I realize a lot of homeschool moms have already started back to school. That’s not me.
I loved summer as a kid. I loved swimming in our above ground pool in the back yard, from first thing in the morning until well after dark my sisters, brother and I would swim until we were exhausted. I grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, Blair Mountain to be exact. We lived up a holler (hollow for all you northerners), we hiked on the mountain behind our house, pretending to be pioneers or coal miners or indians, we let our imaginations lead us on adventure after adventure. We spent summers riding our little Honda 50 motorcycle up and down the holler, later when we were older dad got a Yamaha 90 that we rushed around on. If I got bored, I would read. I loved books, still do. I had time then, to just read and I read everything mom could get her hands on for me.
I know I shall never again experience summer the way that I did then. Now, I am busy. I have responsibilities. There is house work, meal planning, parenting and homeschool planning. There is work in the Lord’s body the church that I am responsible for. I teach Bible class on Sunday mornings, I’m teaching at VBS this week, in a couple of weeks I will be teaching at Church camp, and then mid August we are going to a church conference in Tennessee where I will be teaching a children’s class. I love that conference though, it truly feeds my soul.
No, I shall never again have that summer of childhood again. But, I can offer that to my son. His way of approaching summer is different than mine. Instead of reading, he loves to draw. He draws all the time. I couldn’t keep him in paper much like my mom couldn’t keep me in books. That was until some dear ladies at church heard my dilemna. One, a secretary for a children’s hospital began collecting scrap paper for him. Then, the other secretaries in her office started pitching in. Later, some other ladies from church caught on and with what Beloved brings from his workplace, Little Man can draw till his heart is content.
He imagines that he is building great things in our back yard. Things such as mini-golf courses, baseball fields, zoo’s, science museums. So far only one thing has actually been built, a mini water park. Thanks to his friends the Engle children, they built a mini park complete with 2 waterslides. It was quite fun.
With summer trips to museums and ballparks with mom, dad and friends, his imagination is being triggered right and left. There is nothing quite like the summer to fuel the imagination. No, I will never again experience a childhood summer again. Little Man can though, I hope his summer is filled with flight, imaginary flight.
