Filling the calendar
Basically that’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple of days. All three are signed up for gymnastics for the summer. In addition, Gracie has summer Suzuki lessons, Iain has a week-long art camp and Iz has a three day gymnastics camp. I’ve tried finding activities to keep us all moving a bit even if my moving is simply moving them from A to B. If I sit too long I get depressed and the longer I sit the more depressed I get. The more I sit and the more depressed I get the less patience I have. The less patience I have the more I snap at the kids and then they get miserable. They get miserable and then I get worse. We can’t have that. We just can’t.
Signing up Gracie for summer music was a no-brainer. She likes playing the violin and since the district was offering it, I was taking them up on it. Iain loves to draw and he loves making art. I’ve seen some very interesting and creative things come out of him so I thought an art program would be something he’d really enjoy. I found a week-long camp for kids his age that teach things like printmaking and painting so he’ll get a nice taste of some different ways to create. I was hoping to find something that he and I could do together but the camp I found first and it sounded like a good opportunity. I’ll still keep my eye out for something he and I can do together. Iz I signed up for a three-day gymnastics camp. She needs to burn off energy and at her age this is probably the best activity for her. She loves it. They all love the activities I’ve chosen but I try to chose around them. I know some parents who try and get their kids to try things willy nilly in a sort of a shopping technique and they end up hating it. I try to work around what I see them gravitate toward naturally. I guess that makes sense but you know how that goes.
So, we now have something going on every day of the week. Since school is out and it’s only a small part of our day, it’s nothing big and not over-booking. There’s still enough time to play outside, watch TV, color, eat ice cream, run through the sprinkler and just do nothing. I want their activities, both in and out of the school year, to be enjoyable and relaxing. I don’t want to schedule them so tightly that it becomes a job and source of stress for all of us. I have to be especially careful during the school year because I hold education as the highest priority. Especially with Iain, I don’t want to compromise their grades with too many activities and getting to bed late. I try and hold true to the “one activity per child” rule because it can get out of hand very quickly. Plus, one activity x three children = three activities so it’s much more involved than it seems at first.
If we make it through the summer without killing each other, all will be well.
