Today's word of the day for my classroom was "summer". My students were making comments that they couldn't wait for summer. For me as a child I loved summer because we were free to go camping or visit far away cousins. I spent most of my summer outside since we lived in the country. At least once a week we got to go to town and swim in the public pool. This would be a three to four hour adventure if we were lucky. My mom would spend time with her sister. Summer was a time of imagination, running and playing. It was a time I would spend in the rafters of our corn crib reading and writing.
Then there was the garden. I couldn't wait for the tomatoes to grow large and ripe enough to eat them. We would take two buckets to the garden. One was empty for the tomatoes and the other was filled with water to wash them. There is nothing better than a hot tomato from the garden. We carried a salt shaker out with us to salt our tomatoes.
When I was in tenth grade we moved to Florida. I loved sitting on a beach listening to the waves roll in. My sunburns were more severe down here. I found I had to limit my time in the sun. We tried a garden down here. I found that the food didn't taste near as good as it did up north. I personally believe it has to do with growing food in the sand as opposed to rich soil up north. So what do I do now that I am much older? We have a yard swing. I love going out first thing in the morning and sitting with my writing journal and my sketch pad. I usually take a cup of coffee with me. I listen to the sounds as the day wakes up. I sketch whatever comes to my mind. This usually lead to me writing something. Summer is the time when we get to spend more time with the grand kids. I love summer and like my students, can't wait for it to get here.
