Back-to-School??

Back-to-school is just around the corner.  As an NYC public school family we are back to the grind the day after Labor Day - just 12 days away.  I'm not ready.  I still have all those plans I made for this amazing summer with my kids - going to the beach, visiting the museum once a week in some great scheme I had to create a science curriculum with the summer and they are still not done.   They all just sort of fell by the wayside between my new found work obligations and those lazy, hazy days of summer at the pool.  But still I  wish I'd done something - I wish I'd really accomplished one amazing summer activity with my kids.  We played games, we read books, they built things and drew things and made up games but still somehow something seems a little "not done" as we are about to get back to the reality of school days.

Is it just that summer is so short now that my ennui had not really begun to set in and then it's over?  When I was a kid summer was a solid two weeks longer than it is for my kids.  Or am I just a poor planner?  Never really getting ahead of the game enough to make a real plan for the summer - yeah - that's probably more like it.  And what will my kids remember of this summer - will they say that was the most boring summer ever??!!  Or will they remember it like I'm going to chose to - as the summer we as a family really spent some time together - in the playground, out on the fire escape, playing the Wii and just hanging out.  Because while I regret that the summer is coming to an end and we don't have any grand anything to show for it, it's been the little things that have made this summer special.  Like when my sweet pook discovered all my old earrings and started wearing them around like she had precious jewels in her ears.  Or when my dear boy beat my husband in a remote control car race and gloated a little but did not cry when later he lost in Wii baseball.  

So yeah, we don't have any grand vacation photos and my kids haven't learned the Latin name for horse but still we've got the little moments and sometimes those are the best.      

The nothing summer

We are doing nothing this summer.  The kids are not going to camp, we are not taking a vacation - well, if you count one overnight with a friend next weekend - then yes a small vacation.  But mostly - nothing.  And , you know, I'm fine with that.  It is how I remember summer as a kid.  Hanging out at home, playing with the neighbor kids, finally getting a chance to stay up late on a weeknight.  I'm doing the same for my kids.  Except no one is around!  No big kids in the playground they are all at day camp or sleep away.  Friends - theirs and mine - are all away on vacation.  

How are they supposed to tell the difference between school and summer vacation if we don't give the kids a chance to hang around and get bored, fight with each other, stay up late, sleep in late and generally be lazy, imaginative toads for nine weeks?!  

Every summer I say I'll sign the kids up for a couple of weeks of camp here and there and at least my older one says she wants to go.  Then the slow, lazy, unscheduled days of summer arrive and I'm glad to not have to make lunches and hustle the kids off somewhere for the day.  I'm glad to just hang out with them, let them hang out with each other and generally tell the whole structured world we'll get back to them in the fall.  

This summer I'm working a good amount - but I can work at home.  My husband, too, is busy but he works both in and out of the house.  We've set up a space in the bedroom for our work and the kids are old enough to create projects and games for themselves while we work.  So far this summer they've built forts, constructed homemade race tracks, made spaceships from chairs and pillows, baked brownies, made instant pudding and homemade lemonade and finally bonded with our often cranky cat.  

Sure, I'm fortunate to stay home - of course that could explain why we aren't going on vacation but it's a trade-off.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.  I just wish more people did the hang out summer - then we could all be rockin' the summer together.