Summertime learning

I remember so fondly as a child the last day of school, the relief when I'd been promoted to the next grade, and the exhilaration of looking at so many weeks of summer. Freedom from a rigid five days a week schedule. Freedom from early bedtimes. Freedom from learning.

Freedom from learning? Really? Isn't it interesting that when we look back, we realize our best learning happened when we didn't even know we were learning.

Summertime:

Swimming lessons

Driver's Ed

Camps of all kinds

Library time

Reading anything you want to

Cooking classes

Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts/4-H

Vacation Bible School

Family vacations

Educational TV

New notebooks and journals to write in

Playing with the neighborhood kids and siblings

Sports

Arts and crafts

Visiting extended family

Gazing at the stars

Summer theater opportunities

Community Band

Growing a garden

What learning experiences can you create this summer? Does learning have to take place in the four walls of the school? If it didn't back then, it certainly doesn't now. Add to the list above, which is still applicable, the Internet, and there is no end to the possibilities for learning anywhere anytime all summer.

My job is year round, and I still get excited for the opportunities for personal learning that come to me in the summertime. What are you waiting for? Create some personal learning experiences!