Ahhh, I think summer is finally here! After a gloomy Memorial Day weekend the sun is finally shining again! Our homeschooling always changes in the summer. Like most of you, unless you are in Phoenix, we spend a lot more time outdoors in the spring and summer. We’ve had lots of rain and even snow (!) yesterday so sometimes we stay inside. In that case we open up “the closet” (Ingredient #33 in the Leadership Education: Phases of Learning book and do school that way (see http://home-school-coach.com for more info on the closet in homeschooling) But when the sun is shining, for school we work on the yard and garden and then if there is time before lunch we go to the park. That’s what summer is for!

The past few weeks we have weeded our front yard and today we planted our garden! Whenever I plant our garden I always think of Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, in a sweet British accent, pleading, “Please sir, may I have a bit of earth?” Planting a garden with my 9, 6, 5, and almost 2 year olds takes quite a bit of patience and ingenuity to keep some of them more engaged but not too helpful and the toddler less engaged so he doesn’t keep running off with the spade, but it is worth it when harvest time comes. If you would like some practical help regarding planting gardens with little children, listen to master gardener Vernie DeMille offer some tips here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/page/free-recordings-from-the-2009

If you want some inspiration for working in the garden, check out this book. It focuses more on container and indoor gardening. How about planting a peanut bush or a lemon tree indoors?  It is written by a grandma,, Sharon Lovejoy,  whose love for kids and projects is infectious.She has other books on gardening as well. I like that she brings back the old-fashioned games and activities kids used to play like making hollyhock dolls and sunflower houses.

Summer is also for road trips. We have a trip planned to southern Utah this week and a trip planned to Palm Springs in July for a family reunion  (ooh, hot! I know I will be enjoying the air conditioned splendor of our condo that week) Let’s talk about keeping kids happy and engaged in learning in the car during road trips. You can have a “portable closet” or bag of books, and educational items/toys to spark children’s interest in where you are going and what you are seeing. Sometimes each child gets his own bag, and sometimes I just have one or two bags, depending on the length of the trip. The canvas bags I collect come in handy for this. You can probably find some at your local thrift store for very cheap.

For road trips it helps if you do some research about where you are going. What are some interesting stops you can make on the way?  What is the story behind the city’s name, or site of interest, and who founded it?  Google the names of the cities or sites to find out. For instance, we are going to southern Utah to take my 3 oldest scholar phasers to Youth for Freedom, a summer camp for TJED youth. My young ones are staying at Grandma’s but if they were coming with us I would perhaps stop at Cove Fort, like we have in the past. I would get some books on pioneers and horses and covered wagons and start talking about that to pique their interest. I know from previous visits that the tour guides give a pioneer toy to the children at the end of the visit so maybe I would get a book about pioneer toys from the library.

The library has so many fun books to help you. I love the The Eyewitness books it has with one word titles such as Cowboy, Horses, and Astronomy. They have great photographs and clear explanations that my children and I both find fascinating. My son is still wearing a cowboy outfit everyday, and sometimes his pajamas underneath, from a photo in that book of what a cowboy wears.

Perhaps I would also get a book on CD about pioneers to listen to on the way, such as a Little House book. If you did more research and were more organized than I you could actually dig into your family history and perhaps find your own family pioneer stories and record yourself to listen to in the car telling pioneer stories as you drove, or read them aloud while your husband drives. You might also do some research on the different rock formations and rock collecting and then get some books about that and some sample rocks to put in their bags. You might even stop at the Big Rock candy mountain in southern Utah and get the song to listen to on the way.

If I were really organized and had planned ahead I would perhaps do even more research and come up with a list of questions that relate to where we are going that they could find the answers to by asking me or the people at the places we were going. One time when I was in a teen in our church youth group one of the leaders did that for a trip our group took to southern Utah. It was a lot of fun.

(The Brigham Young house in Salt Lake City, Utah)

So you could do something like that to help your kids get interested in where you are going, and find specific things to put in the closet that tie in with your trip.

Maybe you don’t want to spend a lot of time researching where you are going and just want some general materials for kids to engage with. (There’s always a DVD player of course to entertain in the car but I prefer to have my kids using their brains more. We have one for the car but so far have not used it with our seven kids. And yes, we have had it for almost a year.) Here are some general ideas for what to put in your portable closet that don’t tie into a specific place. Some of these are also suitable for a bag of quiet toys for church. Hey, now you have a closet for church! We sometimes take closet bags with us during the traditional school year too if I have to be gone all day somewhere.

• Wikki Stix (these are sticks of wax that can be bent into all sorts of fun shapes and animals or people. Get here http://cudge.net/kids_detail16.htm. Just don’t leave in a hot car or they will melt!
• for very little ones I like lift the flap board books. You can find these used at a thrift store. I especially like the ones by Dorling Kindersley because of the clear beautiful photographs.
• Dorling Kindersely also has fun heavy books for practicing handwriting. They use a dry erase marker and wipe clean. See here http://us.dk.com/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,wipe%20clean,00.html?id=wipe%20clean
• Brainquest card game decks. These are fun trivia quizzes in a deck of cards attached to a peg so they fan out. They are small and portable. I have found these used at  thrift store for fifty cents to a dollar. We keep these in the closet and even some close to the dinner table for when my kids start arguing or conversation lags. See http://brainquest.com
• Books on CD from the library or downloads from http://audible.com
• Brite Music CDs or mp3 files see http://britemusic.com
• Jim Weiss CDs. These are classic stories retold. See http://us.dk.com/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,wipe%20clean,00.html?id=wipe%20clean. I absolutely love these! Sometimes you can tie these into your trip. Say if we were going to Colonial Williamsburg or Philadelphia then I would get the story Jim Weiss tells of Thomas Jefferson. I learned so much from listening to it.
• Story of the World CDs/ downloads. My five and six year olds beg to listen to these. http://welltrainedmind.com/store/history-and-geography/story-of-the-world.html
• For free classic stories you can download, go to http://librivox.org and http://storynory.com. Just remember to bring your mp3 player with you in the car and have a cord to attach it to your car’s sound system.
• Dover coloring books have great coloring books that have themes relating to real life
• Fandex fan cards have bright photos and facts of items from nature like trees, birds, flowers, cats, etc. along with a list of facts for each one.
• string games, see klutz.com or get a book from the library
• books on how to draw (get from public library if you don’t have any at home)  and notepads and pencils. http://klutz.com has some fun kits that have a roll of paper attached to book, very nice for in the car.
• Magnetic sets are always fun for my little ones. We have one with Noah’s Ark, a house, a farm, Cars, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Wall- E. Get from Lee Publications http://.leemagicpen.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=34&osCsid=r8qruqi1tk9ddnab4m10ig78h3. This company has lots of fun travel games, including games with a magic pen that kids love.
• For older kids I would get books with riddles and puzzles. Usborne books are great for this.

What if you don’t have time or money to go on a big road trip? Take little trips! Here’s a free fun activity for an excuse to have a road trip, and help get you out in nature if all the places of “local interest” cost money. It’s called letterboxing. It’s basically a treasure hunt with clues you get off the Internet. Kind of like geocaching but you don’t need a GPS device and the treasure is different. Go to http://letterboxing.org and click on “Getting Started” to learn more. All you need is the clues, a notebook, a pencil, an ink pad, and a rubber stamp. This is fun thing I started with my kids about five years ago. Sometimes I remember when we are going on a vacation road trip to look up clues for our destination, but I also use this activity as a reward for a hard day of work and find clues within 20 miles or so. It’s fun!

Hope you have a happy homeschooling summer! The most important thing to remember is that the most important thing you can give your child is to observe what they are interested in, and then respond with questions and materials that help them think more. And your presence is more important than any present/toy/book you can give them. Another thing: not every moment will be magical. The kids might still fight and complain that they are bored. But if you can look back over the week, and hopefully over every day, and remember seeing at least one child with eyes shining or mouth laughing, then count your day as a success. If not, there’s always tomorrow!