~Sweet Summertime~

The weather has been beautiful and we have taken full advantage of it with day trips.  Here in central Kentucky, we have many parks and things to do within an hour or two's drive.  Since school has finished, we have been to Mammoth Cave National Park for hiking and horseback riding;

Hiking at Mammoth Cave

Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave

Green River

First horseback adventure

 to the Patton Museum and Otter Creek Park; to Lowe's for a building project and shopping; Chuck E. Cheese and the Historic Train Museum. 

Otter Creek

Ohio River - barge

Bank - KY side of the Ohio River

gathering goose feathers at the park

Building project at Lowe's

New sand-pool

   I have continued teaching him the basics - reading, writing and math - when we are home.  For reading, I started him on the first McGuffey reader on the Kindle Fire.  His sensory issues make holding books difficult, and this seems to be helping.  He is still a very resistant reader, getting easily frustrated when he doesn't know a word...and often its a word that he did know the day before.  For math, we are reading library books and doing problems on the dry erase board.  For writing, I am using samples from Handwriting Without Tears, 1st and 2nd grade, to see what we need.  Since he has an aversion to paper, I am putting the sheets into sheet protectors and letting him use dry erase markers.  Unfortunately, the tips are too large for small letters....any ideas?  Perhaps there is in iPad app that he can use with a stylus...

Charlotte Mason's philosophy is this: education is an atmosphere a discipline, and a life.
Living is learning, and to really live we need to expose ourselves to new adventures!  With a lot of time outdoors, and a little bit of seat-work, this summer should be not only fun, but very educational.  What time we do spend inside, I try to play music by the composers we learned about during the school year.  I have an "idea jar" with lots of great things for when boredom strikes - and not one of the ideas uses the TV or computer!  (I highly recommend the idea jar. There are many great ideas to put it in all over the internet - try Pinterest!)

This week we head to Columbus, Ohio for Origins Game Fair and lots of swimming at the hotel.  Hope you all have a great week!

This post is linked to Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, hosted this week by The Holistic Homeschooler.