Summer School - Learning A New Skill For The Summer

School is out this week and although both kids will be enrolled in camps while my husband and I are working, it still feels like we will have some downtime because we will be light of the sports and extra activities. With my oldest being an early reader and my youngest starting, I’m going to do my best to go to the library each week so they can pick a new book for us to read together. I remember being part of summer book clubs like Book It (free pizza at Pizza Hut!) and 600 Minutes (Free ticket to six flags!) which I loved, but while I think these programs helped me start an early love of devouring books, I wanted to try my own twist to it.

In college, I never really had a summer “off”, but whether I was taking summer classes or working at an internship, while it felt great to have a break from the demands of the school year, that didn’t mean I needed to take a break from learning. For me, the best part about the slow days of summer is that you have a chance to learn on your own terms. So while in school I would pick a class I was really interested in that had nothing to do with my major, and even while away on internship I would enroll in something that excited me like a commercial acting class or art class.

For myself and my kids, I want us to each pick a skill that we want to learn and use books that we check out at the library, YouTube videos, and a lot of trial and error to work on it to continuously get better over the summer. For me it will probably center around shooting and editing video and for my daughter around art. I’m not sure what my son will pick, but I know he’s always been into helping in the kitchen so I may start him out with snacks and smoothies he can make after school. We haven’t picked it out exactly, but we have a few days together at a hotel when school is out to try and figure it out!