Summer Learning

Emily and Troy start back to school next week and the teacher in me was feeling a little bad that we really did very little "homework" over summer vacation. Troy is starting Kindergarten and I felt like we probably should have practiced our number/letters more. Worked on reading more. That kind of thing. And then I reflected on our summer and decided that during the school year learning at desks from books if great. But this summer my kids raised baby chicks and ducks from a day old. They learned how to feed and care for them and how to introduce them to the bigger flock. We planted over a dozen different seedlings together and started them in our basement under grow lights in February while there was still snow on the ground and we are currently eating the veggies they produced right now. They hiked to an old tree on our property (by themselves) and found owl pellets to dissect and learned what creatures live around us. They spent three whole days rafting on the Colorado river. They saw bald eagles, golden eagles, sea otters, and great horned sheep less than 20 yards from where we were. We spent a day fishing at the reservoir behind our house, we didn't catch a thing, but that was okay. They got to go to Tahoe and celebrate their Great-Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary while spending time with aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles and grand-parents. They kayaked on Lake Tahoe and spent endless hours outside swimming, hiking, and playing. They put in some work-time as well helping Mommy paint the chicken coop, and helping ride on the tractor. Tonight I watched them run around in the twilight as thousands of stars started appearing in the sky above us and all I could think about was that for a 7, 5, and 3yr old....this is how Summer should be.