My boys finally finished school on June 22. Woo hoo!
Man, there is nothing like the feeling after the last day of school. The schedule and obligations are behind you. The freedom, the open possibilities of what the summer may bring are all still in front of you. I love that feeling.
Once you get a job, that feeling is never quite the same, but I remember in high school and in college after you hand in your last paper or take your last exam the overwhelming joy of being DONE! Of being able to read whatever you want, do almost whatever you want and the pressure of school and always having something you should be doing or studying being gone. I don’t remember elementary school as being stressful but instead of having that pressure being gone, there is a more pure and higher degree of excitement and anticipation of a whole summer to be outside, playing and doing fun things.
I was always on the swim team and so we spent a lot of time at the pool every summer. I remember playing kick the can and ghost in the graveyard after dinner with the other neighborhood kids. I don’t remember many commitments but we were active and had fun.
I am thoroughly enjoying and noticing this wonderful feeling of change and anticipation for the summer. I’m not sure if it is because of the challenging school year, COVID, and how different and scary last summer felt. It may be because of the ages of my boys. It may be all of the above but I do love the first days of summer where there are so many opportunities and we have so much to look forward to. I want to try to remember this feeling and try to recreate it when possible.
For those of you who have been out of school for a while and may be at the midway point of your summer, think about how you want to use your remaining time. What do you want to do yet have not done yet?
As a mom, I would be lying if I did not also admit that I am nervous (anxious?) about how the summer will go. Each week is slightly different. There is no “normal” routine. How and when am I going to fit in work? We have only had a couple of days without school and many moments where I wonder, how am I going to do this for eleven more weeks? The saying, the days (or moments) can feel long but the “summer” is short definitely applies often. I want this to be a fun summer. I want to be able to be spontaneous and go with the flow more than usual. I want to be present and living in the moment. I am hoping to be efficient with my work and not work too many hours. I want to play with my boys and I also want some downtime for me too.
My boys have a short list of things they agreed to do each weekday (when we are not away on vacation) with a chart to check it off. We worked on this list together.
Here is our list:
- Read for 20+ minutes
- Write or Journal for 10+ minutes – they can write anything – a story, a poem, what they did the day before, how they are feeling, anything at all, as long as they are writing.
- Practice something for 10+ minutes – once again they get to choose what they want to practice. It can be typing, playing a musical instrument, math, sports drills, or worksheets from school
- Chores – They have a list of chores they are supposed to do each day.
This list of obligations for them should be fairly quick, less than an hour. If you read these messages you know I am a big fan of consistent small actions or practice that add up and make a difference over the long term. We will see how this pseudo daily checklist goes. They have the weekends to catch up on the things they missed during the week. I am thinking of a prize activity or treat if they do 90+% of the items for the week. I am / we are still figuring this out. We have never done something like this before. Previous summers we just tracked reading for the Library’s Summer Reading Program to get prizes.
We also finally did our summer list. I know you see many of these lists in various places but here is ours (not in any particular order):
- Pool (a lot)
- Disc (Frisbee) golf
- Camp outside
- Bowling
- Golf
- Miniature Golf
- See a pro baseball game
- Ice cream
- Play grounds
- Water balloons
- Pogo sticking
- Jumping Rope
- Ping Pong
- Jigsaw Puzzle
- Board Games
- Card Games
- Movie
- Family Olympics
- Go to the Beach
- Create a show
- Lemonade Stand
- Farm visit and produce picking
- Zoo
- NYC
- Climbing at Iron Peak
- Sky Zone
- Car Shop (visit car dealerships)
- Make food
- Make a video
- Visit a pet store
- Visit Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Tennis
- Ice Skating
- Hockey
- Ladder Golf
- Bike Rides
- Hikes
- Game Day
- Basketball
- Roller blading
- Canoe or Kayaking
- Flying a kite
- Mad Libs
- Art
- Coloring
- Audio Books / Reading
- Crafts
- Visit Grandmother and Grandfather / Dadima and Dadu
- Watch Grandfather Play Softball
- Watch Ultimate Frisbee
- Edison Museum
- NY’s new LEGOLAND
- Water park
- Amusement park
- Ninja Line
- Spike ball
- Whiffle ball
- Corn Hole
- Pretend
- Water gun fight
- Horseback riding
- Grounds for Sculpture
- Laser Tag
- Catch / Pitch back
I sincerely doubt we will do them all but we like to have many ideas to choose from. One child wants to put them on small pieces of paper and randomly pick one out when we are looking for something to do. 🙂
I welcome additions to our list and love hearing what you are doing this summer.
Wishing you one of your best summers ever!
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