Summertime "school"

A friend asked me about what we do for "school" in the summer. First of all, we stick to a traditional (Aug - May) schedule for the textbooks but since I firmly believe that a lot of learning (maybe most for some children?) is outside the textbooks, I hesitate to put us in that box. Since we have a vegetable garden, small fruit orchard (btw, we got our first blueberries off yesterday morning - yippee!!), and prepping the remaining 15 acres for pecans, we spend lots of time year-round on the farm, but especially in the summer. It is also a time where I purposely read (or re-read) books to try to help me grow spiritually and as a primary teacher to them. Late spring I make out a list (yes, a list!!) of habits that I want to work on with them through the summer. I just started that last year and it worked great. Little things like making sure they are flossing correctly, making their beds and not just throwing on the covers, learning to tie a shoelace, how to properly load/unload the dishwasher, getting better at swimming and diving, learning to do a handstand under the water, etc. That way those with which I work with them consistently are hopefully habits by the time we get back into school mode this fall. Worked well last summer, we will see about this year!

For those who asked earlier, I now have cucumbers, squash and tomatoes coming in from the garden. Fresh basil and parsley are getting clipped from my potted plants and we have eaten plums and blueberries from the orchard. Not enough from ours to can yet, but we picked plums at an Aunt's house last week and made 12 pints of jam so we are definitely into the canning mode already! Ya'll come on down and get some veggies soon!

(copyright notice - painting by Robert Duncan)