Summer Vacation, Day 3: Mommmmm!!!!

Parenting dilemma of the summer: When the cries of "Mommmmmm!" let loose, do you drop what you are doing and respond right away because, gosh, these darlings are only young once and they have a need! Or, do you try to make your eye roll as subtle as possible and sweeten your, "Just wait a moment" because, sheesh, these kids need to learn not to be so darn demanding!

I think you can tell which way I'm leaning here. (I'm not just folding laundry in another room, I'm teaching delayed gratification. It's just not taking hold.)

Does it influence your answer to my dilemma if the eightieth "Mommmmmmm" was followed by "Erik said I'm small!" Or the eighty-first was "Can you put the card table in my room?"

We aren't talking life or death issues here.

Did I mention it's raining today? The kids are having a great day. Legos, living room caves, "campfires" in the basement, etc. They just want me appraised of every moment. Awesome.

Summer Vacation, Days 1 & 2

Two days of summer vacation under our belts ... wait, no one here wears belts! Ah, lazy summer days!

We started low-key yesterday with nothing nothing to do and nowhere to go. We had some fitful discussions of what to do during our three months of summer -- fun things, scholarly things, house-cleaning things. When presented with the big "What do you want to do this summer?" question, the answer from the kids was, "Let's fill up all our pools in the yard!" (That would be two small, inflatable wading pools and one wading pool big enough for all of us to sit in simultaneously.)  That's it. Is there anywhere else that you'd like to go, anyone. "How about the park? The one with the really big slide?" That's a 10 minute drive from home, so not a difficult outing. Anything else? Anything? Anything? "Museum of Science and Industry?" says he who wants to see "The Great Train Story" again. So, the Summer Bucket List is a little empty, but we here at Olsen Central always have been homebodies and we like it that way.

Monday, the kids played together fairly well. (That means, of course, no blood and minimal bruising.) Old toys and puzzles were rediscovered and re-loved. No one got sand in their eyes in the sandbox. Popsicles were shared. Chores were done, because that's how to make Mom say yes to computer or TV time. We even cracked open the summer workbooks (because I am that mom) to absolutely no complaining. (When you specifically buy the book that tells a child what page to do on each day, do you stop the child from working ahead and hand that scholar a different workbook or just let her go?) The day was a going well, until dinner when one of our number became unexpectedly and dramatically ill. Yikes! All I could say was, at least this doesn't always happen in the middle of the night!

Summer, Day 2: Ill child is much improved. Maybe dinner was just really unappealing. We eased into the morning and had another eager round of workbooking. I'm impressed at how easily the kids take to doing these Summer Bridge workbooks. We've done them for three years now. (Yes, Erik will be just a third grader in the fall.) I learned the year William was born that it doesn't work to say go do a workbook page and let it get done in another room with no supervision. So, choosing a series that is paced for summer work between specific grades is very helpful. This year I also have on hand some other workbooks for specific areas I'd like to see extra practice: subtraction and cursive writing for Erik and sight words for Anna. It really doesn't take them too long to plow through some pages and they like having the routine of it. After lunch, we have devotion and reading time, which we tie into the library's summer reading program, (but we would do no matter what). Before the day is done, I also like to have the kids write a journal entry of some sort.  To be perfectly honest, sometimes it's nice to spread out these tasks so when the kids ask to do things I'd like to drag my feet on ("Can I watch a show?") I have a list of chores and academic things that need to get done first.

One of the challenges of summer break can be the necessity of having my whole crew come with me as I do errands. Keeping three kids in roughly the same area of Target while shopping for the week's necessities is no small challenge. I have not forgotten how dull shopping can be for a kid, which is what I jokingly said the kids should write about for their journal tonight. Anna instead went with "I ate strawberries." Erik wrote an epic analysis of the Power Trains/Power City sets that he saw in the toy section. Later I parked him in front of the computer and told him to do some price research on Amazon and see what he could learn. As long as a kid is going to be fixated on a toy, I might as well get him to do some comparison shopping. (Then we threw a wrench in the works and told him that the Lego trains really are going to last much longer even though they cost more. Now he's back to studying the Lego City train sets.)

Jamieson took this picture while were reading Harry outside.
So serious!

From a mom point of view, the great accomplishment of the past two days has been already hooking the kids on a new book. Last week Erik brought home  Lego Harry Potter: Building the Magical World.  He brings home every book the library has about Lego, but it made me think maybe it was time to bring out Harry. So, we did. We started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone yesterday. We're on the third chapter today and the kids are captivated. They get really annoyed when I put the book down at the end of a chapter. This is going to be a perfect summer read for them.

Confessions of a Summer Failure

It's April 22 and I'm already really behind on summer. Now that we've passed Easter, that feeling of Summer Activity Dread is now stalking me. I'm fully aware that the organized parents of the world have had their June, July and August calendars filled with camps, classes and activities for several weeks already. I know this because a few weeks ago when I looked up swimming lessons for our own park district they were already filled. Also, I've been party to the "Are you going to do ____ this summer?" conversations many times since Spring Break. Confession: I AM NOT READY. I am so far from not ready. I have not even started. I have I small pile of things to look at that may become things we might possibly do during the summer, but the odds are very, very good that should I happen to get around to looking a those activity descriptions while also looking at our family calendar before the actual activity occurs there will be neither the space for an Olsen kid nor room in an Olsen budget for such things. Sigh. It's kind of sad to feel like summer is a failure ... in APRIL!

One of the worst aspects of modern parenting is the keeping up with the Joneses, especially since many-a Mama Jones tends to post her offsprings' most stellar moments on ye olde social media all the time. While I objectively know that my children do not need a full social calendar and in fact thrive on down time, it takes superhuman momma effort to keep reminding myself that just because the Chicago Parent weekend calendar is bursting with things to do this weekend, we do not need to attend one single event. There will be no parenting penalty for failing to provide cultural stimulation to all three children every single week. There are no guarantees that any of the children will get a scholarship or even attend a four-year private university if we sign them up for season-after-season of sports and activities. There is no magic number of grade school playdates that will assure a vibrant social life in later school years. There's even proof for this. Ever read or watched Freakonomics? If the research is to be believed, Jamieson and I have already set the kids on their life path. Now we just have to keep them fed and in clean clothes.

At the park 

So, on a day like yesterday I again "treated" my husband to the same anxious monologue about the merits of activities for the kids, but he said they are fine. He's right. Erik and Anna had the day off from school. Thanks to Facebook, I was aware that some friends were off doing exciting/fun/cultural things. (Note to self: Facebook is not helping your parenting.) What did we do? We went to our public library where we are known personally by several of the librarians. William and Anna enjoyed storytime. All three kids enjoyed filling our library cart. There is NO checkout limit, so 50 books came home with us. (Personally, I wish so many
of them had not been about Scooby-Doo, but that's another issue.) All three kids gleefully read books all the way home. We stopped at a favorite park to play. We read at home, where I was told how much they love books. We had some quiet time. When friends came home from school, the kids spent at least two hours playing outside with their buddies. When I had to ask Erik a question, he was in the midst of debating whether he was or was not "it."  No adults were mediating the game. At any one time, there can be at least 14 kids playing outside on our cul-de-sac. All I need to do to get my kids some physical fitness time is open the door after school or on a weekend. No fees to pay. No calendars to consult. It's the kind of childhood we often hear lamented as some relic of a lost time. My children have it to enjoy every day and I'm fretting that it's not quite enough. Silly mom. Seems like it will be a perfect summer after all.