| A number of years ago, I discovered the poems of Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and I especially love those that capture the joy of childhood. In “Summer Greetings” she writes, Today’s the day for climbing trees, for jumping rope, and skinning knees, for swinging high and skipping fast, and reading books outside at last. There is no telling the value that simple, unstructured, active, outdoor time holds for our children. Summer should allow time for children to be children, for kids who normally are quite scheduled to have big doses of time to decompress, mess around, do nothing, and have to figure out how to keep themselves interested. While there is also clearly a place for some structured activities, and while there is also clearly a need for our students to maintain their reading, math, and writing skills, summer should be suffused with opportunity for “down time.” In an age that expects our children to be versatile, super-, all-achieving wonders, our kids need the break that summer provides, and often they can most benefit from having the “space” and time just to be kids, without a host of adult expectations. I hope that in the coming months, your children will have an abundance of the kind of time that Dotlich’s poem evokes. Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful summer! |