My son has one final today and then is officially on summer vacation! It is also the last week of Babe Ruth baseball. YEAH! That means, in concept anyway, more free time for all of us. We will see if that ends up being the reality.
Summer vacation benefits me because I can sleep in a little later since I won't have to drive him to school. Usually the boy scout troop takes the summer off but some idiot recommended that we have a summer program and planned activities all summer long. Yup, you guessed it - that idiot was me! Actually, I think that the summer activities will be fun as we are doing everything from a tidal pool exploration to a history walk to a trip to an IMax theater to see Harry Potter.
My son does have some exciting things happening this summer. He is (gulp) turning 15, taking drivers ed and starting his first job. He will be bussing tables and washing dishes at a local restaurant just down the street (no need for Mom to transport him to work!). He is also going to band camp for a week (you can save the "one time at band camp" jokes - I have heard them all) and we are going on a family cruise.
I remember the last day of school back when I was a kid. We got out much earlier in June and always tried to go swimming on that last day because it was a half day. A short distance from my house was a saw mill that had a pond and a small stream. I remember going down there swimming with my best friend Betty-Lu. Sometimes, we took the younger neighborhood kids with us. No grown-ups anywhere nearby and two girls under 12 "in charge". Hard to believe that 1) nothing bad ever happened and 2) no one thought anything of letting us go swimming by ourselves. Summer vacation seemed to last FOREVER because it basically meant we were hanging out in our small town. No summer camps or activities were even offered. Our big family vacation was camping for a week with another family and we were one of the few families in our town to even take a vacation. Times were certainly different back then. I do think that it was nice to have some real "down time" where we weren't on a schedule and we didn't have obligations. Nowadays, kids are almost overbooked. My son just told me this morning that he has to write 2 papers over summer vacation in addition to doing the summer reading. He wasn't impressed by that and I can't say as I blame him. He is also going to review the outline in a computer applications course in hopes that he can test out next fall. He was selected for the School's WorldQuest Competition team so he will probably be studying for that competition over the summer also. Whew. It makes my brain tired to think about all that.
Here's to summer vacations.
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Mine have a lot on their calendars, too, but none of it was initiated by me. Both are going to camp, but my son is going for FIVE WEEKS! (sniff) He's going to be a junior counselor at a Y camp, and it's going to kill us (missing him) but I guess it's time we got used to it (he's 17 now). Kendall has been alternating between sleepovers and babysitting. Busy, busy, busy. Me, I'm just looking forward to BlogHer and enjoying sleeping in :)
ReplyDeleteOne summer, we overbooked Evan with activities and we certainly learned our lesson! Everything that he is doing this summer (except for the homework!) was his idea. Good luck with having your son go away for 5 weeks.
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