It’s that time of year again: school’s out for summer. Try saying that without singing the song. Can’t be done. We actually have 4 days left, but we are counting down. I must admit, I love summer almost as much as the kids do. My kids are seven, five, and one and the hot topic these last few weeks have been summer camps. Believe it or not, this will be the first summer that my kids are partaking in these annual events.
Call me crazy, but I enjoy not having to shuttle three kids around to various venues all summer. We have a pool. We go to the library, the park, the gym. We usually throw a beach trip in there somewhere, and a few sleepovers at the grandparents' house. Let’s not forget movies and art days. We find ways to occupy our time without shelling out hundreds of dollars or requiring me to put pants on before ten A.M.
Of course, now both of my boys are school-aged, which means that there is peer influence. Ugh. So we compromise with one week-long, half-day music camp, one week-long, half-day themed adventure camp, and a yoga camp, which is really just one yoga class per week for four weeks. These camps are spaced out and interwoven with free weeks where I fully plan on allowing for kid-led agendas that will surely include a lot of Legos, paint, and pool time.
I know that it is a luxury that we have a stay-at-home parent in our household that doesn’t make full-day camps necessary. I know that there will be days when I will count down the seconds until my husband comes home so I can escape and just be alone for a few silent moments. But for the most part, I will savor the days of cleaning up paint spills, stepping on legos, and watching an endless array of less than impressive pool tricks.
It will be great. Because these summers have an expiration date; probably sooner than I’d like. For the time being, I will resist the pressure to fill our calendars with hours of non-stop entertainment, and just be present for whatever lazy adventures the summer may hold for us.