Each May the girls are so excited to be done with school. Free for the summer, they are liberated from homework, test scores, lines, lunch rules, dress codes, and any other institutional inconveniences you can think of. Worries about performance, gossip, bullying, fitting in, fire drills all float away like balloons on strings made of soap. They go to bed a little later each night and they wake up naturally in the morning without intention. No one is rushing around and everything is glorious. For about a week. After a week, boredom sets in. Enter summer camps. I've learned, through failure, that our girls need at least 2 weeks of having something organized to do during the summer. Even if it's just half day arts camp, it has to be something.
Another thing I've learned, is that each summer it takes about a month for our girls to start asking when we can go shopping for school supplies. The girls love school supplies. School? Not so much. School supplies? All over it! I'm able to stall and push them off for quite a while by saying things like, "It's still June!" or "The stores don't even have supplies out in the seasonal area yet!" My goal each year is to make it to at least mid July. Last Monday I caved and let the girls know I'd be taking them to Target on Thursday.
On Wednesday, as I walked past the computer I saw an open word document containing Keira's school supply wish list. The list was called "Back to School: A New Beginning." Reading this made my day, for it is brilliant. She could have easily called the list "School Supplies," or "Things I Need," but instead she chose a creative, positive, invitation to a fresh school year filled with possibilities. This is open mindedness.
My smile widened as I continued to read the items on the list and I came to item 3. It said, "Pack of wooden pencils for those who "lost" them." My love of item is two fold. First, I love that Keira is kind enough and selfless enough to think of others. Not only did she make a list of what she needs, but she also used her past experience to prepare for what others will need as well. Secondly, but equally, I love that she is skeptical enough to put the word lost in quotations. Giving without being gullible. This is balance.
On the outside this list may not appear like much to others, but on the inside it is everything to me.
I cherish these moments of discovery because they are tiny validations that the kids are alright. As either a result of our efforts or in spite of them, our girls exist as cool, complicated growing humans. Thinking outside themselves, without losing themselves. Who can ask for more than that?
..
On Wednesday, as I walked past the computer I saw an open word document containing Keira's school supply wish list. The list was called "Back to School: A New Beginning." Reading this made my day, for it is brilliant. She could have easily called the list "School Supplies," or "Things I Need," but instead she chose a creative, positive, invitation to a fresh school year filled with possibilities. This is open mindedness.
My smile widened as I continued to read the items on the list and I came to item 3. It said, "Pack of wooden pencils for those who "lost" them." My love of item is two fold. First, I love that Keira is kind enough and selfless enough to think of others. Not only did she make a list of what she needs, but she also used her past experience to prepare for what others will need as well. Secondly, but equally, I love that she is skeptical enough to put the word lost in quotations. Giving without being gullible. This is balance.
On the outside this list may not appear like much to others, but on the inside it is everything to me.
I cherish these moments of discovery because they are tiny validations that the kids are alright. As either a result of our efforts or in spite of them, our girls exist as cool, complicated growing humans. Thinking outside themselves, without losing themselves. Who can ask for more than that?
..
