• Parenting

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hanging on with both hands and a grappling hook

posted by drouse at 13h02

As parents of a school age child, my husband and I both look forward to the summer as a time when our routinues are changed a bit.

I think we both envision the lackadaisacal summers of our youths - when neither of us had work to be done, or had to cook for other people, or even get up at any particular time.

This is, as I am sure you know, not the way it goes. 

By the end of the first week of vacation, I am told how boring, bossy and generally "no fun" I am. Of course all of these things are most likely related to my denial of all day ice cream eating and television watching.

(remind me to tell you about her face when her father and I launched the "Only three hours of television a DAY edict." There was a great deal of crying over that one...)

By the time day camp kicked in on week 2, Terrance and I were completely exhausted. We were happy to pay any sum of money for someone to entertain our kiddo for seven hours.

But more than the day camp itself - which we love and have returned to for a second year - it is the others people and things which help to make this Mom's summer a bit easier.

First up? A HUGE shoutout to the lovely ladies at Kidlunch.ca . (No - I am not getting a paid sponsership, I promise) . Emily was one of their first customers when I saw their service of actual healthy bag lunches DELIVERED to the school. We got with them within the first weeks of their opening and Em ate their lunches all year long. She loved them. I mean ----  She ate Vegetables! 

When faced with the terrible prospect of having to make summer lunches, I turned to Sue and Michelle yet again. The tone of my email was both pleading and threatening. Did they really want my kid to eat what I would come up for lunch? I have talents, but cooking and preparing food items are not among them. Ask me about infant brain development and I can carry on a three hour discussion. Put together much beyond ye olde Peanut butter and Jelly? Not so much. [and even that option is off limits due to so many allergies now!]

Some work friends children who attended the same camp as Em ordered lunches for their two kiddos and the word back was HIGHLY complementary. The daughter ate every bit and the boy ( who is a picky eater apparently) consumed every morsel of food with relish! Four happy parents - three happy children!

Another tool in my arsenal of summer entertainment? Audio books. When we recently took a holiday to Tremblant, it was with some trepedation. That is a long drive and Em still gets bored fairly quickly.

I had downloaded the Spiderwick Series from Audible Kids . We listened to two unabridged books on the way there. The voice was soothing, the story intriguing and  kept all involved interested and intrigued.

As a teacher, I have always like audio books. They develop listening skills which are cruical for higher level thinking. Children who listen to audio books develop a better comphrensive vocabulary, as well as the ability to "see" characters being painted with words. Finally, they get to hear reading OUT LOUD - which helps with their own pronuciation of words and modulation and tone of their own "out loud" reading voice.  For Em, she often will first listen to an audio book and then choose the book to read, as she already has a base of knowledge and familiarity with the story. 

Finally - as we have sent her off to Sleep-away-camp for this past week - I have been LOVING the service of "Hello Camper". Talk about something being worth the money! As her father and I have worried and wondered about her at camp, we can log in to see daily pictures posted of her and her friends, as well as send her email. 

It reassured us that she was neither in a corner weeping, nor starving away. In fact, in the pictures she seems to be pretty darn happy. She, in turn, gets "mail" from her family at mail time every day. 

(Don't tell her that I am admitting that I am missing her...a little bit. It has been awfully nice to have adult Dinners, with lots of previously decalred "Yukky" exotic food!)

She will be back this Friday evening and our home will resume it's normally scheduled chaos. But until then, may I offer each parent the reminder that it is prefectly all right to "outsource" some of the jobs that you may not be so great at doing. We deserve it!