So, yes, we have "schooled" this summer, but it was brought in as a part of our day, our lifestyle.  Outside, at a park with friends and food.  The perfect combination in my book. 🙂  So I thought I’d share an example of a lifestyle of learning based on what happened in our home this morning.

I checked my emails – pretty sparse – and headed out with my cup of joe and a book to water my flowers and veggies.  I had great thoughts of sitting under the cool clouds to read my new favorite book by Anne Graham Lotz, A Heart for Jesus.  I figured I would just spurt water on the flowers, every once in a while answering a question from my boys with the final sentence being – go do (abc fill in the blank) Mama’s busy.

I had just started watering and looked up into the southern sky and saw a huge tunnel cloud.  It was a triangle of sorts, narrow at the bottom and as wide as my eyes could scan the top of the horizon.  It was impregnated with water on the eastern side of the cloud  – it was  black and heavy as far as my eyes to could see into the east, the answer for why it was so cool this morning as it was blocking out the morning sun.  I put down my book and coffee to walk into the back lot to take in the wonder of it all.  While walking slowly as to not fluff up great clouds of dust and sand, I noticed that the back yard was a blaze with tiny pink flowers, and that our yellow flowers were plump and colorful. Why?  They weren’t yesterday.  How did water hit those pink flowers?  Then I looked around, observing our field and realized it was ablaze with color all the way around.  Upon looking at the dirt, I noticed droplets from water.  My mind started racing with the why, how, when questions. And it hit me.  I had learned more about how quickly weather could change this morning!  Running into the house, I grabbed a camera, 2 notebooks, 2 pencils and called to the boys to tell them that we were going to do a quick science lesson.

I brought them out to the field to view the funnel.  I asked Nathan, "Based on what we’ve learned, what could have created this cloud?" . He quickly answered, "The smoke from the fire."  We had a brief discussion and decided that no, it wasn’t a smoke cloud but rather a cloud created from the heat of the fire. (Click here for photos and info on the Woodside Ranch Fire, and Say a prayer for our friends who live there that the fire continues south, and that the fireman can extinguish it quickly)   Yes, the weatherman had said that a cool front is moving over head.  When heat rises from the earth, Cumulous clouds are quickly created.    However, since the heat was so intense from the fire, and the firemen quickly dug around the fire to contain it, it sent heat in a concentrated area up into the air, creating a huge cloud.  The cloud got so heavy, that it dropped rain right on our house. Although it wasn’t alot of rain, it was enough to blaze the back yard with color this morning. The boys drew pictures of what had happened.  Nathan labeled his on his own, Jon told me his story.  I left him to go take pictures, and when I came back he had told me that we get cold air because of the mountains, and he wanted to draw a picture of the mountains and trees and clouds.  Then he added a penguin and his note that he loves Jesus, and some grass. 🙂  Nathan was a bit more scientific, but he told me in his own words twice the story of why it rained in our back yard this morning. 🙂

Central Oregon is amazing for its wide horizons, the view of the weather, and the clouds that are created.  So much moisture coming over from the coast mixing with the heat off of the high desert. This morning, however, was the first time I saw the whole entire water cycle beginning to end in one southern sky.  Amazing.  The boys were thrilled for a moment, and are now on with their morning routines.  Almost time to hit the park for one of our final days of Lunch and Learn, the day is young at 9:30 a.m. and we are excited for what the day holds. 🙂 

Home Learning. A Lifestyle.  Do we homeschool in the summer?  How could we stop? P.S.  They have a handle on the fire, and said that by mid morning it should have been burned out from the center.  A quick look at this cloud 30 minutes later may indicate that this is true. Little smoke, cloud is movin’ on.  Praise the Lord.