Still not officially summer ;)

It has been very weird for me this past week or so. We're still not finished June, my niece and nephew are still in school--which means it's still "school" time--but the 17yo has been done for over a week. So, it's not officially summer. To complicate matters, my husband has been home on stress leave since May, so it's like summer--but it's not.

I have not presented any lessons to my kids in the past month, which is pretty typical for June though. They have still been busy with things. Dd has been doing logic problems, art, reading and has been asking to try out an online language learning program we have free access to through our local library. Ds has been reading, being his usual active self, that's about it. I keep trying to entice ds with his science kits, but he's never interested--or rather has an excuse, because they seem complicated and like they will take a lot of time. I think I might just have to say, "Hey, can I look at your kit?" He's had one of the kits since September and has done NOTHING from it.

I've been trying to restructure my time now that it's not being taken over by school. The little guy I babysit is 20mo now, which means he's into EVERYTHING. It's hard to tackle things, be it some spring/summer cleaning or things on the computer, when he's around. I do have some plans for bringing in some "extras" during the summer, things like nature walks and I just took out the first DVD for Canada: A People's History. I don't want learning and these different subjects to feel like they are just for school! I'd also like to bring in art study and some other things I can't think of at the moment.

Which reminds me... I've been reading this book:



It's about the Charlotte Mason method. I have always felt somewhat compelled to include some CM into our schooling, but could never figure out how to do it. Some stuff overlaps with Montessori beautifully--like respect for the child and nature and art and all that--but other things, perhaps they way some people do them or just the way they are written about--seemed too structured, very dull. I didn't understand how kids could supposedly love the approach the way so many people seemed to say their kids did. This book is helping me understand how CM can be applied effectively without necessarily sticking to some of the structure or "rules". There was one part I was going to share, but the book is not next to me--it's actually in my bedroom and hubby is still there asleep. It will have to wait until later. In any case, if you have been interested in CM at all, this is a wonderful book.