I have taken quite a few photos (mostly on the iPhone), but I don’t want to wait on posting or I know they will get buried on page 5 of my flickr photostream!

So, without further ado, some of our summer learning pursuits. Our local co-op has a saying: “The world is our classroom.” I think that just about sums these photos up!

Playing with an old friend!

Setting up {mostly} finished bedrooms for the biggest boys downstairs. Finally. 😀
*I hope you can see the fishing pole holder back there on the wall. My oldest son, 14 years old, designed this, and built it from start to finish. It is a wonderful design, and I told him he should market it. It can also be hung horizontally as well.

These awesome desks were a craigs*list find. The lady had two just alike (perfect) and gave me a discount for buying both. We got both of them for $130, and they are hand-made of SOLID WOOD (fur) and included a built-in light as well as corkboard there on the back. The boys just cleaned them up with wood polish and sanded off some pencil smudges and pen marks. We already had the chairs and weren’t using them anywhere else.

Cleaning up the garage has been a project the children and I have been working on for several weeks. First is a during photo (the before is alluding me at the moment), and then some after photos.

What to do when your 3-year-old announces at breakfast that she “wants to know why caterpillars grow wings?” Well read books, watch a video of a butterfly emerging from the chrysallis, go look for some butterflies to observe, and throw in a craft to share what we have learned.

I should add the cardboard we used was saved from packaging, so my advice is save those kinds of items you might normally throw away. The cardboard was already perforated right down the middle so the wings took flight easily!

I have to share that our 8YO son and 7YO daughter insisted on adding the butterflies’ “six legs” and “proboscis”, which is the tongue. They also told Daddy how the butterfly uses his tongue to smell and his feet to taste! I had to take the following photo to show the detail of their creativity. They did this with the pipe cleaners themselves!

This is really what learning is all about for our family: pursuing those questions and answers that interest us.

Mind you, the butterfly pursuits were on a SATURDAY, and this is how I found our two oldest: working on vocabulary with a Word Roots A2 CD-ROM and WordlyWise 3000 on-line.

Speaking of our oldest, he loves to make pickles in the summertime. Though our garden didn’t really materialize since we weren’t here to plant it, he has used the cucumbers we’ve been given to make refrigerator pickles from my Granny’s recipe.

I am so thankful I have that copy of paper she wrote, and I laminated it to keep it safe! It just holds so many memories for me, and she would be thrilled to see her oldest great-grandson using it to make pickles!

A bedtime story with Daddy.

Their favorite ones are when he tells them a story he has made up (which he does as he goes along). The coolest part of Daddy’s story-telling is that he has each of the little ones give him a character (“purple horse”, “pink pony named Princess”, and “a race car” are the most popular at the moment), and he weaves them all into the story!

Making an Oreo Cheesecake Icebox Cake for Mo’s 11th birthday. Reading a recipe is actually a very useful learning pursuit!

Playing in the sprinkler on another 95-degree + day. Did I mention the humidity is 100% for days on end? But, thankfully, the rain continues to come at least once a week, so this is a BEAUTIFUL, hot and wet summer here in rural Tennessee

Creek-stomping (which also includes animal discoveries) is an almost daily pursuit for the children and me. If we time it just right, the Prez gives us a ride back up the hill on his way home from work!

*Creek stomping with cousins and siblings on your birthday is extra fun!!!*

*Li’l Miss caught this little fish in a net, and Li’l Bit thought it was really cool! No fish were harmed in the making of this little experiment (it was safely released!)*

Weekly trips to Grammyland Pool (always refreshing in the 90-plus temps and 100 percent humidity here!)

Sending our biggest boy off to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia (sniff, sniff–missing him so much and oh so proud of him for working to earn the money to pay for this trip; he is a great young man who really does make me exceptionally proud)

Even chores given out by Daddy can be fun!

If only the new cooks in the house used real food. 😀

Today’s Tip: LET KIDS BE KIDS! Let me be honest: some days I have strongly suggest our children get outside, BUT it never fails that once they are out there … forts are made, new adventures are had, splashing water becomes a favorite past-time again, screens are OFF!, and memories are made.