During the School Year, we seem to get into a pretty good routine. People get up at the same time, go to bed at the same time. Things are predictable. Things have a natural rhythm. In the summer, though, the structure changes. My kids went to Camp just a few days after school let out, so this past week has been our first, full fledged week of Summer Vacation, all together.
It’s been nice having the guys back. They’ve slept in, stayed up late for fireworks, gone to the pool- great summer family time all the way around. But there’s clearly nothing routine, making getting work done, for me, a real challenge. How many hours of self-entertaining is “allowable” before I have to get them motivated and away from reconnecting with their video games? (After two weeks of being ‘unplugged’ at camp, I have been more lenient than usual with screen time.)
This next week has some fun activities planned- The guys will go to a kids-only “camp” at the Apple Store to learn about making their own movies for two hours one morning. I have a dentist appointment; I have to get the car fixed before we go on vacation as a family the following week, and I have to speak at a conference at the end of the week. Clearly, nothing normal, no schedule.
But the less scheduled we keep things, the harder “re-entry” will be in September.
I decided I would try under-scheduling camps this year rather than keep them over-scheduled like I did last year. I like the flexibility, but I worry we’ll default to “not doing much” other than hanging out in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. While I worry a few weeks of this will start to drive me clinically insane, I’m looking forward to taking impromptu trips for the day to Baltimore or deciding canoing down the Brandywine River sounds good. This may mean painfully little work will get done, but I think the time together will be worth it. I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, I’d love your advice about what the optimal balance between camp and leisure time in the summer is for kids and families. What do you do on vacation? Do you prefer non-stop activities, or a fair amount of unstructured time? How do you fight the “I’m Bored” whining? I know I won’t see either child for at least 4 days once the new Harry Potter Book comes out, but until then…I worry we’ll be at loose ends fairly soon. What are your favorite summer activities with your kids?
Inquiring Minds NEED to know.
[tags]kids, parents, summer, schedule, trips, vacation, activities[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by ~Living the American Dream~, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
2 responses so far ↓
Lara Gallagher // Jul 11, 2007 at 7:18 am
It takes a lot of work on my part to make sure we are not overscheduled. Kids need a lot of down time to use their brains and think for themselves instead of being entertained every moment. Our summers are the same as the rest of the year because we homeschool but be do relax a bit more.
Yesterday my husband took our kids to the lake with a friend of his. If every day is scheduled then you can’t do fun last minute things when they come up. When he called we were hanging out at the park reading and making friendship braclets. Just relaxing outside of the house like that can be a refreshing change of pace.
Charlotte // Jul 13, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Speaking solely as a teacher- my children are still babes- I think unscheduled time is great! Just remember that children tend to lose many of the valuable skills they picked up during the school year over summer vacation. So, spend time each day reading and doing basic math facts/problems. My mother had a rule, ‘for every hour of tv, read for one hour’. The reading of course had to be done before the tv time. This should keep skills fresh for September, but still allow for plenty of summer fun!
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