Waiting for Godot: Summer 2018

Ahhh, summer. A time for relaxing, lounging around the swimming pool, reading novels, losing track of the days...

Not for this family.

Summer includes taking Tyrien to preschool, Tyler to summer camp, working all day, then picking up Tyrien from preschool, Tyler from summer camp, and heading over to Campus Rec for swim lessons, arriving home around 6:50pm to cook dinner, hang wet suits and towels, unpack bags, repack bags, prep lunches, supervise summer homework, eat dinner, wash dishes, and start the bedtime routine.

Saturdays are jammed full of activities. Sundays are jammed full of chores, but sometimes we had the opportunity to chill for a few hours at the YMCA pool.

Summertime was always my favorite time of year from childhood through adolescence and even in college, at least up until I started living year round in Tucson. I want to try to give my kids a similar childhood summertime experience. My favorite childhood summers were the ones where I would get dropped off at the pool for early morning swim practice. Then synchronized swimming practice. Then free swim. Then walking down to sit on a concrete pad above a sewer grate to eat the lunch my mom packed - a sandwich and fruit with my two summertime friends. Then back to the pool for an afternoon of free swim. Then an additional swim practice. Then my mom would pick me up and take me home to eat dinner on the back porch. Then we'd come back to the pool for evening swim. Then back home for ice cream, then off to bed. Heavenly.

But the world changed. Now, both parents work full time, and now it is unsafe and probably illegal to drop kids off at a swimming pool for the day. After all, it's questionable whether it's even legal to let an eight year old walk to school by himself. (Sympathies to the parents who've gotten into trouble for this!)

An essential part of the joy of summer is unstructured time with friends, with minimal adult interference. The closest I can get to that for Tyler is to find camps that have unstructured time. So far, Tyler has gone to summer camps at Catalina Methodist, "A" Camp, UA Fusion Camp, and NASA Rocketry Camp. Of the four, our favorite has been "A" Camp. There, Tyler gets swim lessons in the morning, and free swim in the afternoon. He had free time to play with whatever sports equipment was available in the gym in the mornings and again in the evenings. There were structured activities, but they seemed to be pretty minimal. He rarely brought home any artwork or projects. And that was a-ok. What he brought home were stories of fun times with friends. What he gained were experiences spending time making friends not based on grade level, but on genuine interests in common. He became a strong swimmer - I believe the very best way to learn to swim is to take lessons first thing in the morning, then free swim after. He went on new adventures - field trips to Rocks and Ropes, roller skating without his mom tagging along. His very favorite camp thus far was the UA Fusion Camp at Flandrau Planetarium - I'll try to send him there one week per summer. It's science, it's space, it's air conditioned. But really, I want the physical activity and outdoor time that he gets at "A" Camp. And who knows, maybe by next summer he'll be ready for an overnight camp in the mountains!

Projects from NASA Rocketry Camp: