summer school, June-style

Yes, clearly it isn't summer yet.

But the 77° prediction for today really is close.

And little man got out the water guns from the dusty bin in the garage, which in our world, means it's summer.

Sidenote. Did I mention our new babysitters? Twins. Yes. Two. Teenage girls from town. They come. They hang out. I write blogs while sipping a sparkling water, dada on the deck, typing out briefs in the sunshine. I feel fancy. Like Angelina freaking Jolie. Ha. I might even go out to the garden, you know, plant seeds without children throwing random packets of radishes in the ground.

Ahhhhhh.

And these girls, and the sunshine, well, they rejuvenate me.

And so, I take this newly found energy, and plan out a most ambitious summer school agenda, because, you know, that is what I do with energy.

Well, I say summers really my plan is to UNschool.

You know, hey kid, what are you interested in?

Black holes?

Great, let's learn about that.

So I went to library and found a book about space and time, and we looked online and found a great series to watch on PBS.

Clearly I've also decided to ditch my previously held beliefs about no media for school. Hey kid, you need to learn your multiplication tables? Try this iPad game! Etc etc

It was kind of amazing to sit and watch this fascinating documentary on PBS yesterday, two in fact, girls cuddled up asleep on my lap, little man by my side enthralled.

Ah, the summer of unschooling. I LIKE IT.

My thoughts are this....

Time and Space (also nicely coinciding with my current fascination with MULTIVERSE THEORY. Um, amazing.)

American (basic) history and geography (including this one song I found on Pinterest years ago to teach the states and capitols)

Art, an artist once a week, copying a major work, out on the deck! In the sunshine!

Music, a biography out of a great book I inherited from my mom, and then listening to the music

Nature studies, (walks and then writing in our nature journals) or a story from the Thornton Burgess book of bird stories.

Reading books and writing book reports every few weeks

Singing and French vocab

Lots and lots of princess coloring pages

Some read a loud books like "tiptoes lightly" and " The Secret Garden"

And then, BOR-ING, math skills and spelling...

Do you think I can trick my kids into doing this all summer? At least until the end of June, I think.

Maybe.

So how is this different than normal? Um...less school lessons from books, more doing. I think. A lot of these things we do, or similiar to, I guess, in the normal school year, but for now I am hoping to get away from books at a desk and a schoolish feel, also, not pressuring to get each done every day, that makes it a lot less school-y.

Yay.

Well, I am excited, and feeling reinvigorated to tackle those Pinterest projects that pile up. Unpoppable bubbles! Yarn wrapped twigs to form letters! A map of America made out of salt dough! Do you think they have something for the space time continuum and the theory of relativity?? Ha. ( I love that my kid loves this stuff!)