Summer Fun (and learning...)

Watching my son sprint today to his classroom at The Works Museum in Edina reminded me that just because it's "summer vacation" doesn't mean learning can't occur.  So far this summer, Samuel has made himself into a warrior (complete with warrior paint on his forehead), researched dinosaurs on the internet, is learning to add and subtract, and is reading independently up a storm!  Pretty hard books for an incoming kindergartner, with words I never knew he could figure out!  Today at The Works, he made a battery-powered boat and a really cool and crazy car.  He is figuring out circuits and power sources, and is trying to understand weather patterns.  We went to Barnes and Noble, where he promptly told me he had to go straight to the science section, because "Mom, I love science!"
He is like the characters in his favorite show.  (Yes, his favorite show is "Phineas and Ferb", and yes, he tries to make every day a great day [he has even said that to me before].  Personally, I like Phineas and Ferb, too.  Any show that has a duck-billed platypus as a secret agent is okay in my book.)  Samuel and I read every single day - we take turns... I read, he reads.  He does some math every single day, and we catch ourselves doing math when not really doing math.  Learning is happening all around, and I truly believe that environment of continual learning, even "on vacation", will only help him as he begins his formal schooling.  School isn't just nine months a year, in a contained classroom in a certain building.  If we do it right, our children will find that the world is one big, exciting, challenging and rewarding school.