I have been a teacher longer than I have been a mother, and until I had kids I worked every summer (camp, learning centers etc). Once I had a child, it made more sense to stay home with said child rather than work, where I would then have to pay for summer camp or babysitters.
Fast forward 11 years, and I now have 3 children, ages 11, 6 and 4 and I can't remember the last time I worked at anything over the summer but what my kids like to call "Camp Mommy". Last summer my oldest went to a sleepaway camp for 2 weeks and the little guys did about a week or so of camps (gymnastics and the such), and the few summers before that my oldest would go to day camps for a few weeks a summer, but this summer we have NO CAMP AT ALL!
So begins the adventures of a summer of a true, total "Camp Mommy" experience. Now, I am not here to brag or gloat about how I am keeping my kid's minds totally occupied all summer so they do not get "summer brain drain" or whatever you call it, or to post about the schedule we are keeping, in fact it is just the opposite.
We wake with no alarms, we lounge around until noon (granted the two older girls have had swim team practice in the mornings, which interrupts our lounging), but once they are done our day begins. Since my summer break officially began three weeks ago, we have visited Zoo Atlanta, gone to the movies (Inside Out of course), went bowling (Stars and Strikes Kids Bowl Free for the summer is awesome!), went roller skating (what a workout!), visited the High Museum of Art (Mo Willems exhibit our main focus), and have gone to the pool (multiple times a day!) We have played countless board games, jumped through the sprinkler, competed in building challenges, read a few books, had playdates and sleepovers, watched movies (kids all got hit by a stomach bug and there was more of this last week than I would like to admit - probably not our best moments this summer), we have cooked meals, baked treats together, gone to a real live bookstore, and have just HUNG OUT.
Do I want some time to myself when I am on vacation for the summer? Of course I do, and I try to carve out time to exercise and to read on my own curled up in my bed, hopefully even falling asleep into a nap. I have even found time to write a blog post. Do I want to make sure my kids don't suffer from "summer brain drain" as so many articles and posts warn me about? Of course I do - but without a lot of thought and scheduling, I have done the exact opposite. A lot of what we are doing is in fact FEEDING their brains, not letting them be drained. They are experiencing life and figuring out how to get along with each other and in all this they are practicing all the 21st century skills we educators are so concerned about these days. But most of all, they are HAVING FUN!!!
Overall, I couldn't be happier with hanging out with my kids all summer considering the alternative, which includes shlepping them back and forth to camps all day (probably more than one since they are all different ages), and then mostly just filling in the time until they return. I wouldn't trade "days off" for the memories we are making together for anything in the whole world. Because I know one of these days (probably not to far in the future), "Camp Mommy" will be a thing of the past.
And the summer isn't even half over yet - so there is still more adventure to come and I can't wait!
