Tactile

We are only a week into our school-less summer and already I am reading about and hearing people talk about this new phenomenon called "summer learning loss". Our local Kaplan Learning Center franchise, a few storefronts down from my gym, also features a poster in its window that warns of this problem.

Having noticed developmental leaps in both kids this week--a week we spent visiting family--I am now wondering if the tactile lessons of summer aren't the ideal lessons to help us move past our stratified ways of visual learning that occur September through June, as well as in our homes via television and computer screen.

"By second grade," said a local teacher we met at her garage sale, "children move out of their purely creative nature, out of a need to grasp all of the harder concepts coming their way in school. It's a shame, really."

(Isn't it?)

For now, I am appreciating the lessons inherent in:

Caring for a puppy
Picking blueberries and raspberries
Assisting dinner preparation in a way that moves beyond allows the Bean to move beyond dumping measuring cups into the bowl and into mixing, spreading, crimping, etc.
Designing birthday cards for a friend, choosing the images to draw and spelling out names
Shucking corn
Water play (at all ages)
Creating paper top hats for stuffed animals
And just generally being out of one's regular environs...

So when I feel a little overwhelmed with the packing and unpacking of trips, I must remember, just do it! When kids are young, it is the best kind of living. And by the way, don't most of you adults recall having strange dreams while on vacation? Maybe our subconscious is also doing its own little yoga stretches...