In a few short hours, the breathless pace of the past few weeks will come to a screeching halt. The children who have brought life to our halls and meaning to our work will go home to you - and life will change for all of us for these eleven weeks between school years. On the surface, we think of these weeks as a vacation from the real work of a child's life. I prefer to think of this time between as a reincarnation of that work. The march of life continues, the learning continues, albeit refreshed.
In truth, play is the most natural work of childhood and the most powerful vehicle for learning. And what better time to play than summer, when sunshine and gentle breezes beckon our children into the natural world and time stretches to allow uninterrupted exploration, experimentation, creation - and thinking? The primacy of play in early brain development has not changed despite that for many of our children, childhood itself has undergone radical transformation marked most profoundly by an infusion of adult-directed activity and media consumption and a detachment from the natural world.
What does a "Life Smart" summer look like and how can we preserve - or recapture - it for our children? The heartbeat of rich summer days is child-directed. It includes physical activity that comes from more than rule-based team games. It includes rolling down a hill, jumping from rock to rock, spinning until you fall, chasing anything, hiking, hauling, climbing, hanging upside down.
A Life Smart summer also includes make-believe, dreaming, and creating something out of nothing; writing plays or poems or newspapers, building forts or fairy-tale worlds in the woods, lying on your back and seeing magical shapes in the clouds.
A Life Smart summer includes some daily structure, too; household chores for even the youngest members; making beds, emptying trash; routines and responsibilities; contribution to the family; pride of accomplishment. It includes weekly trips to the library and daily reading - under a tree, in a tent, even with a flashlight in bed. It includes daily bedtime prayers and daily meals - at a table or on a blanket or on a beach.
A life Smart summer includes conversations and activities and projects with attentive grown-ups; important child-directed, conversations with active listeners who are not rushed or distracted; important, memory-making projects like building a go cart or a garden.
Perhaps most important to a Life Smart summer is immersion in the natural world - regular, extended, full, attentive immersion; skipping stones, jumping in puddles, running in waves, fishing, watching bugs, digging in the mud, growing a bouquet - or a salad; looking, listening, smelling, touching - closely.
A Life Smart summer doesn't have much time for media. Put limits on it and give your children the time and inclination to grow in really important ways. Help them shift into a Life Smart summer and delight in watching their natural instincts take over.
Happy exploring, growing, memory-making. Happy childhood. Happy family time. Happy summer.
