First Day of Summer Vacation
I get to experience the best of both worlds - stay at home mom AND career woman. I am the luckiest lady alive! I love my job, I love my family, I love vacation... and today I got to experience the benefits of them all. My first day at home with Ethan over summer break between school semesters. It was awesome!
First, let me preface this blog post by saying that I am a teacher. I cannot go for three whole months and NOT do some kinds of instructional activities with my son. That would just be wrong. On many levels... So, I've decided to assign weekly "themes" to focus on and keep our time together interesting. We might not focus on those areas every minute of every day that week, but I will do my best to incorporate discussions, activities, and adventures that align appropriately.
This first week, our theme is "animals". No particular kind in mind - just animals. We had an hour-long safari this morning, with Nerf guns to hunt dangerous animals in all kinds of environments. The exploration led us around the property, and through the forest, into the stream, and back. Ethan did learning activities about animals while I made lunch; he'll be doing those every day we eat at home, by the way! This afternoon, we played with Lego's, had another Nerf dart battle, and played with Loki. During each activity, we talked about how different animals might play with those toys (or dog)... how different animals might sound, and we sorted animal figurines by mammals, birds, dinosaurs, etc.
Learning can be fun. I fully believe that and try [desperately] to incorporate that philosophy into my college classrooms. I want Ethan to enjoy his summer vacation, but I also want him to know that continuing to ask questions, explore our world, and learn about new things is just as enjoyable. So far, so good!
First, let me preface this blog post by saying that I am a teacher. I cannot go for three whole months and NOT do some kinds of instructional activities with my son. That would just be wrong. On many levels... So, I've decided to assign weekly "themes" to focus on and keep our time together interesting. We might not focus on those areas every minute of every day that week, but I will do my best to incorporate discussions, activities, and adventures that align appropriately.
This first week, our theme is "animals". No particular kind in mind - just animals. We had an hour-long safari this morning, with Nerf guns to hunt dangerous animals in all kinds of environments. The exploration led us around the property, and through the forest, into the stream, and back. Ethan did learning activities about animals while I made lunch; he'll be doing those every day we eat at home, by the way! This afternoon, we played with Lego's, had another Nerf dart battle, and played with Loki. During each activity, we talked about how different animals might play with those toys (or dog)... how different animals might sound, and we sorted animal figurines by mammals, birds, dinosaurs, etc.
Learning can be fun. I fully believe that and try [desperately] to incorporate that philosophy into my college classrooms. I want Ethan to enjoy his summer vacation, but I also want him to know that continuing to ask questions, explore our world, and learn about new things is just as enjoyable. So far, so good!
Comments