Summer, Educational or Fun?

When you live in an environment where learning takes place among the happenings of everyday life, the lines between “education” and “enjoyment” start to get a little fuzzy.  As a result, if you were to visit my home on a summer afternoon, you might see one of my sons studying a science text. Or you might see one of my little girls at the table working on her phonics. You might even get a glimpse of my older daughter curled up on the couch with a math book. (Hey, it’s Life of Fred!)

I don’t consider myself to be a year-round schooler. So, for all practical purposes, we are on vacation. But you can’t stop learning from taking place. And when my children saw all the books for next year beginning to fill up our school shelves, they just couldn’t resist. Before I knew it, those books were making their way down off the shelves and the line between education and enjoyment had been completely obliterated.

I’m thrilled, of course. I want my children to understand that learning happens all the time. And while I’m not opposed to forcing them to complete assignments (a few of the kids are still finishing some of their work from last year), I’d rather they took responsibility for their own educations.

But don’t think that bookwork is the only way that we’ve been learning this summer. While “education” can be enjoyable, fun can also be a learning experience.  And we’ve been having some great fun this summer.

Here are a few things (involving books or not involving books) that we’ve done:

• We’ve made regular trips to the library. The children signed up for and completed the summer reading program, and are still bringing home stacks of books to devour
• We’ve been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD
• We’ve planted two gardens and are weeding them, harvesting, eating and preserving vegetables
• The two oldest boys are studying biology and are getting together every week with a friend to do experiments
• Our oldest daughter is working on general science and algebra
• Our oldest daughter and one of her older brothers have started reading the books I picked out for an American literature study
• We attended an Egypt themed VBS and learned more about God and the Bible
• the baby started walking
• The boys attended a basketball camp held at the local high school
• We attended a Mayberry theme party and met delegate Charles Poindexter
• We had a bat in our house, which led to a study of rabies
• Our oldest daughter and my husband went deep sea fishing with some friends
• My youngest daughter (who decided that she REALLY wants to read) is doing phonics and trying to read books waaaaay above her level