The lazy days of summer are upon us.  Each day sort of runs into the next.  Just yesterday I realized I was writing “June” as the date.  Oops.  I guess I’m a month off.

So how do you manage your summers?  Here, things are a bit quieter as we don’t have so many evening obligations.  My Bible study group is taking a break.  The kids’ Wednesday night activities are done.  So our evenings are more relaxed, along with our days.

Some people ask if we’re done with school yet, but I don’t think we’re ever really “done”.  School and learning happens all the time.  But specifically, I have a few goals for our days during the summer.

Each day I want to have our Bible reading and our hymn study.  If that’s the only thing that happens “academically”, I’m happy.  After all, that should be our first priority anyway.  The other things that are important to me are music practice, daily household chores, and some reading for those who struggle at reading.  Other than that, we’re not worrying too much about the academics.  Those things sort of take care of themselves, in a way.  I suppose I’m starting to sound like an “unschooler” in some ways.  But I can’t help but think that my son will learn a lot more about electricity as he sits with his dad pouring over a pencil drawing than he ever would learn with me going through his workbooks.  If we can seize the moments in our everyday lives where the kids want to learn, they’ll surprise us with how eager they are.  Isaac’s math skills have improved greatly as he’s been saving up for an iPod.  His dad said he’d match his money, so the whole time Isaac was saving he was multiplying by 2 or dividing by 2.  Laura knows more facts about birds than any person should know.  :-)  We have some bird books, and as we watch our pair of sparrows out front in their nest, we learn and read and follow along with what they’re doing.  Luke is so eager to learn to read better so he can do more stuff with his computer games.  So I try to make regular times for him to read to me.  Amelia just doesn’t know what it means to not do things, so she’s plowing along without any help from me!  I half expect her to learn to read without my help.  She’s really a character!

So, if your summer is looking a little “slow” or isn’t exactly what you hoped it would be, take heart.  There may be more happening than what you realize!