school. Sure, they had a class that teaches how to read, but no time to just read whatever they wanted. In our home, reading is like breathing. Books are scattered through the house in various stages of ingestion. In some families this passion for reading is replaced by a passion for numbers. Free time is spent exploring math puzzles, pi or maybe fractions with apple pie. Or maybe science is your kid’s thing – - test tubes bubbling in the corner and circuit sets creating electrical gadgets. Is there a class for that at her school? Maybe she’s blessed and there is class time set aside to just explore science materials. Odds are there isn’t a “pursue your passions” class though.
Outdoor Discovery
Time spent outdoors is a way of life for kids in summer. Bubbles in a creek are one exciting discovery, but just imagine the discoveries that await your children in December or April. What does your local hiking trail look like as the weather changes? What birds remain in the cooler months? Which critters change their appearance? The world has so much to teach in fall, winter and spring.
Long lazy days filled with pursuit of passion are so associated with summer. Of course, summer is a great time of year to pursue interests. The rest of the year is equally interesting though. Life is a full journey to be experienced with our families. Are you experiencing yours to the fullest?
