Wow! Summer is finally here! Well actually, it starts officially tomorrow? June 21? Anyway, the spirit of summer and its more relaxed pace are here. Amen to that! This summer I am not going to be driving my kids to this camp and that pre-paid designated/organized activity. The point of summer is to slow down, relax and spend time with your family: and this summer that is EXACTLY what we are going to do.
Won't the natives (kids) get restless you ask? Hopefully not, but I want to them to learn to "entertain" themselves and plan some of their own activities and adventures. If they get the idea: I'll be happy to help them work out the details and make it happen. As a resource, we are using a wonderful idea generating book by Joanne O'Sullivan, titled "101 Places You Gotta See Before You're 12!" (publisher, Lark Books).
The latter book has -- as the title hints -- 101 everyday places that you have right in your area that might be of interest to kids under 12 -- and many interesting to those over 12 as well. My kids had a blast going through the book to identify and rank the places they've already seen (i.e., "Absolute Favorite", "Top 20", "Way Strange", "This Rocks", "No Way!"). Then they each picked the 10 other places that they would like to see right away. So we are now in the process of working out visits to each of their respective 'top 10 places' to see. They get so excited being in on the planning. The visit to each place is like an adventure. My oldest said to me "I kind of feel like Lara Croft from 'Tomb Raider' ".
So this summer try to shake things up and try something new. Get the kids involved and have an adventure! You'll be amazed at what kids can come up with on their own and how much fun you will all have in exploring together. And in the whole process your kids will learn to be a bit more resourceful on their own -- useful skills for later in life. Enjoy! : )
