After a recent trip to the Agricenter Farmers Market for peaches, my daughter Molly told me that she was going to make a ring out of a peach pit. Apparently, with a little patience and perseverance, you can rub a peach pit against cement or asphalt and eventually it hollows out into a ring. This got me to thinking of all of the simple and free (or almost free) activities that I used to do as a kid. Unfortunately, in all of the years I have spent scheduling camps, activities, and trips, I don’t think I have given my children enough time to enjoy many of the simple summertime joys that fill my childhood memories. I have resolved to give them the opportunities to experience some of these pleasures, so here is part of our summer to-do list:
· To listen to locusts sing in the evening
· To play flash-light tag in the dark
· To eat ice cream sundaes for dinner one night
· To pick berries at a berry farm
· To snap green beans until our thumbs ache
· To make homemade peach ice cream
· To look at the night sky and find as many constellations and planets as we can
· To skip rocks across a pond
· To eat sliced home-grown tomatoes, fresh corn, and homemade fried okra as often as we can
I hope that our list has given you inspiration to come up with your own ideas. My children may roll their eyes when I tell them about our list, and they may not have the most exciting “What Did You Do Over Summer Vacation” essays when they return to school, but I hope that one day they will look back and appreciate our time together. I know I will.
Cathy Aslin,
School Nurse
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