Summer homework?!? What? The school isn’t even open yet! How can they be giving homework? Fear not, dear Bears! This is not the type of homework you’re thinking of. If you’re looking for something to do this summer, and the usual ideas just aren’t doing it for you, try some of these.

Learning isn’t all about letters or numbers or paper. It’s also about experiences and experiments.  Each summer, Mr. Oliver and the staff try to come up with some suggestions of things to do for ‘homework’ over the summer. We’re not talking academic homework, mind you, but fun family (or solitary) activities that we think you might enjoy and that you might not have thought of. Do some, do all, do none! Whatever you want. Just get out there, Bears!

• Bake or cook a new recipe from a country you’ve never been to.
• Build something from scratch without instructions or plans.
• Climb a tree (safely, and with parent permission or accompaniment).
• Count 100 of something.
• Find a fantastic tree you can sit beneath. Sit there quietly for half an hour. (Hint: The Fort to Fort trail has some fantastic trees at the west end by 208^th and along the nature trail by the Derby Reach campground. So does Golden Ears Park.).
• Find a geocache. https://www.geocaching.com/play.
• Go fishing.
• Go for a hike at a ski hill, just to see what they’re like in summer.
• Go for a walk and greet the people you meet. Your friendly ‘Good Morning’ might make someone’s day better.
• Enjoy a free concert. Whistler has some, and so does the Surrey Fusion Festival, and more. For bonus, make it an act you’ve never even heard of.
• Go to at least one of the museums in Langley.
• Or go a bit further and take advantage of this summer’s Canada Strong Pass! It gets you into National Parks and Historic sites, from Pacific Rim to Newfoundland. The Steveston Cannery is one such site that isn’t too far away.
• Have a family picnic dinner at Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. Watch the sun set. But plan ahead; parking is brutal.
• Jump in the deep end (or try some other new thing that scares you just a bit). Note: this doesn’t mean I think you should be a reckless daredevil.
• Lay on your back in the grass and cloud-gaze or star-gaze.
• Make a blanket fort. Use couch cushions, too, if they come off.
• Make some Andy Goldsworthy-inspired art.
• Pick some blackberries. Make them into a pie. Or jam. Or eat them still warm from the sun.
• Pick up 5 pieces of litter that other people have stepped over.
• Read a book about someone who doesn’t look like you, then…
• …read a book about someone who looks like you.
• Ride your bike 5 days in a row. Wear a helmet for all of those, of course.
• See a deer in the ‘wild’.
• Sing in public, like nobody’s listening. Keep going if they start listening.
• Sit still and breathe deeply for 2 minutes a day.
• Snap a photograph of something really close up. Learn about it. (see photo below)
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• Sneak a happy poem (maybe you wrote it, and maybe you found it) into a friend’s mailbox or under their welcome mat.
• Think of somewhere you usually go to quickly. Now go there as slowly as you can manage (safely) and observe what you’ve always missed.
• Boss Level: Wet your feet in a stream, a lake, and the ocean, all on the same day!
• Tell yourself that you’re awesome every day (because you are)!

 If you find yourself with any awesome photographic evidence of your summer homework, and you're OK with it being shared on the school webpage, please send it to Mr. Oliver!