Summertime

The only thing that changes for us in summer is that we have more outdoors activities due to the weather, than we do in Winter. We enjoy the sunshine, the longer days, nature and more that involve physical activity in "free style" mode.

Yet, we do much of what we normally do too. We read, we research subjects, we write, we watch documentaries, we visit places...we continue to learn. Oh, and we definitely discuss a lot on many subjects, which just seem to pop up so often, concerning everything.

I really sympathize with the schooled children who don't want to see a book in the three-month summer vacation period and loath learning because of schoolwork. For a non-schooled child, it's different...

Yesterday we visited a local bookstore, which has a nice garden in the back where you can sit and read, choose the books you want to buy, have a cool drink and the children can draw. We didn't realize that we were there for nearly two hours.

We wanted to buy a math book, which was my original plan. My daughter loves arithmetic and I want to cultivate this love in her...despite it not being one of my favorite subjects (not by a long shot!). I told the assistant that I wanted books that practice arithmetic; addition, subtraction and multiplication (for now), in a fun way. She looked at me and asked me what grade the child is in. I replied that she doesn't go to school!

Initially she was positively surprised, which was a nice change to the weird, alien looks we more often get. She even told me that a friend of hers "also wants to do that" and showed interest in our decision to stay out of the system. But when it came to choosing books, we discovered, to our dismay, that only school books were available, based on grades and the curriculum and not on experiential learning according to real life math. Perhaps I should search for an open-minded publisher and authors to co-write children's math books that are closer to real life than school curriculums...we'll see...

Nevertheless, being naturally an open-minded person, willing to make the best of every situation, In the end, we had a lot of fun, made friends with the bookstore's assistants, and had the opportunity to through about a dozen books, choosing 4 in the end ;two for math, one on professions and one on science.  We also got a compass, which I didn't think we'd find in a bookstore, which we are eager to use and discuss about. One of the assistants was so friendly and willing to show her the compass, that she drew and dedicated her picture to him.

We came home from our unplanned day, feeling content and happy with what we had chosen to do. I couldn't stop her from reading the science book we brought home, instead of our usual bedtime read... :)