Bringing Summer Energy into the School Year
Though summer technically has a couple months to go, the school-free summer days are coming to a close. The transition from summer to school brings up the question:
How can we bring the playful days of summer with us into the busy school year?
This summer was so many things. Incredibly fun…incredibly stressful, full of cool water … full of HOT (HOT!) sun. The one thing it wasn’t?
It was never BORING.
The summer days I remember were boring…in the best way. Kids were forced to find something to occupy the free time. We usually ended up roller skating up and down the sidewalk or creating dances to the classical radio station music that was my Mom’s soundtrack for housekeeping. We watched Disney movie VHS tapes on repeat. We would play with our toys for hours and hours. We would lie on the grass and watch the leaves of the trees. We worked hard to defeat Mario in one session, and would feel the greatest loss of all time when the power went out mid-game.
It was magical.
From the parental perspective, I’m pretty sure none of those activities actually took up much time. The skating that felt like hours was probably 15 minutes. The movies were 90 minutes, and the dancing…10 minutes. My parents were teachers at the time, and their summer was definitely spent shopping for and making extra snacks, managing sibling tiffs, catching up on house projects and work, while pointing us back outside.
Adult summer is full of balancing acts, and these days, there is even more to balance. The news, the money, our partners, the houses, that ominous heat, and the gas prices all put a damper on the FUN!
There are so many conflicting feelings with adult summer. Wanting to slow down and retreat, while needing to know what is going on in the world. Wanting to accomplish work tasks and home tasks, but also wanting to be present in the activities that form the crucial childhood memories of summer.
We were able to have a few boring, lazy days with moments that I hope the kids will remember as stretching on for hours.
These early days will influence them for the rest of their lives. The feeling of time stretching out ahead of us, a blanket of possibility, is vital to their development and ours as partners and parents.
Did we strike a good balance? I think so. I hope so!
So how can we bring that balance forward into the school year? Here’s a short list:
Connect
Play!
Rest
and even if it is for 10 minutes… let go, breathe, get out under a tree, and invite stillness.
How do you plan to bring the connection, play, and rest with you this Fall?
